Racism ignorance 'is an excuse' (From Asian Image)

Racism ignorance 'is an excuse'

11:09am Monday 13th February 2012 in Feeds

Ignorance is an “excuse” for racist terminology, former Liverpool footballer John Barnes said as he moved to defend Luis Suarez.

But he said education about the history of racism was the key to changing attitudes as he backed Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish’s initial claim that he did not see Suarez refusing to shake Manchester United player Patrice Evra’s hand before Saturday’s match at Old Trafford.

Barnes said he had not been invited to a summit at Downing Street to discuss the problem. He said he would “love” to attend and told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the footballing authorities and politicians need to “formulate an educational plan” to tackle the problem.

And he said that Suarez’s claim that he did not believe there was any harm in calling Patrice Evra a “negrita” was an excuse.

He said Real Madrid midfielder Claude Makelele was called the word by his colleagues while in France and had not taken offence.

But Barnes, who as a player had bananas thrown at him from the terraces, said he was “shocked” by Saturday’s fracas between Evra and Suarez at Old Trafford.

Suarez was “the only person who knew” why he did not shake Evra’s hand, he said, but Liverpool would never have put the player in that position if they knew how he was going to react.

Barnes added: “In terms of terminologies used that aren’t acceptable here, people are still using them and not in the way that we see it.

”I suppose from Suarez’s point of view, that is what he is saying in terms of the way he uses it. And when people say that ‘ignorance is not an excuse’, ignorance 100% is an excuse because we were ignorant 20 years ago and no one is taking us to task over it.

”I am interested in getting rid of racist thoughts, not just in terms of legislation.”