By Declan Hughes

As the fight against racism marches on, Show Racism The Red Card’s campaigns to tackle the societal issue becomes more prominent in the month of October.

October is officially ‘Black History month’ and SRTRC have been spearheading the fight to eradicate the issue, especially in football, more than ever. A series of professional football clubs have united hand in hand with the SRTRC charity, to promote change, and call for better support around the issue.

The month of action will see graphics and messages shared by clubs to all ends of society, teaching the public on the effects racial abuse might have, as well as becoming knowledgeable on how to recognise each form of racism and reporting it appropriately.

Jordan Allison, a campaign manager for Show Racism The Red Card Scotland, outlined the charity’s main aims and spoke of the importance of grinding down the issues on a weekly basis:

“Black History Month is a project that we took from the USA and is something that has just grown and grown. We are now in a position where we are educating around 15,000 kids, who are potentially future fans at games and possibly future players, on how to recognise and report any form of racism and discrimination, in the appropriate manner and through the right channels.”

Many initiatives have been brought forward and carried out in football, with ‘taking the knee’ being the most notable one – a positive campaign with the intention to unite football fans in the fight against racism, which in fact resulted in having the opposite effect, whereby booing was being heard in different stadiums, as well as social media uproar from some sections of society.

Footballer’s have spoke of their own emotions and the impact booing or slurs in footballing arena’s may have on them.

Allison, from SRTRC, believes it will be a timely process to stamp out all forms of discrimination within football completely, but expressed the importance of teaching young people as well not taking the foot off the gas when it comes to stamping it out of football, and most importantly, society.

The SRTRC Campaign manager said:

“We want to give young people the tools which they can carry throughout their whole lives to help society become a more racist-free place.”