Below we reproduce a letter by the IRR’s A. Sivanandan, published in the Guardian on the recent controversy surrounding the charity Kick it Out.
At a time when the far right is on the rise in Britain and in Europe, and fascism chooses the football field for its recruiting grounds, Kick it Out has done yeoman service in raising the awareness of football fans and the public in general to the obscenity that is racism in sport. And it has provided the springboard from which the self-organisation of black footballers could take off. As the old saying has it, if you kick the stool from under your feet, you hang yourself.
A. Sivanandan
Director, Institute of Race Relations
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Read the letter in the Guardian here
There is a lot of actions, words and attitudes that are made with a racist intention. The system in UK does not properly consider the damage caused by inaction by officials in sport, education, health etc. If there are no REAL penalties for racist abuse, how will a racist ever learn to change? Footballers in the top league are paid very well to play their game, and be adored by fans…it is therefore not much to expect these same players to show their fans by example the need to be respectful to others, to be moral with friends and relationships, and to be tolerant of other people’s ethnicity, sexuality or gender.
If you can’t kick it out of society then don’t expect anything more in football and so on.
The ignorance, inaction and smoke screens hiding the true extent of racism in society need to be tackled…