BNU remembers Holocaust Memorial Day at event on tackling anti-Semitism in football
Buckinghamshire New University’s staff, students and friends gathered to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day together in an online event themed around eradicating anti-Semitism and racism in football.
Anti-racism football charity Kick It Out Chief Executive, Tony Burnett, and Chelsea Foundation Project Coordinator, Gabriella Wilkinson, joined BNU’s Law Lecturer Ze’ev Portner and its Equality, Diversity and Inclusion lead, Karla Inniss, for a wide-ranging discussion on the importance of Holocaust Memorial Day and to reflect on what progress has been made in football’s attempts to tackle all forms of discrimination.
Each year, 27 January marks the global day where millions of victims of the Holocaust and other more recent genocides since 1945 in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur are remembered. During his opening remarks, Ze’ev spoke of his family’s experiences in Nazi Germany during the 20th century.
Football must do more
A fascinating conversation followed with Kick It Out leader Tony calling on Premier League and English Football League clubs to do more to educate their players on anti-Semitism, improve their equality, diversity and inclusion knowledge, and help overseas players to adapt to the cultural norms and values of the UK.
He went on to discuss the challenges overseas players face when coming to England and explained the disparity in English clubs’ approaches to educating their players on core EDI principles. He called for this to be made mandatory in line with a recommendation from a recent Government-commissioned fan-led review by former sports minister Tracey Crouch.
“We know for a fact that the vast majority of young people in those academies don’t make it to the pro level. Then you’ve also got people coming from different countries, significant numbers, particularly in the Premier League, where education, cultural norms and values are completely different, and I’m not sure we do a good enough job when it comes to this education, not just around anti-Semitism which is massively important, but around helping players that come from different countries to understand the cultural norms and boundaries in this country. It’s a gap we have to fill.”
Tony praised the efforts of some clubs, such as Chelsea for their EDI capability, but called on other clubs to do more. “A number of other clubs, Premier League and otherwise, don’t necessarily invest at similar levels in this area. I think it’s naïve to think you can operate in a society as a community-based organisation without having that knowledge and driving those levels of awareness. But I also think the governing bodies have a job to do in enforcing that standard.”
Keeping up the momentum
In a wide-ranging discussion, Tony and fellow panellist Gabriella Wilkinson, Project Coordinator at Chelsea Foundation, also reflected on what steps must be taken in the fight against online anti-Semitism and other forms of racism following several high-profile incidents last year involving Chelsea player Reece James and England players Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka after the Euro 2020 final.
Gabriella said Chelsea employs a moderation agency to monitor its social media channels and remove anything that’s abusive or discriminatory, which has proven “really effective” for the club and its players who wish to use it. She called for stakeholders to continue pressing for change.
“We need to keep the momentum up by continuing to challenge the Government and social media companies to do more to tackle online abuse. If not, the problem will only get worse as people will continue to have anonymity and invisibility online, doing whatever they want in online forums that operate on an ‘anything goes’ basis. It’s not anything goes, and it shouldn’t be, so we need to keep this momentum up and make sure this issue stays at the top of everyone’s agenda.”
Last year, Kick It Out co-led a social media boycott in English football from 3pm on Friday 30 April to 23:59 on Monday 3 May, in response to the sustained discriminatory abuse received online by players and many others connected to football, and the perceived lack of action by those running the platforms. The charity is clear that more action needs to be taken.
“When we talk about online abuse, there is someone pushing those keys and I think we’ve created a climate in the UK in the last few years where racism has become acceptable again,” said Tony. “We are continuing to pressure Government on implementing regulation through the Online Harms Bill. Making social media organisations report on the detail we specify we want to see, not what they decide they want to report on.
“The big thing is getting to a place where social media companies are taking responsibility on this – it’s not just about racism, this is about young people being bullied, sexual exploitation, it’s about all forms of harm that social media organisations are getting away with at the moment.”
The online event on 27 January was jointly held by Buckinghamshire New University’s Black, Asian and Minority Staff (BAME) Network and the University’s School of Business and Law. In November 2020, the University adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism and kickstarted a new approach to combatting anti-Semitism and reinvigorating its equality, diversity and inclusion activities.