Origination: The Race Debate

Hope Powell
Hope is the first Black manager of an English national team, and manages the England women's football team. In 2006, she led England to qualify for the Women's World Cup. She was awarded an OBE in 2002 and is patron of the Kick it Out campaign.

She believes "people are not born racist", and that racism includes "name-calling in a derogatory manner".

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March 2007

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Thanks for some interesting interviews and clips - and for a place to discuss all this. Especially the Darcus Howe "Who You Callin' A Nigger" programme, it just shows how complex racism has become ...
- jpww, 13 April 2007

Hope Powell works in an industry - football management - where institutional racism is sadly still rife. English football has done more than its European counterparts to promote anti-racism and many of today's top players are black and accepted. The dark days of the 70s and 80s, when pioneering black players like West Brom's trio of Cyrille Regis, Laurie Cunningham and Brendan Batson were pilloried from the terraces, are well and truly behind us. Even the most gifted player of his generation, John Barnes, endured relentless abuse from opposing fans. However the fact remains that less than 1% of senior coaching staff at the 92 league clubs in England are black - even though more than 20% of players are. There are currently only two black managers - Macclesfield's Paul Ince and Torquay's Keith Curle. Since its inception in 1992, there has never been a black English manager in the Premiership. John Barnes' foray into football management with Celtic in 1999 lasted a matter of months and he has never been given a second chance. The Committee for Racial Equality published a report on English football in October 2004 entitled "It's Everyone's Game". It was highly critical of the lack of equal opportunity in club management and prompted the sport's governing bodies to confront the issue. But even back then there were more black managers in the league - three - then than there are now.
- vinylritchie, 5 April 2007

Re. Hope's point about "people not being born racist", that it's all down to education and upbringing - I believe education and upbringing make it worse, and if your parents don't reprimand you for making a racist comment, then you think it's ok to do so, and you'll probably continue to do so. <p> BUT - why do the parents think it's ok, and probably their grandparents do too? It becomes a chicken and egg scenario, so what I believe is that we're all intrinsically prejudiced, and it's something we have to fight against, and educate our off-spring and peers to be tolerant and open-minded.
- bettyk, 2 April 2007