“Soh what if they called us monkeys?” said one participant last month during a Monday evening meeting with players from the New York Red Bulls’ male youth academy teams. “Fuck it. We keep playing ball.” A team meeting with teenage footballers is not normally something to make news, but this particular event, held in an event space with over 200 people at the Red Bull Arena with every player from the club’s under 12 to under 17 teams, was a little bit different.
Also in attendance were former Major League Soccer stars Bradley Wright-Phillips, Earl Edwards Jr, Jalil Anibaba, Ray Gaddis and Calen Carr, as well as former USMNT legends Eddie Pope and Jozy Altidore. It was striking that all former players were black. Former soccer players love to talk, especially about the past, but the main topic that night in late May wasn’t about winning MLS titles, nor about being the first American to score in La Liga.
Instead, the conversation turned to racism and how the kids might deal with it in the wake of multiple incidents involving the New York Red Bulls’ youth academy teams. In April the club withdrew his teams of the Generation Adidas Cupa prestigious youth tournament held in Florida that featured teams from 29 MLS youth academies, as well as international participation from the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal and Flamengo.
Red Bulls then withdrew its teams youth players were racially abused in matches against Hajduk Split and Monterrey. “Why are players of color like me still called monkeys by international teams?” one player posted on his social media account at the time. “The same thing happened to my teammate today. Please do something.”
Pope, the former USMNT defender, described the event in May as “putting a flag in the ground.”
“It shows that this will not be tolerated,” Pope told the Guardian, “[Racism] doesn’t just happen and disappear until next time. This event says that if it happens, we’re going to address it, we’re going to talk about it, we’re going to bring in some men of color who have been involved in the game for a while, and we’re going to talk about how we can support each other in that.
“If you don’t do that, it will only repeat itself. That’s what’s happening in Europe and it’s happening again and again. You have world-class players crying at press conferences, grown men, because they are so hurt by racism.”
The meeting will not eradicate racism, but attendees described the event as a success with strong messages from veteran black players to youth players and their families.
“The message I wanted to get across is that you have to be proud of your upbringing,” Altidore, whose rollercoaster career has taken him from MLS to Spain, England, Turkey and the Netherlands and back to MLS, told the Guardian.[Your upbringing] is what makes you special and gives you the tools to be confident later in life and secure a world that can sometimes be complicated and difficult to understand. Be proud of your heritage, your accents and where you come from.”
“These incidents [for the youth teams in April] were unfortunately not surprising,” Altidore adds. “Our country is still in a very tense situation. For better or worse, people have lost their grip on compassion and empathy.”
Hosted at the Red Bull Arena and attended by New York Red Bull’s front office and academy staff, the club declined to comment on the event. A spokesperson said the organization does not publicly discuss internal matters. It is understood the event was the brainchild of New York Red Bulls academy scout Tiger Fitzpatrick, who has since received formal internal recognition from the club for the way he handled the aftermath of the April incidents – and the director of Black Players for Change. director Allen Hopkins.
“I wanted to make sure the players were supported, that they were heard, that they were appreciated and that a whole group of people who look like them have done it at the highest level,” Hopkins said. “Part of the message was about taking back your power. I wanted to make sure the community would respond. It was an incredibly moving evening.”
Pope, now sporting director of MLSNext club Carolina Coresaid he was not surprised to hear about the April incidents, but was “disappointed” that youth teams were continuing what has been seen in professional leagues.
“A real root of racism is that there are nations or countries that are homogeneous and that don’t come into contact with other types of individuals,” Pope says. “There is a saying that discrimination rarely outweighs experience, so if something like this happens to you, don’t do it to other people. But if racism never happens to you and you really don’t understand other groups of people, then it’s quite easy to do.
“Some fans say yes [make racist comments] just to put themselves in the shoes of a player, but they don’t understand how painful that can be for someone else. Those in power have had a problem over how to combat racism [appropriately] and I don’t know if that has any effect. That doesn’t seem to be the case. It’s always back to the drawing board.”
In 2017, Hajduk Split, from Croatia, had closed its stadium to fans for one match and was fined by UEFA following allegations of racist chanting during matches. Pope links the authorities’ inability to adequately address issues at the highest levels to the allegations in Florida at the youth level.
“Is it any surprise that the youth team is doing it?” said Pope. “Especially when the youth team sees what the punishment is?”
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Pope said that while he didn’t remember many racist issues as a professional player in the United States, his experience as a youth player on and off the field was different.
“Especially as a younger player and growing up in the South and having a lot of different names,” Pope recalled. “For me, life outside of football was pretty much the same. In some cases it doesn’t happen as often for these kids as it did for me at my age outside of play. It was easy for me to use [racism] as fuel for my fire and to play harder and score some goals. It was just a different time. Now we know, and we’ve learned, that you’re not supposed to ask kids to play that kind of thing. Racism must be addressed immediately. When I was younger, no one did anything about it. It was just something you had to deal with.”
Pope said he was impressed by the way the Red Bulls academy players supported each other and recognized the collective experience, regardless of which were racing teammates.
“One of the unconscious biases that we have is that the kids of color are the only ones dealing with anything, right?” Pope said. “We also know that sometimes with white kids, when they show up, the feeling is: everything is always fine for them. And that is not the case. Things don’t always go well and they also need support. This is about kids coming together and it seems like these teams are all looking out for each other as a whole and it’s not just the job of one group of people to support another. I think [Red Bulls] group has that and it’s really important.
“Normally you don’t see blatant expressions of racism within a team, because all the players know each other. You spend so much time together that you get to know someone and understand the cultural differences. You understand why they do the things they do, eat the food they do, say the things they do, why the parents dress the way they do. Whatever it is, you learn it. Once you learn it, everyone understands it.”
Hopkins believes the May event was an important milestone for the black football community. What happens next is also important, he says, but a win on the night should be recognized and celebrated.
“The night was like a 4-0 road win.” says Hopkins. “The first fifteen minutes after such a result you think you can do anything. You must take advantage of these moments and these lessons and apply them. I am curious about the follow-up to this meeting, but I can safely say that this was a success, because the last word is our word. If it happens again, the players will be ready.”
It’s notable that Hopkins said when racist incidents do not happen on a football field again as.
“Some of these kids are going to experience real things and it will happen again,” Hopkins confirms. “But don’t let someone else’s racism keep you from voting, getting a job, buying a house or playing football.”