News in 2006

28th October 2006

Anti-racism team

An anti-racism campaigner has paid tribute to MK Dons for their work with youngsters in the city.

Players and officials teamed up with schoolchildren in Milton Keynes this week to tackle issues concerning prejudice on and off the pitch. After a DVD presentation, Dons manager Martin Allen and some of his top stars fielded questions from their young audience to do with racism in the modern game and in modern society.

Kim Burns from Show Racism The Red Card reckons having high-profile players on hand at the National Hockey Stadium makes all the difference and has been mightily impressed with the club’s commitment to the cause.

She said: "MK Dons are one of our biggest contributors, what they have put in the goody bags for the kids today was brilliant and we’ve never had a club do that for us before.

"It just shows how much of a community club they are, they take our material around to schools in the area and are just a great club to work with.

"It’s important that young people hear this message coming from people they respect, their role models and people they will listen to.

"The message is not particularly related to football, it’s that racism or any other form of discrimination in society is totally unacceptable. The whole role model thing is absolutely vital in this because that is who they listen to." Show Racism The Red Card have targeted young people so they can tackle the problem at grass roots level and ensure that the innocence of youth remains as children grow older.

Kim added: "Children are not born racist, it comes from society, they hear it in the playground, they hear it in the media.

"When young people mix together it doesn’t occur to them that they have different skin colours or they don’t worship in the same way. It’s important to keep them that way and we give them strategies to combat racism."

Source: MK News