Racism exists
whether we like to think or not
People look at America and they go
Well it's happening there it doesn't apply here
But it does apply here
It affects so many people
It's a worldwide issue
My name is Kaela McDonald-Nguah
and I play for Motherwell women's team
My mum's white, from Scotland
My dad's black, he's from Ghana
Two great countries
I was actually a dancer before football
and I found out that Celtic had a girls' academy
Had a trial, got told I was in
So that was the leotard thrown away
and the football boots on
I was actually playing with Scotland Under-17s
We were playing in an international tournament
There was a girl on one of the opposite teams
She was giving me weird looks quite a lot
But I was like well we're different teams
We're rivals so it's okay
Until it kind of came to blows
A couple of words were said
but one was like oh...
chocolate, that was what I could hear
and I was like...
Wow, I was taken aback
Here I am just trying to represent my country
doing something that I love
but someone has decided that
they're going to try and make it a negative experience for me
based on my skin colour
I remember seeing the news about George Floyd
I thought this is just going to be another one that passes over
But then I started to see obviously the media attention it started to garner
I think it was really important that it did go viral
and people did see because this is something that happens quite a lot
Like that's someone's son, that's someone's dad
or someone's brother
That's someone's close friend
And they're now no longer here because of their skin colour
Primary one was when I first heard the N-word
by someone who was in my class
And I remember going home
looking up at my hands and going oh...
My skin colour is different but why is it so different?
Like I feel the same as everyone else
Obviously at that age I didn't fully understand why it was such a big deal
And looking back now like
I know it's not a big deal, it shouldn't be a big deal
but in this world it defines a lot of things
I think football is so key in tackling racism
because it's worldwide
Near enough everybody watches football
Once you cross that white line you know
it should just be about putting that ball in the net
Nothing else should matter
So taking a knee it's a symbol of being united
Clubs are still doing it
It's still something that's seen before every single game
But it's just a start
There's a lot of work to be done
to help eradicate racism completely from football
Some of the punishments are so lenient
Whether it's fans, whether it's players
A stat I saw, I think a player got fined more
for wearing the wrong coloured Under Armour shorts
than another player who was found guilty
of being racist to an opposing player
When you put it into comparison it looks like
someone's Under Armour shorts are more important than a person
That's rather frightening
Black Lives Matter is just about bridging that gap
Because right now we see everyone else here
and black lives down here
So Black Lives Matters is just about getting up to that step
and it being equal
But it's also brought out a lot for me
because as much as I can help educate
I still can be educated myself
It's something that my eyes were kind of opened up to
the types of adjectives and words used for black players
Like the contrast between that and a white player
and I think the example that I saw was Yaya Touré
He was an African player who played for Man City
You'd only hear him being called big, strong, powerful
And there's actually a player now, same position, white
and he was called magician, like technical genius
when in fact Yaya Touré was known for his technical ability
It kind of struck a chord
because it's something that I've experienced myself
A lot of the words that are used for me are that
Oh you're strong or oh you're powerful
but for me personally like my game is about being technical
so it is quite frustrating hearing that when there's more to me
That's my genetics but
look what I've worked hard to do and get better at
I think it's so important to have role models
At the end of the day
this is how kids decide what they want to do when they grow up
but if they see a woman of colour
doing something that they like
they're going to think well I can do that if they can do that
Ife Dieke who plays for Scotland
She's the only woman of colour to play for Scotland
It was such a key thing for me to see that you know
that someone... it can be done at such a high level
So you hope that you know she's the start
and there'll be a lot more
And hopefully I'll be one of them as well