‘It may take 100 years to dismantle racism but we'll get there’

Former Newcastle goalkeeper Shaka Hislop opens up on the abuse he has received and using his platform for good

- Louise Taylor

It was a chance encounter that would ultimately help change countless lives for the better but, at the time, all Shaka Hislop wanted to do was escape. As the Newcastle goalkeeper stood on a petrol station forecourt, filling his car on a dark November night in 1995 his overriding emotions were outrage and fear. Hislop was heading home after an evening out with his wife and young daughter when, with the fuel gauge edging towards the red zone, he pulled into a garage just across the road from St James’ Park.

“A group of youths were walking down the hill towards me and started shouting abuse,” he says. “Then one recognised me and they began chanting my name and asking for autographs. I drove away as quickly as I could.

“It was an incident that set me back. I was anxious to protect my wife and daughter and, as a black man, I’d been disrespected. But then it hit me: I'd been taught about the power of individuals - and the platform footballers have.”

That realisation explains why, two months later, Hislop and his teammate John Beresford, key components of Kevin Keegan’s Premier League-topping team, headed into Newcastle’s northern suburbs to discuss racism with pupils at Gosforth High School. It was the first event organised by Show Racism the Red Card, the leading educational charity founded by Hislop’s friend Ged Grebby.

This month SRTRC celebrates its 30th birthday. It runs anti-racism workshops in schools, colleges, workplaces and football stadiums across the UK but owes its origins to a conversation between Grebby, the chief executive, and Hislop after that petrol station epiphany.