I got racist abuse at Liverpool when I played for Watford. Then I played for Liverpool and didn't get it. If I had played for Everton against Liverpool then maybe the Liverpool fans would have racially abused me.
John Barnes
We all have preconceptions of people based on what we have been told about them and their race and ethnicity.
Yes, you have people shouting racist abuse and throwing bananas on the field, and there are issues regarding the number of black coaches and managers in the game, but which other industry allows a young black boy the exact same opportunity as a young white boy?
Mass migration and the refugee crisis is one of the biggest problems facing the world. In this country we assume that everyone just wants to come to the U.K. - but it's an issue in Germany, Greece, Sweden, all across the E.U. Why should we be the first to turn our backs on the problem?
We are the first on the frontline to go into countries to liberate people in the name of freedom - that's what we've claimed. And now, all of a sudden, they need our help and we turn them away. Yet the rest of Europe stands ready to help. Why are we the first to jump ship?
Until we get rid of racial bias, sexism, homophobia in society, it will exist in all walks of society.
Policing language and even legislating against certain behaviours will only go so far to address the pervasive problem of racial bias. To get at the root cause we must have open, honest and sometimes painful conversations.
My dad came from Trinidad to Jamaica when he was 19. He had to go to Jamaica to join the British regiment, where it was based. After Sandhurst, he returned to the Caribbean as a junior lieutenant, based in Jamaica. He met my mum and became a Jamaican citizen.
My mother made me believe in reincarnation, in karma. If I live a good life, I believe I will be reincarnated as a higher being. If I live a bad life, I believe I will be reincarnated as a lower being.
The racism I am really interested in stamping out is in everyday life. Joe Bloggs, who nobody knows, walks down the street and gets racially abused. He goes into a shop and people think he is going to steal something. He cannot get a job.
For most footballers, they just have to give their all for 90 minutes two times a week, and apart from a few training sessions spend the rest of the time resting. They only train intensively for six weeks before the new season.
I'm quite laid-back but some people say I'm unemotional. I don't get carried away with success and similarly I don't get depressed when something bad happens. I didn't take it personally when rival fans threw banana skins at me when I was playing for Liverpool. I can't control 50,000 idiots shouting at me, so why would it bother me?
When you talk about kicking racism out of football, people automatically assume you are talking about on the terraces and on the football field. But all racists have to do is keep their mouth shut for 90 minutes and they're fine.
People have been taught not just to have a negative perception of black people, but to have a belief in the superiority of white people. Their behaviour is the result of centuries of indoctrination.
I grew up in a middle-class family in Jamaica, I had no self-worth issues whatsoever.
I'm quite unfit. It's the motivation that's the problem, I need a goal. When I was a professional footballer I trained every day because I had to.
The fight against racial bias in society will not be won by hounding Liam Neeson or boycotting his films. It will be won by allowing honest discussions about why people hold biased views and exposing the flawed logic behind them.
The teams which embrace the socialist ideology rather than having superstars, are the teams that are successful. Or if there are superstars they don't perceive themselves to be that. That's why I use Messi as an example. As much as he's a superstar he respects his team-mates and their collective efforts.
I used to go to the school plays my kids were in, and who were the angels at Christmas time? The blonde, blue-eyed girls. Who was Mary? And the shepherds were all the black and Indian kids in the background.
Talking about what any one section of our society has to do to combat racism just stops people outside that group asking difficult questions of themselves. We keep looking at symptoms and not treating the cause.
I remember when I was 13 or 14 friends coming over and my father telling them the benefits of joining the army. But he knew that army life wasn't for me. I was a little bit too laid back and lackadaisical and ill-disciplined.
Before we are footballers or fans, we are ordinary members of society. We are doctors, lawyers, milkmen, postmen, unemployed people, students... So why are they called racist football fans? Are they just racist for the 90 minutes of a match, when the other six days a week they're not?
We have to deconstruct the idea of racial superiority. We have had it for hundreds of years so it is not going to happen overnight but we have to tackle it in the right way.
In the 1970s people were afraid to call me black because they thought it was an insult. They would say 'coloured.' Now it has gone full circle. It's not an issue. The intention is the most important thing.
Societies go backwards sometimes.
The simple fact is there are no laws you can pass to stop people racially abusing black footballers. So the solution is to come up with something that doesn't make people want to abuse black footballers in the first place.
Once you have players you like and a good enough squad there's no need to spend money.
There are so many intelligent former black players, guys like Luther Blissett and Cyrille Regis, who never got a chance to become a top manager or a top coach because of the perception that surrounds people who look like them. They are black - which, for many, means they are good athletes but incapable of being anything above and beyond that.
I'm a big believer in fate.
The truth is that those at the top of British football do not care about getting rid of racism, they just don't want to hear it or see it.
For a team like Brighton, just being in the Premier League is important. That is the name of the game.
Normally when you look at the Ballon d'Or winners, they're either attacking midfield players or centre-forwards. They are goalscorers and eye-catching players.
My dad was a proper old English gentleman, even though he was from the Caribbean. He used to stand up and salute during the Queen's Christmas speech.
History shows that black people have been second-class citizens, less than human. That's what had to happen with slavery. You had to dehumanise a person, to say, 'He is not like us. He is used to hard work in the sun. He can handle being whipped because he doesn't feel any pain. He doesn't need to be educated.'
Football can do nothing about getting rid of racism. Society can.
If you are forced to give someone an opportunity when you don't want to, that's going to turn you even more against it.
You have to give 100 per cent in every game and you cannot give more than 100 per cent.
I've never bought a pint of milk in my life.
When you score a goal by dribbling you don't remember it because it is instinctive.
I was a real fast food junkie - KFC, McDonald's - but all the training kept it off.
If you are black then you have to be better than your white counterpart to be equal. That's life.
In the 1970s you would have had lots of black goalkeepers and defensive midfield players but never made it professionally because the perception was, 'You don't think too much, you can't play in positions of responsibility so you play on the wing or up front.' Lots were lost to the game because of the perception.
I give balanced, constructive views and what happens is that bits and pieces of what I say are used against me.
I think Hazard influences the team so much that anywhere he goes you have to give him the ball.
I come from a very political and military family.
Race, for me, should be social and cultural, rather than the colour of your skin. Anton Ferdinand would have more in common with John Terry than he does with some West African from Nigeria. John Terry will have more in common with Anton Ferdinand than a Slav from Eastern Europe who happens to be white.
From the perspective of what happened with Celtic people might argue that I didn't have the experience for another big job but I don't think my experience with Celtic explains why I couldn't get a job in the fourth division.
For a long time, images of black men with big lips and a round head were used to make us feel inferior, but it doesn't need to be like that, we don't need to self'loathe. We can change the narrative.
My mother, Jeanne, was a TV and radio presenter in Jamaica. Bob Marley used to appear on her shows all the time and so she knew him quite well.
How many black people are there in the higher echelons of any industry? We can talk about journalism, we can talk about politics. So why should football be any different?
