Show Racism the Red Card

25 years of anti-racism education

Show Racism the Red Card (SRtRC) celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. Following the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests, its school workshops are in demand like never before. Sarah Thompson finds out more.

IT was a “lucky break” that launched charity SRtRC, says its founder and chief executive Ged Grebby. In 1994, Ged was working at Youth Against Racism in Europe, which produced a magazine carrying a feature on the north east of England’s Black history. He asked footballers to endorse it.

Newcastle United’s Black goalkeeper Shaka Hislop was among those happy to do so, but told Ged he wanted to do more. “I got in touch and asked him to go into a school with me,” says Ged. “We knew combating racism through the use of high-profile footballers could change attitudes.”

Two years later, SRtRC – now the UK’s largest anti-racism education charity – was up and running.

Shaka’s teammate John Beresford, who had admitted chanting racist abuse on the terraces as a teenager, got on board. The combination of the two footballers was powerful, recalls Ged: “I knew we had something special from the very first event.”

Get involved

n Wear Red Day on 22 October encourages schools and businesses to wear red and donate at least £1 to spread a message of anti-racism:

theredcard.org/wear-red-day

n SRtRC competitions encourage young people to produce creative work with an original anti-racism theme: theredcard.org/competitions n SRtRC will be joined by 25 famous faces, including Paul Elliot, Shaka Hislop and Gareth Southgate, for its 25 for 25 podcast series, to discuss the progress that has been made in tackling racism and consider what still needs to be done: 25 for 25: A SRtRC Podcast is on Apple, Spotify, Audible, YouTube and more.

(From left) teacher Maria Hodge; Clio’s dad Elliot; overall 2021 winner of SRtRC’s annual schools competition Clio Chinyama; winner of The Voice UK Jermain Jackman; and Kevin Courtney of the NEU at The Compton School, North Finchley, London PHOTO by Jess Hurd

Since then, the charity has worked with around 170 football clubs and 700 professional players. SRtRC’s schools education programme has, to date, reached 850,000 young people.

Justine King, an SRtRC education co-ordinator in the north east of England, says last year’s BLM protests have been “game-changing”, adding: “We’re busier than we’ve been in 25 years.”

She explains that SRtRC’s school workshops create a non-judgemental zone, where children feel able to ask questions without worrying about getting into trouble or saying the wrong thing. The workshops’ impact reaches far beyond the school gates.

“We’re educating young people to go back into their homes and educate their parents, because problematic behaviour, terminology and attitudes do not come from young people. They parrot what they hear in the media or in their family,” she says.

Children from one primary school where Justine ran a session had been referring to the local shop as “the paki shop”, prompting the owner to complain to the head teacher, who called in SRtRC to deliver a workshop on language and terminology.

Three days later, the shopkeeper contacted the head to say a boy had visited his shop, asked his name and told him: “We’re going to call this Ali’s shop from now on.”

The charity’s annual school competition (pictured above), which has been running for 23 years and invites children to submit creative work with an anti-racism message, is a highlight for Ged. “Entries are always of such a high standard and the competition empowers young people to fight racism,” he says, adding that he’s delighted that even during the pandemic 23,600 young people took part.

Its popularity, even in the toughest year many young people have ever known, may be explained by the reaction to last year’s BLM protests. In 2020, police officers in England and Wales dealt with record levels of racist and religious hate crime. An investigation by the Guardian found that since 2016 more than 60,000 racist incidents have been recorded in UK schools.

The nature of racism has changed over the past 25 years, says Ged, with a rise in antiimmigrant and anti-Muslim views following 9/11 and Brexit. Social media allows far-right groups to spread their message quickly and effectively, he adds.

Justine is pleased that even during a national crisis schools have continued to prioritise work on fighting racism, but she is looking forward to the return of in-person workshops in the next academic year.

“I can’t wait,” she smiles.