Guess what? You can now say that black footballers are better than white players – because they are. You could never say white players were superior to blacks when they were because that would have been called racist and have implied notions of inferiority.

However, it is perfectly acceptable today to say, as the Spurs and former England striker Teddy Sheringham has, that black players are bigger, stronger and quicker than whites. You can go further and assert, as he did: “There’s no denying it – black players are naturally (notice the “naturally”) bigger and stronger and quicker than white players.”

We can go further still. It is now acceptable to explain the athletic superiority of black athletes by pointing out that it is as a result of genetic differences. We can say, openly, that there are racial differences because as John Barnes, the former Liverpool and England star, says: “It is an obvious fact.”

Of course it is. They are only stating what we have always known but not been allowed to say for fear of being accused of dealing in stereotypes or of being racist, prosecuted even. We had to pretend that we were all equal, in all respects, when we should have been recognising and celebrating that different races had different abilities.

Yet even today Sheringham was apprehensive about stating this obvious fact. “I’m not sure I can mention this,” he said, concerned that he would be tarred as a racist.
He has cause to be worried. There are still many who are stuck in the mire of political correctness and who will ignore the explanation of evidence of their own eyes and try to claim that Teddy did not mean to say what he clearly intended. Moments after he had spoken, Mick McGuire, deputy chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, tried to argue : “All that Teddy was trying to say is that players in the game generally have become quicker and stronger.”

No, Teddy was not trying to say that generally players have become more athletic. He was asserting that black players are better. Mick McGuire is the voice of the timid past that prefers to deal in half-truths and fantasy. Sheringham, fortunately, is the voice of reality.

Now that we have entered the exciting realm of plain speaking, can we say that blacks are generally better athletes than whites without being accused by whites of implying that the latter are inferior? Can we ask why the whites are usually better swimmers than blacks? Can we, moreover, articulate some other, less palatable truths: that there is, for example, more racial prejudice within and between ethnic minorities in Britain than there is between the white indigenous population, and immigrants? Can we acknowledge that black youths are responsible for the majority of gun and street crime and that it is they who ought therefore to be targeted without feeling the necessity to point out that the majority of burglars and conmen are white?
And, while we’re having this fit of candour, can we be honest about the fact that Aids is largely imported from Africa and TB from Albania and Asia so that we can take effective preventative measures against both diseases and not waste time and money by pretending that the diseases affect us all?

Yes, of course we can – and we should. These are the facts and should lead to action that discriminates – truly – accordingly to how people behave and what is properly regarded as being necessary and just and not on the basis of their race or colour. All we want is the truth. It is the only currency that holds it’s value and that is good for all time. And guess what? We’re actually adult enough to handle it.