Man United and England footballer Marcus Rashford. Photo: Volmetro Wikimedia Commons

• THE Forum article (Child Poverty is government policy, January 28) by colleagues in the Global Women Strike, spelt out why Marcus Rashford’s campaign to feed the kids resonates with so many across the United Kingdom, especially mothers who are distraught when they cannot feed their children.

Black, immigrant, and working class communities surviving a myriad of injustices before and during this terrible Covid-19 pandemic know, in our bones, that our poverty is not an accident.

Unsurprisingly last weekend saw media reports about how Rashford was one of those black footballers who came under renewed attack from the other “disease” – racism.

Racists are evidently not happy with what he’s doing as a footballer and advocate for hungry children and their mothers based on his own personal experiences he is proud of. And he has never forgotten his roots.

What mattered to them was his colour and they either didn’t care he was helping children or they were against his helping children. This is a racist strategy to take our eyes off the grinding poverty that many of us face – adults as well as the kids.

We must ask ourselves if racists are simply ignorant and hateful, or if they are being encouraged, and sometimes even paid, by those who want us to ignore rather than feed hungry children.

CRISTEL AMISS
Women of Colour
Global Women’s Strike
Crossroads Women’s Centre, NW5