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Carnegie Professor backs new Kick it Out football discrimination campaign
Kevin, who is Professor of Equality and Diversity in Sport, Leisure and Education at our University, will join a panel including ex-professional footballer and ex-Chairman of the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), Clarke Carlisle, and Director of Kick it Out, Roisin Wood. The event will be hosted by Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rt. Hon John McDonnell.
Kevin will be speaking about discrimination and symbolic violence in cyberspace.
He said: “I am pleased to be invited to share the stage with Kick it Out on their new Klick it Out venture. My work on people’s dispositions to ‘race’ and racism online has implications for all forms of discrimination and symbolic violence on the internet. Anti-oppression strategies need to take into account online as well as offline approaches and this is a significant step for us to take in sport.”
Kick It Out is football’s equality and inclusion organisation. Since 2014, the organisation has spoken out about the increase in discriminatory abuse around football posted on social media platforms.
Research by social intelligence and analytics company, Brandwatch, recently revealed that 134,000 incidents of social media discrimination were directed at Premier League clubs and players between August 2014 and March 2015.
The new campaign, which ties in with the forthcoming 2016 UEFA European Championships, aims to raise awareness of social media discrimination relating to football, illustrate alternative methods to tackle abuse and highlight positive messages around equality and diversity.