Anichebe talks to Anthony Walker Foundation about racism

Victor is no Everton legend but what he says speaks to what it can be like when you are not felt to be ‘one of us'.

Although from a ‘posh' part of Liverpool, as he puts it and viewing himself as having a relatively privileged life as a kid, he recalls the familiar everyday drip drip drip of racist remarks, the tired refrain of ‘go back home'.

This was meant in the sense of both back to Nigeria and when at some of his friends houses their parents would ask why they had brought ‘a black boy' into their home. There is an almost funny, except that its true, instance of the police being called because he and his friend had simply looked into a jewellers window. Not to mention the inevitable being pulled over because he is a black guy in a nice car.

He looks back on incidents of racism directed toward him over the years that he had ignored as a way of dealing with them. The Black Lives Matter movement helped him realise that the everyday use of stereotyping and offensive language, funny looks in the street and all, had a bigger impact on than him realised.

Having to deal with the contradictions of having good white friends who made casually racist remarks around him and experienced that white people find it difficult to be called out on racism, he looks to ways of making progress from where we are. He looks to ‘if you know your history' through education as a way of helping people understand black and ethnic minority experience racism and does so with a real humility.

It would be interesting to hear the experience of Everton's other black players growing up in the city. I'll also be watching the documentary on Anthony Walker. Well played Victor.

Well, firstly I wouldn't call being told to "go back home" exactly 'subtle racsim', and some enquiries as to his future plans may have been made in all innocence, given that he was born in Nigeria to Nigerian parents.

I recall Stubbsy and a teenage Rooney being subject to similar prejudice in a London estate agents, so it still bothers me that racism is the go-to explanation for anything that happens to anyone from a minority background.

Now class prejudice, that I can relate to.

Well played Vic. When will people realise no race is superior to others? Especially the use of the term 'wool' by Everton fans, its almost as if they are more privileged being a scouser than any other race.

Peter # 2
I'm not sure that those inquiries for his future plans would have been 'innocent' and why do you find it so hard to believe that racism exists in everyday life and therefore it isn't necessarily a go-to explanation, unfortunately, it's a fact of life.

I agree that the working class suffers from similar prejudices but there are ways to escape those prejudices, altering your skin colour is not an option. Educating the children of today may produce a fairer and more tolerant society tomorrow. We have to hope that happens as the ignorance surrounding race is divisive and gives more power to those elites who seek to exploit those powerless below them, who are made up of all races and creeds.