Black Lives Matter: Jermaine McGillvary on need for change in society
It's time for society to change - that is Jermaine McGillvary's message to the world.
It's time for society to change - that is Jermaine McGillvary's message to the world.
McGillvary, who was born in Huddersfield and is of Grenadian descent, admitted the Black Lives Matter movement has had a big impact on him.
The Huddersfield Giants winger revealed to The Golden Point Vodcast he had experienced casual racism throughout his 32 years, but felt he was always able to handle it.
"In professional rugby league I've never had any serious racial comments or any injustice," McGillvary told Sky Sports.
"It's more casual racism within teams or within players, which, me personally I shoot down straight away because I grew up in a multicultural environment and I don't take rubbish like that."
Despite the movement, the England and Great Britain international says racism is still a huge problem and will continue to be part of society until the people in power do something to stop it.
"You just look at the clubs, whether that be rugby clubs or football clubs, everyone who supported the Black Lives Matter, you just go on social media and read the comments underneath it," McGillvary said. "'I'm going to give my season ticket away,' or 'I can't believe they are supporting this rubbish.'
"They're not saying black lives are better, black lives are more important, all they're saying is black lives matter, and you see all the thousands of comments of outrage.
"So that just shows the problem within society. But what I will say is problems like this don't start in society, they start from the top and they filter down. It's like a culture.
"If you're going to set up a culture within a club, the culture doesn't start with the players, it starts with the coach, it starts with the CEO and it filters down. So how this country is run it filters down to the people at the bottom.
"It starts at home, people aren't born racist, it starts with the parents, were they born racist? No. Where did they learn that from? Their parents, where did they learn that? Through education?
"There is definitely a massive problem in society, it's not just rugby league or football, it's general society, it's a massive problem. But it does come from the top. Until that changes, it's going to be more of the same."