West Ham goalkeeper Shaka Hislop & Arsenal defender Sol Campbell
How It All Started
It came from an incident in 1995 and a £50 donation. A group of bored teenagers sitting on the wall at the Shell garage just next to St James Park in Newcastle started shouting racist abuse at a tall black man who was filling up his car. They carried on until they got a reaction. The man turned around and the teens realised who they had be shouting racist abuse at turned out to be Newcastle United’s Shaka Hislop. They ran over to ask for his autograph.
One moment he was subject to abuse and the next, he was treated like a hero. This was at a time when Newcastle were 15 points ahead of Manchester United at the top of the Premier League. Shaka was their goalkeeper and admired like the rest of the team. The incident prompted him to think of his role as a footballer because it showed that while much had changed in football, racism was still an issue in society.
After making the donation of £50 to a local anti-racism campaign, he was then invited to visit a school and such was the impact of the interaction, that other players got involved in school visits as well. Irish players including Curtis Fleming, David Kelly and Niall Quinn were among the first to be involved. Since then SRTRC has grown in impact and is now present in countries across Europe including Ireland.
Show Racism the Red Card
Wear Red Day
Show Racism the Red Card invite you to be involved in the first #SRTRC Wear Red Day. On Friday 25th November, we are inviting people in school, work, college or wherever they are to wear red for the day. On the day, we hope to raise funds which will help increase our impact across Ireland.
For more information please visit Show Racism the Red Card
Published 14/09/16 by Mark McCluskey