The BAME Hammers are disappointed to learn of an offensive tweet made by first team player Jarrod Bowen.
The BAME Hammers are against all forms of discrimination and strive to support efforts to eradicate racism from football and to work with West Ham United Football Club to help focus their attentions on a collective effort to ensure diversity, equality and inclusion are part of the core foundations in everything it does.
The BAME Hammers acknowledge that the tweet was made almost nine years ago by Bowen when he was a 15-year-old child and appreciate this to be an incredibly naive and insensitive tweet which demonstrated the lack of judgment, wisdom and awareness someone so young can often demonstrate.
The BAME Hammers feel that it would be incredibly harsh for The Football Association to punish Jarrod Bowen for an idiotic moment of stupidity made as a minor and would prefer football’s governing body to focus on educating Jarrod and others within football around the use of language on social media, the impact of discrimination from those subjected to it and around acceptance, inclusion and equality within society.
There are current and significant battles within all forms of football at present being faced by BAME players and fans and we shouldn’t detract away from what should be a collective effort to force change within football and to make it fully inclusive and a game for everyone to enjoy.
The BAME Hammers have offered to help West Ham United with any educational work it wishes to give around discrimination and are pleased to be part of an ongoing dialogue with the club which looks to provide an inclusive football environment for all.