Being Brummie: Football and Race Relations in the Second City

Content Warning: this episode features discussions of racism, xenophobia, and football violence.

Episode 3 of Being Brummie looks to the future of football and race relations in Birmingham. Hijab Shah explores upcoming football-related development projects in Birmingham and their impact on the broader community, as well as how issues around racism, representation, and women's football are set to evolve in the future, in conversations with Brummie football fans and two very special footballers.

The guests featured on this episode are:

• Nilesh Chauhan, co-founder of the Villans Together supporter group and head of the Fans for Diversity Campaign at the Football Supporters' Association, who discusses the importance of football clubs engaging with their local communities;
• Brenton Hanson, an Aston Villa fan who speaks about the subtler, more subversive forms of racism faced by fans and players of colour today;
• Layla Banaras, a born and raised Brummie footballer playing for Lewes FC and the Pakistan national team, who discusses South Asian representation in women's football; and
• Kerry Davis, the first Black Lioness to ever play for England, who now lives near Birmingham and speaks about how far women's football has come since her playing days.

Please subscribe, and follow us on Instagram: @being.brummie

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Producer and Host: Hijab Shah

Editing and Sound: Numayr Habib

Music: Matt Summers

Graphics: Stephen Underwood

Content Warning: this episode features discussions of racism, xenophobia, and football violence, and also includes strong language, including the repetition of racial slurs.

Episode 2 of Being Brummie explores the parallels between Birmingham's current political climate, and its history of political polarisation, anti-immigrant sentiment, and Far Right influence in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. Hijab Shah explores these themes, and how they intersect with football within the Birmingham context, in conversations with Brummie footballers and football fans (and a wonderful non-Brummie historian).

The guests featured on this episode are:

• Shalina Patel, a historian, author, and award-winning teacher who unpacks Birmingham's political history and draws parallels to the political climate in the city today;
• Michael Johnson, a former Birmingham City player who shares a harrowing story of being targeted by the Far Right;
• A former female footballer of colour, who asked to be anonymous as she highlights the impact of racist and sexist abuse on the internet;
• "Ali," a Birmingham City fan of South Asian heritage, who discusses the dark side of online football fandom; and
• Sanaa, who reminisces about growing up in Small Heath and the tension between matchgoers and local residents on St Andrews matchdays.

Please subscribe, and follow us on Instagram: @being.brummie

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Producer and Host: Hijab Shah

Editing and Sound: Numayr Habib

Music: Matt Summers

Graphics: Stephen Underwood

Content Warning: this episode features discussions of racism, xenophobia, and football violence, and also includes strong language, including the repetition of racial slurs.

Episode 1 of Being Brummie delves into Birmingham's history of immigration from the 1820s, fifty years before the city's football teams came into being, all the way through to the 1960s and 70s. Hijab Shah explores the experiences of the generation of Brummie football fans who grew up in the '60s and '70s attending matches at the Hawthorns, Villa Park, and St Andrews.

The guests featured on this episode are:

• Dr. Carl Chinn, MBE, who gives us a history lesson on Birmingham's immigration
• Amarjit Basi, an football fan of Punjabi heritage who became a Villa fan after negative experiences at the Hawthorns in the '60s;
• Bhopinder Basi, Amarjit's cousin, whose similar experiences led him to support an out-of-town team until he decided to go back to West Bromwich Albion as his birthright;
• Ray Walters, a lifelong Villa fan of Jamaican heritage who shares stories of the racialised terrace and fan culture of the era;
• Martin, a Birmingham City fan with Irish roots who spoke of the multicultural stands at the St Andrews stadium;
• Bik Singh, whose father Micky Singh is a bit of a Blues legend as a visibly Sikh man who has championed inclusion at St Andrews since his youth; and
• Nilesh Chauhan, an Aston Villa fan with an Indian-African background who speaks about the fears that his parents' generation have around football violence.

Please subscribe, and follow us on Instagram: @being.brummie

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Producer and Host: Hijab Shah

Editing and Sound: Numayr Habib

Music: Matt Summers

Graphics: Stephen Underwood

Birmingham has been in the news lately, as racial tensions have flared up across one of the UK's most multicultural cities. Football has — yet again, as in the city's past — become embroiled in those tensions as well.

"Being Brummie" is a three-part podcast documentary series, hosted by Hijab Shah. She chats with Brummie- (and some non-Brummie-) football fans of different backgrounds, generations, and experiences to explore the intersection of football and race relations in Birmingham.

Please subscribe, and follow us on Instagram: @being.brummie