Institutionalised racism still a major problem, says John Barnes

JOHN BARNES, THE former Liverpool and England winger, insists the UK’s problem with racism has not gone away.

After suffering shameful treatment during his playing career, Barnes has gone on to become an articulate and admired campaigner against racism in British society.

Writing today in the Sunday Times, the two-times Football Writers player of the year, said the issue is as painful now as it was when he was helping Liverpool win league titles in 1988 and 1990.

“I admire the likes of Raheem Sterling for calling out the treatment they have received in the media or at football grounds,” Barnes wrote in his column for the Sunday Times.

“I also think the campaign to have more black managers is a good one. I have always maintained that the problem here is that black managers do not get the opportunity to be as bad as white managers. By this, I mean their team only needs to suffer the briefest of dips in form before their credibility is being called into question and the P45 prepared.

“I remember chatting about this subject to a female sports journalist not so long ago. I said there were two possible reasons why there were so few black managers: either we just weren’t any good or we were the victims of institutionalised racism. She suggested a third — that maybe black footballers just weren’t that interested in going into management. I pointed out that sexist men had been making the same point about women in her line of work — sport just wasn’t their kind of thing, they liked to claim. To be fair, she took the point.

“Where I take issue with others is the notion that the number of black managers in the Premier League or number of BAME actors and actresses nominated for Oscars or Baftas will help the plight of the wider black community. These are worthwhile causes but we should be focusing our attention at the bottom of society rather than its elite.

“And when I hear the events of the past week described as a turning point, my cynicism levels really rise. I’ve seen them before in sport and society: John Barnes back-heeling a banana skin thrown on to the pitch; Paul Ince becoming England’s first black captain; Barack Obama the first man of colour to be US president. If Obama’s election was a turning point, then how do you account for Floyd’s death?”