CORRESPONDENT "Loyal Bury FC Supporter" (Apr 21) tries to minimise the effect of the anti-racism day at Gigg Lane recently and in doing so admits to a "certain racial prejudice".

Being "a little bit" racist is like being a little bit pregnant. It is impossible: either you are or you are not, there is no inbetween.

The point about holding an anti-racism day is not to get a bigger attendance at a football match, or any other event, but to drive home to people like your anonymous correspondent that racism is something abhorrent in a civilised society.

This country, like many other advanced societies, was built by people who came here to settle for all manner of reasons and we have enjoyed the fruits of their labour. I, and so many other residents of Bury, am the child of immigrants who came here to flee from religious persecution at the end of the 19th century. If the policy of exclusion that your correspondent obviously supports had been in operation at the end of the 19th century, Britain would be the poorer. In the fields of the arts, science and politics, names that come to mind are such as leading gynaecologist Lord Winston, Yehudi Menuin of world fame, the late Bernie Grant MP and many others. The list is endless.

Whilst it is true to say that ones opinions are private, when those opinions erupt into racial violence and people suffer as a consequence it is up to us, as civilised human beings, to put an end to it. And that is what anti-racism days are all about.

P. KAISERMAN