Racism is a struggle, especially when friends, colleagues and our ‘multicultural’ society cowers into a state of blindness just to acknowledge racism as “an uncomfortable topic”.

Studies have shown that exposure to racism can cause mental health issues and affect physical health as well. Nowadays the automatic reaction to racism is to record it. At least we understand the necessity of exposing racist acts but only if it gets featured in the news or social media. Show Racism The Red Card is currently the UK’s largest anti-racism educational charity. It gained renown thanks to a professional (now retired) football player named Shaka Hislop. He was at a petrol station near St James’s Park when he was confronted by a group of young people yelling racist abuse at him. 

Hislop decided to use his power and influence in football and sought to utilise education as an effective strategy to challenge racism in society. The charity has a national reach today because of his donation of £50 in 1995. 

At the end of Term 5 the WA community chose to donate to this charity because of Hislop’s motivational passion to eradicate racism. As a community, we can help support the charity by getting involved; do more than just give them money. The charity has several strategies that we can all use to ‘show racism the red card’. Join one of their online workshops - there is a link that will lead you to what they have planned here. 

By Asia Al-Jaff, Year 11