Metro abuse victim thankful for video

The victim of what's now in common parlance as 'the Paris Metro incident' turns out to have been a French sales manager who's going by 'Souleymane S' in an attempt to keep his identity private, which considering his face has been all over the news for days seems like a bit of a losing battle. Fortunately he's not so concerned about his privacy to avoid talking to the press -- it's important that we get his perspective on what happened -- and the Guardian have published a lengthy interview with the 33-year-old on their website.

One part in particular struck me:

The world thanks him for having shared this injustice that happened to me. It was important that all this came out. I’m not the only black person who has been the victim of racism and if I’m here it’s not only to denounce what I’ve been through but it’s for all the black people across the world facing it, everywhere, be it in France, London, the US … It has to stop. We’re in a world where everyone has their place, black, white, Muslim, Jew, atheist or anything else.

-Source: Guardian.

Obviously the video of the abuse was nasty to see, and it's been tough going since. But I think we should all be glad that it came out -- too many instances of abuse go unreported, and the video has enabled the club to address the issue in a serious way and deal with the individuals concerned. Bringing what happened to Souleymane to light can only be good for the club in the long term. Bigotry dies in the light.