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.
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Producer and Host: Hijab Shah
Editing and Sound: Numayr Habib
Music: Matt Summers
Graphics: Stephen Underwood