Imagine walking to your place of work and worrying about your personal safety. Imagine sitting in your place of work feeling uncomfortable, different, the target for “banter”, called out for what you say, what you wear, what you do.
Sports journalists Ryan Conway (covers Derby County), Carl Anka (Southampton), Roshane Thomas (West Ham) and Dan Barnes (office editor) all work for The Athletic and all are black.
Last week they got together for a very different, a very powerful podcast which asks searching questions of the sports journalism industry in these times of Black Lives Matter.
“I am sick to the back teeth of social media posts telling me it’s a powerful image.”@RJConway92, @RoshaneSport, @Ankaman616 and @misterdanbarnes discuss the patronising messaging in football around #BlackLivesMatter.
️ & pic.twitter.com/jKIRiiaddX
— The Athletic UK (@TheAthleticUK) July 6, 2020
All talk about the feeling of walking into a press box and being the only black face. One of them says: ‘I’ve called the office crying because I’ve felt so uncomfortable as a black man in press boxes.’
The issue of racism in sport is not a new one at The Athletic. They recently tackled the lack of black and minority fans at football games.
But this podcast takes it a step further, shining a spotlight on what sports journalists who are ‘different’ have to face on a daily basis simply because of the colour of their skin.