Kicking racism into touch
FOOTBALL legend Rio had a childhood marred by racism and remembers his dad being spat on because he was a black man with a white woman.
Throughout his career, the former Man Utd and England defender has also received targeted online racial abuse, including the use of gorilla and monkey emojis and the N word.
“I’m exhausted with racism,” says the dad-of-four. “I don’t want my children to have to deal with this.”
In this heavy-hearted docuseries, Rio tackles three thorny issues that affect football – race, sexuality and mental health.
He wants to make changes and kick-start conversations, saying that not enough is done by the football authorities to stamp out problems.
The first episode deals with racism, with football-related arrests for racist and indecent chanting at their highest level, and a massive spike in online racist abuse.
Rio says: “With social media people are comfortable with being racist now. Why are racist videos allowed to be shared? It’s a crime. It’s not right. Racism is allowed to breed.”
In the documentary, Rio even meets Burnley football fans who discuss the incident when someone flew a “White Lives Matter” banner during a match, in protest at players taking the knee.
And he meets a team at a HateLab, where Twitter hate speech is analysed to prove it has a real-life effect on hate crime on the streets.
Rio says: “I think we’re at a disturbing tipping point. I think we’re at a point where something needs to be done.”