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© Thomson Reuters 2021.Fans booing players taking a knee shows racism still a problem: Henderson
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starpunk
The 'knee-benders' are saluting the flag but they are bowing their heads in mourning because America STILL not what it should be. And after 2016 it expanded to become a protest against the hateful violent racist policies of the fascist traitor Donald Jerk TrumpChump. More people joined Colin gradually because of that and he is now vindicated as a hero, a trooper. Note that the George Floyd protests of 2020 had whites as well as blacks participating. And the raising of the Confederate General and Christopher Columbus statues were done by blacks, hispanics, Native Americans and whites. And other ethnicities too.
Numan
@Happy Day
LOL! So was trump! You had no problem with that!
stormcrow
Is it fair or accurate to call such booing racist? Maybe they’re booing because they think taking a knee is disrespectful.
ebisen
I fully agree and support everyone in England taking a knee, but completely disagree with having Romanians taking one. After all, Romania (and many other countries) were never involved in slave trade like the Imperial Britain and the US. So feeling pressured into a gesture like that is completely unfair. If black lives matter so much in the UK, how about paying back some trillions of pounds as reparations for all the damage caused and the lives taken in all of their colonies?
lostrune2
"Football fans across Europe tend to support players taking the knee"
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/PKrEa/3/
England
54% support
39% oppose
Happy Day
Nike and BLM encourage athletes to take a knee. Both are supported by the CCP.
itsonlyrocknroll
Has it never occurred to Kick it Out Chief Executive Tony Burnett, drop the knee brigade,
Having consistently failed to engage with the fans will ultimately decide the future of the game.
And to suggest just drowning them out, could have consequences?
At least financially.
The minority of fans booing in the stadium, cannot be quantified against the fans with a similar mindset at home, viewing on line.
Remember, politically, it is the undecided, that silent voter, that within a single minute make a decision where that pencil lands.
itsonlyrocknroll
Numan, I am suggesting that many of the fans are being labelled "racists", before being afforded the opportunity to defend or answer such an accusation.
To boo, as that knee hits the floor in effect, to show disagreement, is "racist".
Put such a defamatory statement in writing is libelous, to make such a statement verbally in public is slander.
Think about that.
StuckintheMiddle!
@Numan....I found the incident you are referring to earlier.
Apparently, it was not the first time. They hold team was caught doing it in 2018.
I agree this is a European cultural problem!
StuckintheMiddle!
It all started back in 2016 when 49ers player Colin Kaepernick started kneeling during the national anthem to protest racism and police brutality in America. Players from his team, and others, gradually joined him, and the movement caught on. The idea was that they won’t salute a flag of a country that allows racism to continue.
That is what the uninformed and the racists do not know or refuse to acknowledge depending on the person. It has nothing to do with claiming that POC are more important or hate non POC.
They want equality not revenge.
Thunderbird2
Why are they on one knee anyway? Why not just stand in silence for a minute?
Numan
@Rockos Frediman
There is a problem in European culture. Not individuals but the culture. They have an issue with other races because their own superiority complex. Like someone mentioned earlier:
Sports are one of the few places where "the playing field" tends to be more equal. War, Economics, Business, Academics, and etc are not so much.
Sports allow people from different walks of life and cultures to show their gifts and shine around people who sometimes inherently believe they are culturally superior because of their race, so the racists in those groups lash out.
Numan
That also means countries like US, Canada, Israel, Apartheid South Africa, New Zealand, definitely Australia, and quite a few South Americans countries who claim connections to Europe.
itsonlyrocknroll
There must be open and honest debate here, I am not having a pop, nothing personal.
I don't know Adam from Eve on this site.
This subject of dropping that knee has to fully taken apart without fear or favor.
There is to much of shut up you racist,
"Boo", oh you racist,
Question any political agenda, think about that, racist!
You must be able to visualize damage, the accusation of "racism" is in a perpetual state of become meaningless.
Numan
@SimondB
No where because the monkey grunts and banana peels happens all the time in football. Football, NASCAR and tennis fans make up a large majority fans that display racism towards POC.
Female European volley team players not the fans have been caught in scandals making racist remarks and gestures at asian teams, too. It is not just one sport.
itsonlyrocknroll
There is little or nothing more confusing or simplistic than attempting to compare symbolism, expressing the invisible or intangible, with the Fans wish to express there discontent through a to booing.
Then attempting to shout down any debate to question a necessity to take the knee, by associating the two with “dog whistles” and “right wing political agenda”.
To make spurious, unsubstantiated, shouty shouty, how dare you very much, oh you racist, at Fans who question the need to take the knee, is not behavior of any modern democracy.
Rockos Frediman, relax, nurse is on her way.
SimondB
Clyde Best of wolves (or may have been WHU), was the first black man to play in England's top flight - back in the late 60's and early 70's. His every touch of the ball was chorused by monkey grunts. And 50 or 60 years later people are booing against people standing up against racism.
Still quite a way to go haven't we?
FireyRei
I do not find kneeling simple, ever. I do it for something or someone I revere or love. Kneeling to a sweeping group of people who I neither know nor revere will not have me bowing to them. Hand shaking, hugging, saluting, yes I will do these things. Requiring or demanding these things though teaches nothing but the ability to obligate and get what you demand.
u_s__reamer
Perhaps you are a trifle confused about the simple symbolism of players kneeling that the majority of fans apparently understand and support? You ought to be much more excised over the dog whistles and coded comments from critics who nevertheless wear their right-wing prejudices transparently on their sleeve.
"Exercised", of course, makes much more sense!
itsonlyrocknroll
Numan, I think this illustrates the need for Kick it Out taking the leading role.
One might agree or disagree with Tony Burnett sentiment, or approach, however that is a matter of opinion.
The leadership must come from Kick it Out.
Social Media, also has a habit to amplifying any political agenda ten fold.
I won't entertain any wish to be part of social media crazy circus.
u_s__reamer
When do we normally kneel to someone? God. Gods. Royalty. Proposal of marriage to show a willingness to serve, protect etc. Every person who isn't the same colour as me is my peer, my equal. To kneel to a person means to regard them as higher than yourself in some way. This, surely, is NOT equality. I kneel to no-one equal to me. If that is racist, then the word racist and its definition has certainly been changed dramatically.
Perhaps you are a trifle confused about the simple symbolism of players kneeling that the majority of fans apparently understand and support? You ought to be much more excised over the dog whistles and coded comments from critics who nevertheless wear their right-wing prejudices transparently on their sleeve.
Numan
@itsonlyrocknroll
Ironically, Tony Burnett supports the gesture of "taking a knee", but I get your point
He also thinks there is racism involved.
FireyRei
When do we normally kneel to someone? God. Gods. Royalty. Proposal of marriage to show a willingness to serve, protect etc. Every person who isn't the same colour as me is my peer, my equal. To kneel to a person means to regard them as higher than yourself in some way. This, surely, is NOT equality. I kneel to no-one equal to me. If that is racist, then the word racist and its definition has certainly been changed dramatically.
Numan
@Wakarimasen
England players being booed for taking a knee considered 'a racist act' by officials, according to senior football administrator
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12326827/england-players-being-booed-for-taking-a-knee-has-sinister-undertones-says-kick-it-outs-tony-burnett
itsonlyrocknroll
I have always acquainted the traditional one minutes silence to remembrance of the fallen in war.
Silence to reflect the deep sorrow from the loss. The silence representing an empty space to ponder that loss.
Is there a comparison between remembrance, and the act of taking the knee, I am not convinced there is. However I respect those that insist a link between to two.
The players quite rightly must be left to decide for themselves.
As much as we all have the freedom to politely debate the need to do so.
And their motivation to do so, political or otherwise.
Zichi, my feelings are, whether in sport or daily life there is always a human need to divide, to differentiate, to judge, leading to discrimination.
Black/white are clearly defined as opposites, uncompromising as night and day and here toxicity racism flourishes unabated.
I am suggesting to let Kick it Out take centre stage, it changes minds.
It takes more than a minute, the time it takes to drop that knee
Numan
@Joe Unc
What facts are those? Several continents full of indigenous people would disagree with you. They would mention Europeans!
But, please share!
Numan
@Wakarimasen
Like, when racist fans make monkey noises or throw bananas at players because they dominate the sport and make the fans favorite players look like amateurs. Then the league does nothing to protect them.
The same people on here whining about athletes using their right express themselves also had no problem when the former one-term president did the exact same thing during briefing about his failed management of a pandemic.
He also attempted to do by including personal letters and signatures on stimulus checks.
Mickelicious
itsonlyrocknroll
Andrew, from Lincoln, is probably unaware of the racial abuse black players experience on social media.
Fair point
I am of the opinion that, taking the knee, is a political gesture, more window dressing.
Support kick it out, wear the shirt, whilst taking the knee. so al least the message doesn't become mired and muddled in a activist agenda.
hmmm1
Sick of politics being introduced into sports. I just want to watch a game and forget about life and politics and so on.
starpunk
Want to 'take the politics' out of the game? Really, do ya? Then start recognizing that these athletes aren't there just for your pleasure on the field. They are people just like you, stop treating them like trash off the field.
itsonlyrocknroll
Ok lets start the ball rolling....Here is one opinion from a fan that admits to booing.
"Booing is a way football fans can communicate dissatisfaction," says Andrew, a football fan in his 40s who was at both England games this week - and joined in the booing when players took the knee.
Andrew, who is based in Lincoln, tells Radio 1 Newsbeat he booed to show his objection to what he sees as "an identity politics agenda that focuses on black people and skin colour, when as far as I am concerned we are all England fans regardless of colour".
"Some seem to genuinely believe booing is an act of racism - I reject that," he adds.
England taking the knee: Why some fans say they are booing players?
https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-57382945
itsonlyrocknroll
So much time, effort, thought has be devoted to kick it out campaign.
A single aim to kick all forms of racism out of football .
The slogan, rallying cry everywhere. Spread across shirts on hoardings etc etc..
Taking the knee is a political statement, not totally focused on racism, however once focused on the murder of a George Floyd has morphed into political activism.
All political activism, of any kind, has be kept out of sport.
Wakarimasen
Overpaid Prima donnas deflecting their own privilege. Calling fans racist is just lazy
Strangerland
That's too bad. The athletes have figured out the fans need them more than the other way around, so I guess sports are ruined for you. Well, you can go back and watch old matches I guess.
Boku Dayo
Sports, please. I don't buy a ticket to attend an SJW protest.
itsonlyrocknroll
If one does not make any attempt to find out why a growing number of fans are showing contempt for taking the knee.
Yet appreciate the expertise skill, the building blocks to becoming professional footballer regardless of ethnicity/race cheering on wildly, maybe that is a clue, the reason to ask.
Instead of making wild assumptions and guesses.
(Sorry if my spelling is wonky, I don't have allot of time to thoroughly check or read back)
Fighto!
Respect to the players taking the knee and protesting the deaths of black people in race hate crimes, often by police.
Those who boo are not real fans. They are losers, and some I guess are white supremacists. The irony is they cheer wildly when black or non-white players score goals for their team, but attack them when they take a knee for a few seconds.
itsonlyrocknroll
Taking the Knee, has become publicly associated with BLM.
BLM, has adopted a political agenda, lunching a political action committee, supporting an aim to refund the police.
“If this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it. All right? And I could be speaking figuratively. I could be speaking literally. It’s a matter of interpretation,” Hawk Newsome BLM
Barely any attempt has been adopted to actually engage with the fans that are booing, or airing there views.
Just Southgate and members of the national squad barking racist in attempt to cancel or shut them down.
The boos are become more frequent and louder.
The broadcast political media are bringing focus not the the act of fighting racism, but pointing to the significance of taking the knee political activism.
Undermining the Kick it Out platform.
Many of the fans pay to escape there daily lives and revel in the magic of Football.
Not to be given a lecture on social injustice.
To add insult to injury, they have to pay for self righteous lecturing.
It all beings with a genuine cause, sooner or later the message politically creeps.
The fans quite rightly thinks, what am I doing here paying for this and being called a racist.
Paustovsky
These are the same fans who boo other countries national anthems and chant about no surrender to the IRA and winning WW2.
If only there was a word for an anti-anti-racist.
oldman_13
Good for them, and boo to the sour pusses who act so hateful towards professional athletes using their stage to highlight social injustices.
I guarantee, had this been a story about some athlete publicly showing protest against Japan or its policies, the same people here criticizing these soccer players, would then flip flop and eagerly support the athlete against Japan.
itsonlyrocknroll
Fans come to enjoy and cheer on England, to appreciate the beautiful game. Not attend a political protest, or some form of activist agenda.
It is ugly and unnecessary,
There is a clear platform to tackle/address racism....
https://www.kickitout.org/
Keep politics out of football, and football out of politics, or face the consequences.
Joe Unc
Don’t take a knee. It’s all BS. Facts show blacks are prone to being more racist and violent. FACTS.
gaicuckojin
Dont care bout your beliefs, just play the sport that your being generously paid for while millions live in squalor.
Speed
there
Speed
No, this means many fans don't want political messages and causes thrown in their faces at a game. They're their to get away from all that. They want to separate sports from politics.