Danny Rose has admitted to feeling helpless at the various incidents of racial discrimination that he continues to experience in both football and his personal life.
The Black Lives Matters movement has shed a light on the racial inequalities in different societies around the world and the Premier League stars decided to show their support for the cause by taking a knee before every match.
However, Rose believes that footballing authorities need to do a lot more to stamp discrimination out of the game and opened up on experiencing racism on and off the pitch.
The left-back told the Second Captains podcast (as relayed by Football.London): “To me now it’s just laughable. My attitude towards it is that it’s happening again.
“I just have to get on with it because someone’s going to get another laughable fine and then it’s business as usual next week.
“It’s not just football. I got stopped by the police last week, which is a regular occurrence whenever I go back to Doncaster where I’m from.
“Each time it’s ‘Is this car stolen? Where did you get this car from? What are you doing here? Can you prove that you bought this car?’
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“You know, for me this has been happening since I was 18, since I was driving and each time it happens I just laugh, because I know what’s coming.
“It’s just how it is. Whenever I go on the train. One of the last times I got on the train, I got on with my bags and the attendant said ‘Do you know this is first class?’. I say ‘yeah, so what?’.
“They ask to see my ticket and I show the lady it and this is no word of a lie, two people, white people, walk on the train after me and she says nothing.
“I asked ‘Are you not going to ask for their tickets?’ and she just said ‘ah no, I don’t need to’.
“So people might think it happens but to me that’s racism. These are the things i have to put up with, being stopped all the time and being asked if I know this is first class and to show my ticket.
“This is everyday life for me but I feel embarrassed to even complain in a way, or bring it up, when you see the incident in America where a man, a black man, lost his life at the hands of people who were supposed to protect and serve.
“Whenever I do say things or complain, you do hear people say ‘well you’re on this money so just get on with it’. I just give up with hoping that things will change because that’s some people’s mentality towards racism.
“So yes it happens on a football pitch but that first happened to me and my good friend Fabian Delph when we were playing for Leeds and we were only 15.
“He had been called a black ‘b’ on the pitch and so yes since then that’s what we know. I’m used to it, that’s not saying it doesn’t still hurt, but how I then go on about my day after that is that it’s happened and I move on and who do we play next.”
The England international is also yet to be convinced that things are getting better with respect to racial equality.
When asked if he expected these kinds of incidents to be part of his daily life, he responded: “Yep, 100 per cent. Absolutely, particularly when I go home to Doncaster. I don’t like to drive so I get the train, but whenever I do drive, I kid you not I will get stopped at some point while I’m in Doncaster, pulled over and questioned.
“My friends have been there with me a lot of the time when it’s happened. The last time, last week, when I’d just been at my mum’s house, I had pulled up in a car park so the engine was off.
“The police pulled in and they brought a riot van, three police cars and they questioned me. They said they’d had a report that a car had not been driving correctly.
“So I’m like ‘ok, so why does that make it my car?’ I got my ID out and they breathalysed me. It’s just honestly one of those things to me now. What can I do?
“I don’t understand what I can do or who I can complain to. This happened first when I was 15 and it’s still happening now I’m 30. So 15 years of this on and off the field happening and there’s no change whatsoever.
“I just don’t want to repeat the same words I say and people saying ‘oh he’s always moaning’ and what not.
“Obviously you’ve asked me what my experiences are and those are my experiences and that won’t be the last experience.”
The defender also suggested that the jury is out on whether the Black Lives Matter movement will have the necessary positive effect.
The Spurs star insisted that a lot of progress needed to be made when it comes to the proportion of black people holding senior roles in football.
Rose said: “I just have to wait and see (whether BLM will have the desired effect). There is so, so, so much more than needs to be done. I have played at Sunderland, Tottenham, Newcastle, Bristol City, Peterborough, Watford and Leeds United and I don’t remember a black person working upstairs at these clubs,” he said.
“That’s one of the things that needs to change. There has to be a change and going away from that you just need to look at the amount of black managers that are in football.
“You look back at the greats when I was growing up , Andy Cole and Sol Campbell, obviously Sol Campbell is in management now but he has had to start at the bottom and his CV is as good as anybody’s. It is just things like that, with the number of the black coaches that are at the forefront on a Saturday, there aren’t many and that needs to change.
“There are so many things that need to change. I respect and understand it will not change overnight but I just hope people are aware of what I am saying and they don’t just think I am moaning. What I am saying is near enough fact. I just hope it will change in the future.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Whatever one’s view is of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement, it is completely unfair to expect that footballers should not complain, just because they get paid very well. The fact is that being discriminated against is a dehumanising experience, no matter how much money one earns. It is clear that Rose is quite frustrated at having the ‘millionaire’ tag thrown back at him every time he complains about experiencing racism.
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