Former Stoke City striker Dave Kitson has caused outage with comments made on TalkSPORT in relation to the alleged racial abuse endured by Raheem Sterling.
Sterling was allegedly called a 'black c**t' by a Chelsea fan during last Saturday's Premier League game, although the fan in question claims that he called him a 'Manc c**t'. Sterling is understood to have told police that he heard racist language, and Chelsea have banned four fans from Stamford Bridge pending an investigation.
Sterling responded to the incident with an Instagram post on Sunday morning, in which he pointed out the different treatment young black footballers endured in the media. As a result of both the incident and Sterling's response, the incident has dominated football's news cycle in the last couple of days.
Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville both spoke about the issue at the top of Monday Night Football last night, to widespread acclaim.
More controversial were Dave Kitson's comments on TalkSPORT on Sunday. While condemning racism, Kitson said that Sterling made himself a "target" with some of his activity on social media.
You cannot condone this racism in any way shape or form, I think it’s disgusting. I do believe that players make themselves a target. Why Raheem Sterling? There are other black players on the pitch, every single week. I just think that we have a duty of care to ourselves as footballers, to be a little bit careful with social media, and the way we portray ourselves.
Jealousy is an awful thing amongst the human race. I trawled through Raheem Sterling’s Instagram feed this morning to find that a lot of what he put on in his early days has now been deleted.
And it was, ‘look at my cars, look at my house, look at this bathroom, look at this, look at that, look at me.’ And that’s going to antagonise people. Now that is no excuse whatsoever for racially abusing somebody.
But you sow a seed amongst people who are not racist, not to like that particular person, because they don’t want to see that in their faces every day.
Now when you go onto Raheem Sterling’s Instagram it’s 'here’s a goal I scored last week, here’s me in a kids hospital.
So someone’s got hold of him and said, ‘look, you can’t do that any more.'
But that seed has already been planted in people's heads.
Leroy Rosenior phoned in to challenge Kitson, saying Sterling's activity on social media is irrelevant to his suffering racist abuse. Elsewhere, former England rugby player and BT Sport analyst Ugo Monye tweeted that Kitson was talking "bollocks".
“He’s made himself a target...” Sterling’s Instagram didn’t make that ‘fan’ say those things. That guy could’ve said anything, absolutely anything. It was his decision to say what he said. The same way it was yours to speak utter b@ll*cks on the radio 🤬 https://t.co/YyEU0sW7Q3
— Ugo Monye (@ugomonye) December 11, 2018
Bournemouth defender Tyrone Mings, meanwhile, cancelled a planned appearance on the station over Kitson's comments.
"I’m meant to be doing an interview with Talksport tomorrow which won’t be happening", tweeted Mings.
I’m fed up of broadcasting channels who have a huge voice allowing this sort of shit to be said.
Like someone or dislike them, there is no ‘but’ or grey area when it comes to racism.
He expanded on his views in response to fans on Twitter.
Sometimes silence is just as powerful as trying to force someone to listen to you. If we all don’t do interviews with ‘them’ they will soon start to have a level of appreciation for what we bring to their sport.
I will absolutely voice my opinion and play my part for those who do not have as much of a reach. It has to be in the right way and on the right platforms though. Silence is deadly for stations and outlets who rely on viewers and listeners.
See Also: 'If You Throw A Banana At A Black Person, You Know What's Going To Happen'
See Also: Gary Neville: Raheem Sterling Came To Me Over Media Treatment
