Investigation underway as Scottish footballer dresses in ‘blackface’ for party

Dundee United have launched an internal investigation into reports that their player, Jamie Robson, wore a racially insensitive costume at a fancy dress party last weekend.

20-year-old defender Robson was pictured on social media wearing black face paint, along with wearing an umbrella hat, a high-visibility vest along with a white t-shirt and black leggings. He was also holding hand-made cardboard signs which read “Buy 1 get 5 free!” and “Cheap as Chips.”

It is the second time in a year that Robson has landed in hot water with his club and Dundee United manager Robbie Neilson has confirmed that an internal investigation into Robson’s conduct is underway but stated that any findings will remain confidential.

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“I spoke to him briefly,” Neilson said. “The standards at this football club have to kept at the highest level. We will chat again later with him and the club will deal with it in-house.

“We are a big football club and we get a lot of exposure. The players, staff and everyone associated with it needs to realize that.

“When you are out and about and doing different things you are representing the club and the fans.

“So we will deal with it over the next few days.”

Robson has since deleted his Instagram account. Last year, Robson was questioned by the club after a separate social media posting showed the player drinking a green liquid while driving, as well as taking his hands off the wheel to sing and dance for the camera.

The club didn’t take the matter further after saying they determined that the beverage shown in the clip wasn’t alcoholic.

The reports in Robson’s latest transgression come just days after Dundee United, along with a host of other football clubs in the United Kingdom, supported the Show Racism the Red Card campaign - an initiative launched to help curb the spread of racism in football.

“The practice of blackface has always had the potential to offend but in the past there was no societal voice for those who would have found it offensive,” a Show Racism the Red Card spokesman stated.

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“In 2018, it is the consequences of the practice rather than the intention that is relevant. What does blackface say to people, and young people particularly about the acceptance and normality of different skin colors in society?

“Show Racism the Red Card would argue that these practices caricature and portray or glamorize differences which could lead to discrimination.”