United Against Racism: Blackpool FC Hosts Anti-Racism Workshop
On Wednesday 15th October Show Racism the Red Card collaborated with Blackpool FC Community Trust to help educate the next generation of fans on the issues of racism and how to be an active ally.
100 young ambassadors from 12 local primary and SEND schools were in attendance at Bloomfield Road to take part in an extremely gripping and energising anti-racism workshop delivered by the North East campaign team. The pupils discussed issues around stereotypes, their worldview and appropriate language, before gaining the confidence to challenge racism and become an ally to those who are impacted by hate.
This vital education has given the young people in attendance the tools needed to go forward and educate their peers throughout their day to day lives.
Following on from this, the young people took part in an anti-discrimination activity delivered by Blackpool FC Community Trust which included group discussions on recent high profile news articles and concluded with the task of creating an anti-discrimination poster. The winning poster that was chosen will be professionally printed and displayed around Bloomfield Road to spread the message of anti-discrimination.
The morning concluded with the groups of children being able to experience life as a footballer with the Bloomfield Road stadium tour, giving the children the opportunity to see behind the scenes in the changing rooms and players’ tunnel.
The afternoon kicked off with an extremely moving anti-racism video featuring household names such as Harry Kane, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Lauren James. The video gave more insight into the history of racism, how society contributes to racism via media and player advice on how to deal with racism.
The day concluded with a special guest Q&A panel which included ex Blackpool player, Marc Joseph, Blackpool Captain, James Husband, loanee Elkan Baggott and Academy Foundation lead, Gabe Kubwalo, who all received a marvellous reception by all the young people as they were in awe of their heroes. The panel gave the young people an opportunity to question the players on their experiences of racism throughout their lives, whether that be on or off the pitch, and how they would deal with a racist incident. At the conclusion of the Q&A, the players stayed for photos and signatures, with one boy getting his football trainers signed!
Overall, it was an extremely surreal experience for all involved and it was powerful to see how engaged the young people were throughout the day.
We want to congratulate the children on their input and questions for the panel. Fantastic thoughts and questions were shared, highlighting how much the young people took away and understood the workshop, with one child’s message of the day being “don’t judge people, before you have been in their shoes!”.
Click here to read more on what themes we covered and the layout of the day.