BlackMan Time

This week CNN is looking at racism in sport. One of its features focuses on the racism suffered by former Chelsea footballer Paul Canoville who was abused by his own club’s supporters.

Back in those days, circa 1980′s, racist abuse was much more commonplace with few Black players around at the top level. But this was no excuse for Chelsea supporters to racially abuse Canoville: Chelsea’s first ever signing of a Black player. It was very common for Chelsea supporters to pelt Canoville with bananas, monkey chants, threats and placards proclaiming: “We don’t want the nigger!” Even in one reserve game supporters dressed up in Ku Klux Klan gear to taunt Canoville.

At the time the football authorities were adamant there were no racism in soccer, despite the experiences of others like Canoville, whose recently published autobiography “Black and Blue”, deal with this issue.

It is good that the authorities have now woken and are openly supporting initiatives like Kick Racism out. It is far better to do something a thorny problem, than to pretend it doesn’t exist and hope it will go away, all by itself.

Obviously CNN’s timely feature is welcoming.

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