Beauty is skin deep: Addressing racism within ‘The Beautiful Game’. A critical review of male english football and social media-based racism through the lens of counselling psychology

Abstract

Social media-based racism is growing exponentially with new social media platforms developing at a rate that research struggles to keep up with. Football is an active participant on these platforms which has subsequently led to well documented media reports of racial abuse. However, research has been limited within English football when attempting to understand the extent of social media-based racism, social media behaviour, racism campaigns, programmes and legislation to tackle online racism within the industry, which this paper addresses. The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical review of the literature on social media-based racism within male English football through the lens of applied psychology. Opportunities for applied psychology from a social justice perspective to challenge social media-based racism through therapy, research, and training are highlighted. Micro and macro approaches to address social media-based racism are examined, with proposed future developments discussed.