Anton Ferdinand was taken aback by how Steven Gerrard stood up for Rangers midfielder Glen Kamara in the face of sickening racial abuse last year.
And he reckons the former Ibrox boss broke the mould among bosses with his outspoken and unwavering protection of the Finland international.
Kamara was shamefully called a "f****** monkey" by Slavia Prague defender Ondrej Kudela when the teams met in the Europa League 12 months ago and the Czech international was given the minimum UEFA ban of 10 games, missing the entirety of his country's Euro 2020 campaign.
Gerrard defended Kamara throughout the ordeal and former St Mirren defender Ferdinand was impressed by his actions.
Ferdinand said: "I've never seen a manager protect a player when it comes to racism the way I've seen Steven Gerrard do.
"You're talking about that generation, and you've got people like Steven Gerrard who's managing now and producing that level of commitment and support on a topic that is hard to speak about, especially as a white man.
"I think Frank Lampard would do the same, I think Wayne Rooney would do the same.
"I think that's because they're moving with the times, they're educating themselves and they understand that they manage people, that they're not just football coaches, they manage human beings."
Ferdinand was himself on the other end of racist abuse when John Terry was banned for four games and fined £220,000 for language used in a match between Chelsea and Queens Park Rangers.
And through his own experiences he explained the victim can often face harsher consequences when it comes to discrimination.
"When it comes to racism, the victim is always the one who is made to feel like the perpetrator," Ferdinand told the Include Summit in Birmingham.
"I played 11 years in the Premier League prior (to the Terry incident). I played 13 times in the Premier League after the incident, then never played again.
"I had to go to Turkey because managers that knew me, managers that knew my friends and family, wouldn't touch me. Not because they didn't want to touch me, but the club (didn't).
"The reason why is because whenever that club would play against Chelsea or against John Terry, the club would have to talk about a topic which they didn't want to speak about - racism.
"And I didn't speak up at the time, so that's happening and I'm not even defending myself. I'm being put in a box where (the perception is), 'He's the bad egg, it's him, it's him'. That honestly made me feel like it was me versus football."
