TROY DEENEY had hoped the very public stand taken by professional footballers against racism might have ended the torrent of abuse faced by black players.
Yet racist bile continues to scar the game he loves — and wider society.
Sun columnist Troy, 33, is still subjected to vile abuse “30 to 40 times a week”, he has revealed.
Some comes at him in the street as Troy goes about his business, but the majority is on social media.
The Watford FC hero, now with Birmingham City, says he ran into a brick wall after reporting the abuse to online giants.
Now Troy, a dad of four, is campaigning to get black, Asian and minority ethnic history taught in schools.
He has launched a petition and issued an open letter to Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi stressing “the importance of education at an early age to inform identity and combat racist beliefs and stereotypes”.
He writes: “As my mum always says to me, ‘You can’t understand where you’re going if you don’t understand where you’ve come from’. This is an issue I don’t want repeated for my own children.
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“We need to lay a pathway for longer-lasting change for our kids, as I believe the current system is failing children from ethnic minorities.”
Troy draws experience from his own upbringing in making the case.
At the tough Birmingham comprehensive Troy attended, the Archbishop Grimshaw school in Chelmsley Wood, lessons in black history amounted to watching a US-made slavery mini-series.
Troy said in a Zoom interview: “They wheeled in the VCR and said, ‘Here you go, watch Roots’. That was about it.”
There were no lessons about ethnic minority authors or the British Empire and little to “empower” a boy from his background.
Troy was left feeling that he was destined to failure. He was expelled from school, leaving at the age of 15 without sitting exams.
He revealed: “I kept getting in trouble — too many little detentions and getting thrown out of classes for being stupid.
“I think I held the record for the amount of detentions you could get in one year. I wasn’t allowed to sit my exams but I was allowed to play in school football matches.”
Now the bustling attacker is trying to prevent another generation of youngsters suffering the same fate of being excluded from school and missing out on the chance to learn.
He added: “I wasn’t taught about people who looked like me. If we did talk about race and slavery, it was as an American issue.
“There was no one I heard about in lessons who made me think I could be successful.”
Troy’s talent for football would take him from what was then Europe’s biggest council estate to shaking hands with Prince William before the 2019 FA Cup Final.
But it is as a campaigner for equality that he now wants to make his mark.
Troy believes players taking the knee has helped “create the conversation” around racism but believes there hasn’t been “enough change” to show for it.
Footballers here began taking a knee before kick-off in the wake of George Floyd’s death in the US. The 46-year-old black man was killed in May 2020 by white police officer Derek Chauvin in an event that sparked protests around the world.
For now, teaching ethnic minority history and experiences is optional in England, with the choice being made by individual teachers and schools.
Black history will be added to the curriculum in Welsh schools from September this year.
As part of his campaign, Troy commissioned a YouGov survey in which 80 per cent of teachers polled agreed that “introducing more culturally diverse, representational topics are vital and enriching”.
‘SYSTEM FAILING ETHNIC MINORITIES’
He said: “Despite the Government’s assertions that diverse topics are already in place on the curriculum and sufficient teacher training is provided, this is clearly not the case and the support and desire to do more is there.”
He added: “The current system in England is failing ethnic minorities. It’s not about removing Sir Winston Churchill from the curriculum or forgetting World War Two happened. It’s about adding more diverse topics to kids’ lessons.”
Troy wrote in his letter to the Education Secretary: “As the proud father of four children, three of which are currently in the education system, this topic has moved front and centre in my own life.
“I have seen more and more how important it is for my children to be able to see themselves represented in what they are being taught and to learn about the contribution and background of people who look like them.”
The footballer said he would be more than happy to meet Mr Zahawi to discuss the campaign, adding: “He can give me a call now and I’ll start driving down.”
And what of the “stick to football” brickbats Troy is sure to receive from online trolls?
He said: “I get abuse daily anyway, it comes with the territory.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
