What is Wear Red Day?
Wear Red Day is an annual event by Show Racism the Red Card to raise awareness of the importance of an anti-racist society.
The charity works to provide free and accessible teaching resources to educators across the UK. Their primary goal is to foster a positive attitude towards eliminating racism in society. They believe changing one mind will affect hundreds, if not thousands, of others. The charity offers workshops, training sessions, multimedia packages and other resources to help stamp out racism in society. Show Racism the Red Card recognises the importance of applying these lessons in educational settings to set an anti-racist precedent within the minds of young people and to foster a more inclusive culture for all.
The history of ‘Show Racism the Red Card’ and ‘Wear Red Day’
Show Racism the Red Card is a long-running anti-racism charity established in January 1996. When Newcastle United goalkeeper Shaka Hislop was filling his car with petrol, a group of young people shouted racist abuse in his direction. As they approached, they realised who was on the other side of their abuse, and they turned to admiration, instead asking for an autograph. Following this experience, Shaka realised that educating young people using football as the backdrop would help to challenge racism within the UK.
Wear Red Day was first launched in 2014 when 7,000 people registered to take part to show their support. Last year, that number reached 615,000 participants, including organisations such as the NHS and higher education institutions such as the University of Reading. This year, they aim to gain one million supporters across the UK. Loughborough University can be a big part of that by encouraging students and staff to wear red and be a part of a more positive change in our university’s culture.
Why should Loughborough be a part of Wear Red Day?
Wear Red Day is a great fit within the EDI Core Plan’s values of courage, empathy, collaboration, and responsibility. First, it encourages being bold in our values of anti-discrimination, and to share them outwardly to build upon a culture of inclusion. It also opens the door for us to speak more openly about experiences of racism within the higher education sector and work collaboratively to stamp out inappropriate and offensive behaviour. Wear Red Day offers the chance for staff and students alike to come together and learn more about each other to build a more welcoming and approachable community for all. Wear Red Day encourages us to stand up for what is right within ourselves and our peers as we strive towards thinking more carefully about our own and other’s identities.
Loughborough University has already established itself as a research leader in the field of exploring racism and its consequences within society. Dr Özge Onay recently submitted her book In the Shadow of Islamophobia: Identity and Belonging for British Turks for publishing earlier this year. Dr Iris Wigger also published an article* exploring how racism can be addressed and challenged within the field of higher education.
You can wear red clothing on Friday 18 October during Black History Month to proudly show your support towards stamping out racism in Loughborough University and beyond.
There will be a stall set up in the Piazza in the LSU which you can visit from 12pm-2pm for more information. If you want to learn more about being anti-racist, there is an accessible Tackling Racism module available for all to access on Learn.
*Wigger, I. (2024). Navigating “race” and challenging racisms in the Academy: the career geographies of a German UK sociologist. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2023.2300794