A huge thank you to everybody who supported the Erase Racism football round last weekend!
Football (or soccer if you prefer!) is widely regarded as Australia’s most multicultural sport, and known as the world game. For this reason, this joint initiative between All Together Now, the Football Federation of Australia (FFA) and the football Players Federation of Australia (PFA) aimed to highlight that racism has no place in football or Australian society.
Unfortunately since the Erase Racism round, a player has allegedly racially abused Ali Abbas on the field. Ali Abbas is one of the players featured in our Erase Racism film created for the Erase Racism round:
http://youtu.be/tbZsFtjZhBU&rel=0
If the FFA’s investigation finds that Ali Abbas was racially abused, they need to penalise the player who said the racist slur so that all players and fans understand that racist behaviour is not condoned. This action will be in line with their commitment to the Erase Racism round.
It is great that Ali Abbas had the ability and courage to bring this incident to light, and we’d like to think that our Erase Racism message helped in some way. It is also vital for bystanders to speak out against racism where ever it happens.
In Australia there’s a small minority of people who perpetuate interpersonal racism. People who say racial slurs overestimate the number of people around them who agree with their point of view. By speaking up, you can play a part in making interpersonal racism unacceptable. When you do this the perpetrator is much less likely to say something racist in the future.
