By Callum Wright
Some of Nottingham Forest’s leading black footballers have spoken out about their experiences of racist abuse for a new campaign.
Morgan Gibbs White, Anthony Elanga, Naomi Bedeau and Andrew Omobamidele were asked to share their stories as part of a Nottinghamshire Police-led project for Black History Month.
The stories will be shared in full each week across October to help beat racism and celebrate black culture.
As part of the campaign Midfielder Gibbs-White, Forest’s vice-captain, said he first suffered abuse while on the pitch at school.
“They almost make you feel different to other people, just because of the colour of your skin, which is obviously wrong in so many ways because everyone is human and everyone’s blood is red,” he said.
“When I first received racial abuse, I was quite immature and didn’t know how to handle it, but as I’ve gotten older and spoken to more people, that’s helped me massively on how to deal with things in the right way and get support.”
Forest forward and Swedish international Anthony Elanga gave a message to anyone thinking of giving hate speech and being racist and to those who may be on the receiving end.
He said: “What I would say is, would you want to be on the other end of that? I don’t think so, so why do it to another person?
“Just treat people the way you want to be treated because, at the end of the day, what goes around comes around.”
“To any young person in Nottingham, I’d say be proud of who you are, as you’re here for a reason and have got a mission in this world,” he said.
Some of the questions the players faced were from the Hyson Green base of the Nottinghamshire Police Cadets, a uniformed volunteer group made up of young people from the local community.
Their questions were filmed and shown to the players at the Forest’s training ground. One of them came from 13-year-old Alisha, who asked Forest Women’s Naomi Bedeau about inspiring young girls in the community.
“It’s everything, inspiring the next generation, for me, as I was never a young girl that went to football games and thought I could be a professional footballer, whereas now it’s something that’s attainable,” she said.
“Having these role models is very important, so that they can see it and believe they can do it.”
Defender Andrew Omobamidele was asked by Oli, aged 12, how he deals with being a footballer and the threat of online abuse.
He said: “I don’t personally look too much into it, but when you see it targeted at you, it is difficult to ignore, but I think it comes back to having that inner confidence and support system.”
“The only thing I care about is my manager and my teammates’ opinions, my family members, my mum, but other than that, if it’s not affecting my career in any way, I try my best to pay no mind to it.”
Ch Supt Sukesh Verma, Notts Police’s head of Local Policing, said: “Black History Month is really important, especially when you consider the diversity and makeup of our county and many of the cultural challenges we are seeking to support and readdress after many years of damage.”
“People from all walks of life have personal stories to tell, so we’re extremely grateful to the Nottingham Forest players who chose to share theirs with us as part of this campaign.”
Notts Police will be sharing the videos featuring the players each week across the month on their social media pages.
