I once again find myself in uncharted waters with racism nuances. A comment by Moshiri was surely racist (if it wasn't true, mind, but that's a bit hard to believe in) — as it was a generalisation based on Lukaku's heritage/ethnicity.
But when Ibra uses it, it's the opposite of a generalisation — it's a very direct dig at a situation that happened with Lukaku and no one else (unless you believe that Ibra has made a random racist comment that miraculously mirrored an actual scandalous situation that happened with Lukaku — again, that's highly unlikely); it doesn't allude to his race etc., but to a real story from Lukaku's life.
And then there's a bit that confuses me though. If Moshiri's comment was racist, did Ibra made a second-hand racist comment? Or, since it wasn't officially disputed in court (like Lukaku threatened to) and Moshiri hasn't apologised for it, is it a fair game for Ibra to use it?
Personally, I'd probably go with intent and I'm pretty sure that Ibra was going for a direct hit to Lukaku's personal history rather than on his race (if only for a simple reason that real situations tend to hurt more), but I'm open to people trying to argue otherwise.
P.S. none of that wooden shed lunacy, please
P.P.S. I'd also argue that the voodoo story
in itself isn't trying to offend Lukaku on the base of his race, it's meant to highlight his hypocrisy (as in... wanted to go to Chelsea, but chose United's money); what makes it racist is that Moshiri uses voodoo instead of any other possible reason for the original decision to join Chelsea