There is only so much black people can do to tackle racism, and there is a need for white people to get more involved, says Ian Wright. The former Gunners striker had a lot of good words for the footballers Marcus Rashford and Raheem Sterling, but also for people like Steven Gerrard and Ben Mee. Manchester United and Manchester City forwards received ’Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire’ (MBE) for services to children and equality respectively. MBE is the third highest ranking Order of the British Empire award (excluding a knighthood/damehood), and famous footballers who received the reward most recently were Steven Gerrard and Harry Kane. A racist remark sends a football fan to jailAs part of Black History Month, Wright has produced a short film with son and former Manchester City winger Shaun Wright-Phillips, 39, and grandson D’Margio, 20, who plays for Stoke City, celebrating three generations of footballing excellence, but also talked about racism. “It’s people like Marcus Rashford, he changed the course of how people write about black players, and Raheem Sterling – that’s power. They’re not only magnificent footballers, they’ve got social conscience and they’ve got massive platforms where when they say something, people listen, and that’s what happens nowadays. And what you see is everybody comes together when this happens now and this is how things change. Things are moving, not as quickly as they should be, but they are moving. Things only change when white people get involved. If it was down to black people, we would still be constantly being racially abused. We can’t change it alone” he told the Press Association. (1.15) ENGLAND (9.00) HUNGARY (22.0)A former Gunner, now a TV pundit, mentioned some white people who he thinks are helping the cause, and named Rangers manager Steven Gerrard and Burnley captain Ben Mee as one of those people. „We still need black people to get into certain offices high up to make change – and that’s still not happening because if it was we wouldn’t be going through certain things that we’re going through now. But at the same time, people like Steven Gerrard and Ben Mee and white allies who speak up and speak up passionately about the wrongs of racism and inequality is how things change, how things move.That’s how people change what they feel, that’s how you make them think, their conscience” explained Wright.
