Do such groups actually help combat racism?

[sheffgrow]

whilst looking at the sheffield and district junior football website i noticed this article: Kick It Out Development Grants

The Kick It Out Development Grants have been designed to help community groups, grassroots and amateur clubs 'kick-start' activities for groups that are still under-represented in mainstream football.

 

Through support from the Football Foundation, Kick It Out is able to offer grants of up to £2,000 each. The aims of the grants programme include helping to increase participation from BME communities in all areas of the game (including playing, coaching and refereeing), using football to create more inclusive communities and helping grassroots and amateur teams develop closer links with mainstream football including local County Football Associations.

 

Priority areas of activity

Kick It Out has introduced a number of priority areas of activity for applications for a Kick It Out Development Grant. Whilst we will still consider projects that do not fall under any of the headings, projects that ?t one or more of the criteria are more likely to receive funding.

 

* Increasing participation of BME communities, especially women and girls

* Working with members of new communities especially eastern European or involving Gypsy, Roma or Traveller communities

* Organisations which want to use sporting activities to engage participants from faith based organisations or who use sport to address Islamaphobia or anti-Semitis

* Projects that address homophobia and promote the inclusion of the LGBT community in the game.

 

just to translate bme: black and minority ethnics

lgbt:LGBT (or GLBT) is an initialism referring collectively to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender

the full article is here:http://www.junleague.com/viewarticle.aspx?id=2304

so why should specific groups benefit from such grants? surely english white heterosexual people are being discriminated against by being excluded from benefiting from such grants, i have been around junior football and have never seen any of the above groups discriminated against, so is this the case of some penpusher creating a problem where there isnt one? opinions please

[philyyy]

Apparently (no evidence at all other than reading articles promoting the idea which are probably biased). Even if it does not work at least they're trying something as integration is far from complete especially if you read some of the guff people write on here.

[Lady Star]

Anywhere where people are encourage to mix on common ground should help combat racism - after all many issues to do with race come through ignorance of others... If as a kid you get to know and mix with as many people as possible, this has only to benefit...

[sheffgrow]

but is there really a problem in junior football where they are advertising this initiative? i think not, and surely if any kids are interested in football it is upto the parents to take them to find a club like i did, and all the stuff about encouraging "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" none of these things matter in football surely, it is about ability that is why i think they are creating a problem where there isnt one

[Douglas J]

Anywhere where people are encourage to mix on common ground should help combat racism - after all many issues to do with race come through ignorance of others... If as a kid you get to know and mix with as many people as possible, this has only to benefit...

 

This is spot-on. Of course, there is still (to answer Sheffgrow) a problem in junior football. It isn't that kids who take part in football necessarily face discrimination - in fact it's really good that there have been so many positive initiatives to stamp out the really nasty side of racism in football that was once commonplace. No, the point is that , for many kids, it doesn't even feature without some encouragement.

 

Sheffgrow is spot-on too in identifying the issue when s/he says "it is upto the parents to take them to find a club like i did". Exactly! for those with keen, ambitious (and perfectly ordinary) parents who want to make sure their kids take part in healthy activity, then great. But what about those kids who aren't so lucky, whose parents wouldn't know where to start or wouldn't be interested?

[sheffgrow]

This is spot-on. Of course, there is still (to answer Sheffgrow) a problem in junior football. It isn't that kids who take part in football necessarily face discrimination - in fact it's really good that there have been so many positive initiatives to stamp out the really nasty side of racism in football that was once commonplace. No, the point is that , for many kids, it doesn't even feature without some encouragement.

 

Sheffgrow is spot-on too in identifying the issue when s/he says "it is upto the parents to take them to find a club like i did". Exactly! for those with keen, ambitious (and perfectly ordinary) parents who want to make sure their kids take part in healthy activity, then great. But what about those kids who aren't so lucky, whose parents wouldn't know where to start or wouldn't be interested?

 

but that is true of white heterosexual people too that their parents cant be bothered, so why discriminate against these and only focus on a minority group? surely everybody regardless of race or sexual orientation should be encouraged? my opinion is that such groups and initiatives actually create homophobia and racism by excluding the wider society who feel resentful that they cant benefit from such grants

[KoalaFamily]

Totally with you on this one sheffgrow. Regardless of background there are too many who want things handing to them on a plate and don't go out looking for themselves. It can't be any easier with t'internet either.

[moke]

i grew up in an integrated, multicultural environment, and probably as a consequence, have very few of the issues that concern our more fervently separatist posters on this forum.

 

if initiatives like the one discussed above fufill their aims, then more kids around Sheffield will have an upbringing like mine, and there will be fewer race related issues in this country.

 

the most awkwardly racist person i have known (at a match at the emmirates a couple of years ago, he unthinkingly used the 'n' word about an arsenal player, and nearly got lynched) once told me that as child growing up in a rural community, he didn't meet a non-white person in real life until he was in his late 20's.

 

it might no longer be the case that our kids wont know or meet people from different ethnic backgrounds, but clearly a lot of problems in racist white communities, racist black communities and indeed any ethnic group, stem largely from our continued desire to only mix with 'our own'.

 

get rid of that mindset early enough, and the problem goes away before you know it.

 

you might interperet specific actions from groups as 'more handouts for for the ethnics while us poor whites get nothing', but that is myopic to the point of a cyclops. look at the bigger picture, and think about the world you want your kids to live in.

 

/peace and love rant

[Lady Star]

i grew up in an integrated, multicultural environment, and probably as a consequence, have very few of the issues that concern our more fervently separatist posters on this forum.

 

if initiatives like the one discussed above fufill their aims, then more kids around Sheffield will have an upbringing like mine, and there will be fewer race related issues in this country.

 

the most awkwardly racist person i have known (at a match at the emmirates a couple of years ago, he unthinkingly used the 'n' word about an arsenal player, and nearly got lynched) once told me that as child growing up in a rural community, he didn't meet a non-white person in real life until he was in his late 20's.

 

it might no longer be the case that our kids wont know or meet people from different ethnic backgrounds, but clearly a lot of problems in racist white communities, racist black communities and indeed any ethnic group, stem largely from our continued desire to only mix with 'our own'.

 

get rid of that mindset early enough, and the problem goes away before you know it.

 

you might interperet specific actions from groups as 'more handouts for for the ethnics while us poor whites get nothing', but that is myopic to the point of a cyclops. look at the bigger picture, and think about the world you want your kids to live in.

 

/peace and love rant

 

The only problem I have seen with mixing races early, is the fact the these kids often have to drag racist parents kicking and screaming into the 20th Century behind them! (21st being too much to hope for in many cases!)...

[moke]

The only problem I have seen with mixing races early, is the fact the these kids often have to drag racist parents kicking and screaming into the 20th Century behind them! (21st being too much to hope for in many cases!)...

 

sad but true - and again, true of all communities.

 

it's funny how people idealise an imagined paradise in the past when someithng they don't like is happening in the present.

 

one day, hopefully people will realise that 'the good old days' also included untold amounts of domestic violence, kids dying of measles, back street abortionists and extreme working class poverty. progress is almost always a good thing.