Racism is not going away, Raheem’s post was ground-breaking
THE problem with racism is that we think it’s going away. A nice campaign and a slogan which tells us to show it the red card can make us feel comfortable and believe that the problem is receding. But the issue simply lays dormant for a time and then will come back a few weeks or months later. And then we can all come out and say how bad it is once again. And then get back to analysing the football. So what Raheem Sterling did last week feels like a ground-breaking intervention. It prevented that rather clichéd cycle from being repeated this week. His Instagram post, which was direct, pointed and well thought out, has forced everyone to think more deeply about the issue. It has clearly been festering for a long period of time for him. I would think it’s a thought that has been there for a lot of the great black players who might have done more for England — players like John Barnes, Les Ferdinand and Andy Cole. They must have felt at times: ‘I’m playing well for my club but my face somehow doesn’t fit with the national team.’ To be honest, even if we had a sense of that, there was a feeling among my generation that we had best keep our mouths shut and get on with it. You might have sensed there was a negativity there about the way you were perceived or written about. But you didn’t want to take it on. But Raheem has had to put up with an overwhelming level of negativity over the last two years with England, which started with him being scapegoated for the Euro 2016 failure, where he wasn’t the worst player.
At this year’s World Cup, he would always finish bottom of the player rankings voted for by the public. He would always see positives turned into negatives. He’s obviously built up a catalogue of incidents in his mind.
And the way he has confronted that has been very classy and powerful. In asking questions about why two stories about a black player and white player seem to be slanted differently, he has fuelled a much more sophisticated debate which I think will run beyond this week.
The impact has been undeniable. If he had tried to say it in an interview, it would probably have come out wrong and he would have been vilified again. But it was a case of less is more. He just put his views out there and let people debate it.
It showed again the power of social media. There is a beauty in having a platform to answer back.
I went through my career wanting to dispute stories written about me but not feeling I had a voice to respond. You tended to feel that if you talked, it could make it worse. So you just waited for it to go away.
Whether Raheem realised it would happen like this or not, what he did has changed the way people think. So journalists will surely think more deeply about how something might be perceived.
We’re all having a debate about the underlying nature of prejudice rather than simply issuing bland, obvious statements. Gary Neville said on Sky Sports that he now was re-evaluating how he could have supported Raheem better with England.
Raheem has opened a lot of people’s eyes to his world and how it can feel. I would acknowledge the work Kick It Out have done over the years. Clearly they have campaigned tirelessly. But I think we’ve moved into a different phase now. It’s not about printing T-shirts or issuing slogans. We need more than that now.
Looking back, as a young mixedrace player growing up, I would have appreciated more support from an organisation like that in getting trained up to educate people and expose the absurdity of racism. Apart from the campaigns, there didn’t seem to be any meetings or structure to discuss or address prejudice on a deeper level.
Maybe Raheem never imagined he would be the game-changer in this. But the moment came and the way he dealt with it has thrust him into that role. What is clear is that there is a moment to be seized here that could change and deepen the debate, something many people have tried to do for years. In one post, Raheem may have done that.