Rinsola Babajide Liverpool
things like not seeing many black players around me,” says 22-yearold Babajide. “Also things like, the white girls will catch a tan and will try to compare their skin to mine. Saying ‘Ahh, my skin is nearly as dark as yours’. It’s banter and jokes which they make that make you feel uncomfortable being the minority.”
Babajide’s experience is marked by her being a darker-skinned black woman, something she has been made to feel aware of from early on. Both Carter, also 22, and Babajide say they do not see this sort of “joke” as overt racism, rather ignorance masked in humour that can make you feel uncomfortable. It is a conversation that neither had been prepared for, or knew how to respond to.
“For me, [the Black Lives Matter movement] has been a bit of an eye-opener,” says Carter, whose Chelsea coach, Emma Hayes, recently shared that discussing racism is encouraged at the club. “The realisation that a lot of people didn’t understand the differences before. They are learning about segregation and racism now.”
Carter says that the movement has provided a period of selfreflection and education. She acknowledges that her experience as a mixed-heritage woman is at times different to darker-skinned black women, such as Babajide. The challenges she has faced have mainly been around her participation as a female in a male-dominated sport.
“I was quite lucky, I never had any issues growing up,” says Carter. “In football, it was never about my race. Any problems I’ve had have been around me being a woman in football, rather than me being black.”
Education is fundamentally what will change views on race and racism. Troy Townsend, head of development for anti-racism campaign Kick It Out, advises that currently the only requirement for players to attend educational workshops on diversity is during their academy years.
But this model does not equip players to deal with racism on a professional platform, or educate on how to be anti-racist in a professional setting. Prevention is better than cure, and governing