He was made to feel like an outsider in his own home city
The black passenger who was refused a place on the Paris metro by Chelsea fans, due to their racism is going to make a police complaint.
Known only as Souleyman S, the passenger said that he hadn’t been able to watch the footage of his mistreatment published in The Guardian on Tuesday because he lost his phone during the incident with the fans. However, the 33 year old married man of three will be contacting the French anti-racism associations and go to the police.
He didn’t tell his family about what happened and said; “What would I have said to my children? That daddy was pushed off the metro because he was black? That’s pointless.”
Souleymane S was born in Paris and was raised in the Val-d’Oise area outside the city. He works for a company near Richelieu-Drouot metro station where the incident happened on Tuesday night. He told Le Parisien: “I wanted to get on to the carriage, but a group of English supporters blocked me and pushed me back. I tried to force a gap and get on. In the scrum, I lost my phone.
“They were saying things to me in English but I didn’t really understand what they were saying. I don’t speak a word of English.”
He added: “I understood they were Chelsea fans and made the link with the PSG match that night. I also understood very well that they were targeting me because of the colour of my skin.
“You know, I live with racism; I wasn’t really surprised at what happened to me, even if it was the first time in the metro.”
He said he “faced them down for a long time”.
“Afterwards someone came and said to me that I’d been brave to resist people like that. In my view, the incident lasted around six or seven minutes. After a while transport staff intervened, but only to ensure there wasn’t a fight. Their objective was to get the transport moving again.
“No passenger came to my defence, but in any case what could one have done? Then the train moved on and I waited for the next one.
“I got home and didn’t mention the incident to anyone, neither my wife nor my children ... And what would I have said to my children? That daddy was pushed off the metro because he was black? That’s pointless.”
After he was shown that the incident had been captured by Le Parisien, he said: “I didn’t know I was filmed. The fact that I’m talking about it now gives me courage to go to the police and file a complaint ... These people, these English fans should be found, punished and locked up. What happened should not go unpunished.”