Players Views

Ian Wright

England

Not content with just being a football celebrity Ian Wright has branched out into TV. He has already presented many successful programmes. Here he tells us about his early days in football and the racism that he faced.

How did you deal with racism when you were a kid?
It depended. If it was somebody you couldn't fight because they were too old I suppose you had to take it. If it was people my age they wouldn't say that, unless it was a fighting kind of confrontation, but I found it was the older kids really.

What advice would you give to a young person hearing racism?
Just to find out yourself. If your parents are racists and they tell you certain things about different cultures, the best way to judge is to find out for yourself. If you don't know yourself then you'll never know and you'll only go on what other people are saying. If you just sit around with someone in the class and you'll notice that there's not much difference between anyone, it's just the colour of your skin and it's just on the outside. But, as I said everyone is more or less similar in one way or another.

Were you a football supporter then?
Yes I was - I used to go and they used to do the racist chants while I was standing there but they used to say 'oh you're all right its only a laugh you know' and I knew the people who were doing it.

Who were your favourite players?
Garth Crooks, Laurie Cunningham, Cyril Regis, Pele, Kevin Keegan, - Kevin Keegan was my biggest one out of all of them - obviously the rest because they were black. They were in the limelight and you'd say God they've made it. They were the ones that made me want to be a footballer.

Tell us about when you started out playing?
When I was at Crystal Palace, in the early days I experienced racism from the older senior pros. At the time it was quite disturbing, I didn't want to be there. I had a decent job then, it was in my early days and a phase where I wanted to give up, but I had good people round me who said Ôyou can't give up just because of that or they'll have won'.

What about when you played in the local leagues?
The local leagues are terrible because you're talking about older guys, big belly guys, slow guys and people like myself. You'd get these comments - black b*** and nigger - all that stuff when you were playing against them.

Have you experienced more racism since you've become famous?
I think with jealous people it's the easiest thing in the world to say a racist comment to a black player. I also get a lot of bad letters, I don't read them any more because they distress me. Those people are just sick, I haven't done anything to them so I just say to myself, they're just stupid, ignorant people.

I couldn't even imagine what it would be like in Cyril Regis and Laurie Cunningham's day because I wouldn't take it, but I suppose it was harder for them to speak out then - and that is why I'd now take any opportunity to speak that I can.

The problem of racism may have got better in football but what about in society generally?
People aren't tolerating it any more, and that will filter through. It's always going to be a problem in society though. You'll just find it'll get really isolated at some stage. My little boy Stacey, he's three, by the time he gets to older I think it'll get to be really old hat.

Have you had any experiences of Nazi groups?
Yes, I get a lot of letters, I don't want to mention the London clubs name , but they've got an organisation and they send letters to me regularly. There was a time last season where there was a chance of me going to that club and I had some terrible letters, I'm not saying it put me off but it did make me feel if I got to go to that club how would I feel about playing for them? For them it's easy to target the men who go to football matches, you get the youngsters as young as twelve and if you can get people like that at that young age...

Who are your heroes?
Malcolm X could have been a fantastic leader for us - a real inspirational man. He did wrong when he was younger, but he came through that and then he went into a real racial black movement. When he went to Mecca and came back he realised that everybody should be together. Then he would have been the man to lead not only black people but everybody, but he got shot. Martin Luther King was the same, I like Martin Luther King's preaching, it's quite inspirational, but I feel he was more pacifying. You can't just turn the other cheek, that's why when Malcolm X said 'by any means necessary' - if you do this to me I'm going to do this to you, I thought it was a better way.

You can't expect somebody, when they're being shot at to hit them back with a sponge or something. You have to do what you've got to do.

What football figures do you admire?
I admire Alan Shearer a lot - I think he's done really well - with some of the setbacks he's had in his career. I like Paul Ince and not just because he's my best mate!

Some people complain about the mix of nationalities in Premiership teams, what do you think about it?
You can't tell me that it's not good to have people like Bergkamp and Zola and Junihnio here, these are great players. We can learn from them, they're not stopping anybody, they're inspiring people to come through. The cream like that - they've got to be here. All these players are great, world -class players and they're not stunting anybody's growth in football.