addition to the racist abuse they received from the terraces, they would be routinely abused by their fellow professionals. A mistimed tackle, a fifty-fifty challenge, indeed any minor altercation would be the trigger for racist abuse. Sometimes it took far less than that. Opposition players would regularly abuse them for no apparent reason. However, it would be churlish to suggest they were passive recipients. They would talk back: a racist remark about the size of black men’s sexual organs (racists appear seemingly obsessed with sex) would be countered with an invitation to allow the player’s wife or girlfriend to spend a night with them or some other unspecified black man. However, this was no tit-for-tat exchange of petty insults: it was a conscious attempt to turn the racists’ arguments on their head by playing up the racial stereotypes to invoke some deep, dark sexual fear on the part of their antagonists. This kind of retort would often invoke fury from the abuser, ragingabout the unfairness of the remark and how some line at the summit of some moral high ground had been crossed. But sometimes the insults were so hateful there was no possible response.
Their sense of isolation was palpable. There was little chance of any recourse from teammates or the media, the FA or the police. Brendon Batson, speaking to Paul Rees for his book The Three Degrees , said:
From when I came to England, I was familiar with people shouting at me from cars or on the Underground in London. With the other players in the side, it was none of their business. It didn’t concern them and they weren’t sensitive to it. I also remember speaking to the BBC and confronting them about when they were going to say something about it. They told me it wasn’t possible to make out what was being shouted. What a load of bollocks that was. All of the excuses I got were a joke.
However, they drew strength from each other, three black men joining together to share experiences. They bonded on a number of levels. Three black Londoners, living and working in the Midlands, facing abuse every time they went out to work. They would exchange stories and observations about particularly abusive crowds, about comments from and altercations with particular players, and they would discuss the attitudes of teammates and opponents alike. They would bond in hotel rooms and at social occasions, drawing mutual support from each other, comfortable that they were all walking in the same shoes.
If they didn’t know they were role models, the black community in Handsworth soon showed them. They werefamiliar visitors to the area and, indeed, were local celebrities. In fact, Regis had lived there briefly upon his arrival in the West Midlands. Albion’s Hawthorns ground borders Handsworth and, as a result, Albion began to attract a significant following of black supporters.
Empire Road was a BBC soap opera that ran for two series in 1978 and 1979. It was notable for being the first British television series to be written, directed and acted predominantly by black artists. It depicted the life of black and Asian individuals and families in a racially diverse street, set in Handsworth. Cyrille Regis had appeared in an episode that featured two young black characters who were attempting to meet their hero and had unsuccessfully tried to get into a game at The Hawthorns. Regis’s acting wasn’t going to win him any awards, but the episode illustrated the esteem that he and the other two members of the trio were held in. The impact the trio had on the black community in Handsworth and on other black communities across the country cannot be underestimated. The discrimination and prejudice they suffered echoed the experiences of members of those communities. The fact that they faced horrendous abuse, suffered it with dignity and then performed brilliantly won them the admiration and respect of black people way beyond Handsworth and the West Midlands. They became role
Their sense of isolation was palpable. There was little chance of any recourse from teammates or the media, the FA or the police. Brendon Batson, speaking to Paul Rees for his book The Three Degrees , said:
From when I came to England, I was familiar with people shouting at me from cars or on the Underground in London. With the other players in the side, it was none of their business. It didn’t concern them and they weren’t sensitive to it. I also remember speaking to the BBC and confronting them about when they were going to say something about it. They told me it wasn’t possible to make out what was being shouted. What a load of bollocks that was. All of the excuses I got were a joke.
However, they drew strength from each other, three black men joining together to share experiences. They bonded on a number of levels. Three black Londoners, living and working in the Midlands, facing abuse every time they went out to work. They would exchange stories and observations about particularly abusive crowds, about comments from and altercations with particular players, and they would discuss the attitudes of teammates and opponents alike. They would bond in hotel rooms and at social occasions, drawing mutual support from each other, comfortable that they were all walking in the same shoes.
If they didn’t know they were role models, the black community in Handsworth soon showed them. They werefamiliar visitors to the area and, indeed, were local celebrities. In fact, Regis had lived there briefly upon his arrival in the West Midlands. Albion’s Hawthorns ground borders Handsworth and, as a result, Albion began to attract a significant following of black supporters.
Empire Road was a BBC soap opera that ran for two series in 1978 and 1979. It was notable for being the first British television series to be written, directed and acted predominantly by black artists. It depicted the life of black and Asian individuals and families in a racially diverse street, set in Handsworth. Cyrille Regis had appeared in an episode that featured two young black characters who were attempting to meet their hero and had unsuccessfully tried to get into a game at The Hawthorns. Regis’s acting wasn’t going to win him any awards, but the episode illustrated the esteem that he and the other two members of the trio were held in. The impact the trio had on the black community in Handsworth and on other black communities across the country cannot be underestimated. The discrimination and prejudice they suffered echoed the experiences of members of those communities. The fact that they faced horrendous abuse, suffered it with dignity and then performed brilliantly won them the admiration and respect of black people way beyond Handsworth and the West Midlands. They became role
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