This October Show Racism the Red Card (SRtRC), the UKs leading anti-racism educational charity will be putting on there fifth annual Wear Red Day. This day will take place on the 18th October in England and Wales, and recently took place in Scotland back on the 4th October.
The aim of this day, as stated on the SRtRC website, is to raise donations for the charity, to which pledges ‘every pound raised will enable us to work with more young people and adults to challenge racism in society’.
This day follows a continued spike of racism in football, with reported incidents against Marcus Rashford, Raheem Sterling, and Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham. Recent footage had also emerged of Aston Villa fans singing a racist song that involves two first team players.
This spike in racial abuse towards footballers has also transcended into the wider world, with social media platform Twitter, saying it has “taken action” on “more than 700 examples of hateful conduct” in the past two weeks. This is all whist the London Met Police have recorded a staggering 35.4% increase on racist and religious hate crime in London between January and July.
By raising money and spreading awareness on the 18th October Show Racism the Red Card looks to educate youth: ‘challenging them to think critically about the information that they receive and understand the harm caused by division and hatred.’
This message is primarily taught through workshops set in primary and secondary schools, led by both a team of educators and ex-professional footballers, aiming to provide knowledge to students in the hope they can use this to better understand and combat ‘racist and prejudicial ideas’.
A couple of major football clubs have already aligned themselves with the charity. West Ham United have partnered with SRtRC to launch a ‘stop the hate programme’. An planned outcome of the programme is to engage with up to 25 schools across the Barking and Dagenham Borough.
Arsenal football club are another premier league club involved, launching an event on the 11th October. The club will bring together 120 students from schools in North London to explore racism, hate crimes and stereotyping followed by a tour of Arsenals Emirates stadium.
These both follow a successful event hosted by Sunderland football club which included a question and answer session with current Sunderland Men’s players Alim Ozturk, George Dobson and SAFC Ladies player Charlotte Potts.
If you wish to register for Wear red day or just find out more about the cause visit the website of Show Racism the Red Card’s website.
