Former SAFC skippers Gary Bennett and Kevin Ball have been visiting children at a school in Hendon as part of the Show Racism the Red Card campaign.
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00:00Okay then Gary, just how much have things progressed since your days when you
00:03arrived at Sunderland first of all?
00:05Progressed very very much really, I think if you come back to when I first
00:10come in 1984 in regards not just the team, you know I was the second black player to
00:16actually play for Sunderland AFC but the city itself, how far it's come, how diverse it is at the present moment.
00:25And is there still a lot of work to do do you think in terms of accepting
00:28multiculturalism and that sort of thing?
00:30There's always work to do, you know you've got to keep working on a daily basis.
00:36And obviously you're in schools today, just how important is it that we get this message across to children from a young age
00:41about integration and multiculturalism and you know accepting people for who they are?
00:45Yeah I think it's very important I think young people are our future and
00:49hopefully they'll be able to take the message on and education is key.
00:56Okay then Debra, obviously you've got former Sunderland captain Gary Bennett in here today with the Show, Race and the Red Card initiative.
01:02Just how important is that we get this message across to youngsters from a young age?
01:06I think we've got children at a very young age, we want to make sure that the influences on them are positive.
01:13The impact of social media and the things that they see outside of school are really significant these days.
01:19So for our school we want to have inclusive, warm, safe communities
01:24and Show, Race and the Red Card just matches with those values that we want to create in our trust.
01:29And obviously you know football's a big thing in Sunderland here.
01:33Of course.
01:34So again using football as a hook to get youngsters engaged, is that also important?
01:38It's just a fantastic hook to get our children involved in this project.
01:43I don't know if you know but Hendon Boys Club was actually based in our field just behind us where we're standing.
01:52We've got a blue plaque associated with our school.
01:55We're a school in Sunderland that can wear a Sunderland badge with pride.
01:59So to actually have real life footballers from 2024 and ex-captains in school,
02:05it just delivers a massive message about where we're from, where we're proud to be from and where we're going to in the future.