by Thierry Henry
ELECTIONS ARE a good time for people to think about what is important to them. As a black Frenchman who lives in England, I’ve been interested to see the way political parties have been talking about immigration and race issues in the build-up to tomorrow’s vote.
Racism in football is a controversial, emotional subject. It can reflect society itself, but football’s high profile means it can also create news around the issue. Yet governments are not able to tackle these problems easily. It is up to individuals to make their mark and do what they can in their field too.
I grew up in a multicultural area near Paris, and racism wasn’t such a problem when I began playing football and went through the French youth system. When we won the World Cup in 1998 the players in the squad were a complete mix of different colours, cultures and backgrounds, and a lot was made of the fact that our victory united France, especially when the racist parties had begun to do well in some parts of the country. I remember an old lady coming up in the street and thanking me. When I asked why, she said she wasn’t a football fan but she couldn’t remember such scenes of joy and national unity since the liberation of Paris in 1944.
I only started playing in England in 1999, long after the worst examples of racist abuse were commonplace in English league grounds. I’ve heard about black players — and spoken to some of them — who recall bananas being thrown on the pitch at them and monkey noises being chanted, not by one or two fans, but hundreds.
Changes in society and in football stadiums in England, along with the campaigning by groups such as Kick Racism Out of Football, mean that that kind of obvious racism is rare in English football now. You do still hear racist abuse at times, although I am proud that I have never heard it from Arsenal fans. The incident a few months ago when Dwight Yorke challenged fans who were abusing him shows there is still work to be done.
But if the situation in the UK has improved in many ways, it is different in other parts of Europe. Racist abuse was common in my time playing in Italy and I have spoken to friends there who say it is still a problem.
In Spain the problem has been well publicised this season, especially after the abuse received by black England players from some of the Spanish fans in the friendly game last November. There was also the incident with Luis Aragonés, the Spain coach, who was caught on camera trying to “motivate” one of my Arsenal team-mates who plays for Spain by calling me a negro de mierda — a black shit.
I’ve heard people say that his words, and the way black players get insulted in Spanish football aren’t racist but just some sort of cultural expression and should not be taken seriously: in effect, asking me to forget about it. I can forgive, but I can never forget.
After these incidents, and hearing abuse directed at me in Europe when playing in the Champions League and seeing the racism creep back in to the game, I decided I wanted to do something about this.
One of the problems for players when they hear abuse is what to do about it at the time on the pitch. Imagine being abused out loud because of the colour of your skin while trying to do your job. It’s difficult sometimes to keep cool on the pitch when you hear this kind of stuff, but if you let it affect you it means the racists have won.
I called one of my sponsors, Nike, and we created a campaign called Stand Up Speak Up to give the “silent majority” the confidence to speak up against racism when they encounter it in stadiums. We’ve had a lot of support from other players, such as Rio Ferdinand, Ronaldinho, Roberto Carlos and Claude Makelele. The symbol of the campaign is a black and white interlocked wristband and all money raised goes to a fund that will be used to help to finance anti-racist groups round Europe.
I am not naive enough to think the campaign will change everything just like that, but it’s obvious that standing by and doing nothing won’t change things either. Maybe, just for 90 minutes at football, if the racists can be shamed into not shouting the things that they do, that will be already a victory. And maybe over time they will realise how ignorant they are and begin to change their attitudes as well.
It’s interesting that Nike has been criticised for helping me by people saying that it got involved to obtain publicity. But this ignores that I asked Nike for its help; it didn’t come to me. Where I grew up, kids are more likely to respond to their heroes making a statement than a message they get in schools or from the Government. The criticism also ignores the fundraising. If millions of euros are donated by people across Europe to give to anti-racist groups, how can that be a bad thing?
I’m sure there are some people who are shocked at the abuse that they hear in stadiums, but they feel that they can’t do anything about it. I’m sure there are others around them thinking the same thing: they don’t feel able to say anything to the racists or make them aware that what they are saying is ignorant. Football stadiums should be places that everyone meets to enjoy the game and not to hear that kind of rubbish.
What we are doing to tackle racism in football needs also to be done in other walks of life in this country. Perhaps people will think about it more this week because of the election. I am doing what I can in my area.
