James O'Brien: If Stormzy can't get his message across on racism what chance do you have?
23 December 2019, 10:29
James O'Brien said looking at the Stormzy and Gary Neville stories from over the weekend, he could not work out what about them was so disingenuous, but maybe it was "people pretending, either pretending that they believe racism doesn't exist, or pretending that they believe that Stormzy and Gary Neville are wrong."
James asked, "if Stormzy and Gary Neville struggle with their platforms, to get their descriptions and explanations of racism across to the wider public, what chance has anybody else got?"
Over the weekend Stormzy accused the media of "intentionally spinning (his) words" after he said he believed the UK was still a racist country.
The grime rapper, 26, responded to a number of news reports in a tweet on Sunday morning, using lewd language.
He told the media outlets "please don't try beg it in the future", meaning that from now on they should not ask him for any favours.
Stormzy, who released his second album Heavy Is The Head earlier this month, made the comments in question during an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
Asked whether the UK was still a racist country, he said: "Definitely, 100%. It's like: 'Oh no, we're not racist'. But there's a lot of racism in the country.
Meanwhile, Former England defender Gary Neville feels players should be empowered to walk off the pitch in protest at racist abuse.
Chelsea's 2-nil Premier League win away to Tottenham was temporarily stopped, after their defender Antonio Rudiger reported he'd been the target of racism.
Mr Neville told Sky Sports News, only strong action from the authorities will make it stop.
Watch James pose the question in the video at the top of the page.
