England Taking The Knee

[JimmyKrankie]

Thoughts on the team taking the knee??

I'm in no way racist, I don't care what colour someone's skin is, I have and always will judge people as people, but this really gets to me and I don't agree with the whole knee thing.

What do you think?

I think it is a nice gesture of solidarity from the white team members to their black colleagues, and makes clear that they disapprove of any racist chants by fans.
However, I was more impressed by the brave Iranian team refusing to sing their own national anthem in protest at the oppressive regime killing unarmed women and children. They will face the wrath of the mullahs and possible arrest when they get home.

Shut up

Really!

So, saying they look like daft twats is racist. Get a life.
Agree with a bunch of hairy arsed man wobbling on one knee makes you anti-racist and calling it for what it is makes you racist.
They're a bunch of snivellers who have made themselves some sort of hero figures for doing something that costs them nothing. What a con
It seems the bar for being a "vile racist" is set very low these days.

Yes, Babdoc. I didn't really understand what was going on there. The BBC reporter said the Iranian fans were booing the national anthem, but then in one of the newspapers it said that the Iranian gov had sent a lot of supporters loyal to the regime, and they were booing the footballers for not singing to the national anthem. Either way, they're under a type of pressure no English footballer will have to be - thankfully - and I thought they were very brave.

There are thousands of things to take a stand against in this world and they only have a few seconds to do it

Actually they've had a whole twelve years, which is how long it is since Qatar were awarded the World Cup, but refusing to play in such a country would have cost them money

And as has become very obvious, the only principles which matter are those which carry no cost to the individuals concerned

Iran players don’t sing the National Anthem in support of anti-government protests. They face imprisonment or even death.
English players won’t wear a Pride arm band incase their Captain gets a yellow card or sent off. Cowards!

One of the best things about this protest is that it has let us know who the vile racists are. Anyone who calls someone supporting an anti-discrimination movement a 'daft twat' is bereft of morals.

Hyperbolic nonsense, which fortunately most sensible people are waking up to and brushing off, as they should.

It is a lot cheaper to genuflect than it is to say that they would refuse to go because of modern slavery , the treatment of gays and women What a statement that would have been!

How people can be so gullible to excuse them all for genuflecting is mind boggling!

They are as close to being a hero as Beethoven was to being an ice skating champion. But amazingly, they have pulled the football sock over the eyes of those who are hard of thinking.

It doesn't make an iota of difference to most of the world

Well it’s wound a lot of racists up, if nothing else. That’s surely got to be a good thing wouldn’t you agree.

So maybe they're not so much daft twats as manipulating, greedy, and unprincipled twats.

@AbreathofFrenchair

As I said the point is that if you allow political/protests for one point of view then you really need to allow it for all - as each time someone or a body needs to make a value judgement. That judgement is subjective.

So for example taking the knee is against racism, but other causes may in the future or currently want to make a statement. My point is that one we allow politics/protests in to sport it becomes hard to then stop it and whilst you might agree with this protest you might not agree with others but the organisation then has the power to decide what is allowed or not. I do not think that is a position that any sport body should be given.

I assumed they were booing the players I mean it might have been a bit 0f both and they were overjeering, I'm not sure if that's a word you get the gist.

If it is now racist to say they are doing fuck all apart from a meaningless symbol then I'm afraid your definition of racist will not be able to hold for much longer.

Have you forgotten the Euros where Saka was on the end of racist abuse for missing a penalty?

The sad thing is, taking the knee is supposed to remind fans that racism has no place in football. Yet some fans need constant reminders.

Taking the knee wouldn't be necessary if racist fuckwits stopped being racist.

It would also be nice if people would stop whinging about it. It baffles me how any reasonable person would be remotely bothered by it, unless a complete idiot.

Yanbu. It's a political movement and it's up to the choice of the person. They didn't want to wear the armbands. No one is up in arms about that but yet someone not taking the knee means they are racist??

I don’t believe anyone has suggested not taking the knee means you are a racist. It is an inference that some posters have chosen to taken and then taken umbrage against.

Lovelycrab at 18.57 says exactly this.

@mrschocolatte i was more hinting to the fact that when the movement initially started, many a quote on Twitter sadly made a point that people
were not supportive and indeed racist if they chose to support to take the knee. Kanye west actually received abuse for wearing a t shirt that said All lives matter

@Lunar270 I am aware of the racism the point you are making. I was not aware that taking the knee was solely to remind the fans how to behave.

It's not a protest its a show of support. Good on them, especially as Black players on the team (not 'English' enough despite being born here obvs, as they aren't White) have been subjected to nasty racism.

But I guess if you're anti anti-racism you wont see that. Just like you 'don't see colour'

As for some pp's whataboutery.. Pretending that caring about being anti-racist = you dont care about other issues/if you care about anti-racism you are obliged to immediately display proof of solidarity with every other cause, is silly. The racist's poorly constructed dim sounding "Gotcha".

& Racism is a human rights issue, since last time I looked Black people are human.

This!!

Read the full thread fam

@bakebeans Kanye West received criticism for wearing a white lives matter shirt. He’s a racist.

It said "white lives matter".

It's not exclusively but of course it's a constant reminder.

Football has a huge issue with racism (and sexism). The idiots need reminding. What we can do without is people moaning because they don't like players reminding racists not to be racist.