Lyle Taylor: Until you’ve been on the receiving end of racist abuse, you won’t understand how it feels

Football has been rocked again by fresh allegations of instances of racial abuse this weekend – and Charlton striker Lyle Taylor has been on the receiving end of such ill-treatment more than once recently.

The Addicks frontman has been targeted via social media at least twice in the last few weeks and says that unless you have personally experienced such abuse, you’re not in a position to try and appreciate how it feels.

“I’ve had conversations with people this week where they’d likened racism to other things,” said the Charlton talisman.

“I mean no disrespect but unless you’ve been racially abused, you won’t understand how it feels. So, unless you’ve been racially abused, I’d rather you not make comment on what other people go through. If somebody gets the mick taken out of them because they’ve got a stutter or if somebody walks with a limp, it’s not the same.

“Yes, we need to focus on the positives and positives are that 99.9% of football fans in this country are not racist. But we don’t need to worry about the 99.9% because they’re not the ones who are causing the issue. From here on in, we have to do everything we can to highlight this and to make an issue of it. If we make an issue of it, hopefully that way people will start realising that their behaviour, if that is their behaviour, is just way beyond the pale.”