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?

It's certainly highlighted those without the slightest degree of nuance or criticality in their thinking and discussion.

Because FIFA has decreed that if the captain of England and eight other teams wore the One Love armband that player will get an automatic yellow card.

And that can really derail a gameplan.

I think that just about sums it up.

Have you discussed this with your 'very multicultural' family?

Finding it a bit uncomfortable that the free will and choice of 11 men is being derided and treated with such contempt. I believe the team have explained why they choose to do it. We might not like it or agree with it but it’s their choice and their decision. It doesn’t harm me in any way that they do so I say crack on lads and let’s get a great win against the US.

Yep

This is such a lazy argument.

The 11 guys on the pitch had no say in where the World cup is being held. None.

If 1, 2 or 10 players selected refused to play then someone else would be there.

Sure, if you were in the same position you can say that you would refuse to take the knee. You can say that the gesture is misguided or whatever but the fact is, England was always going to send a team so you can either make small gestures or you do nothing.

And, as has already been pointed out, the take a knee movement has contributed to positive change.

um-insight.net/perspectives/the-spirit-of-taking-a-knee/

Two minutes on google.

The OP has not been called racist by me, but people moaning about other people choosing to express their own views are definitely deemed 'twats' by me.

Softplayhooray that's in the US though, and doesn't seem to give any examples of a reduction in racist incidents. Are there lots of examples from the UK? The reason I ask is that I read this article when it was published recently and it made me think there sadly doesn't seem to have been any meaningful effect on structural racism in the game here: www.thetimes.co.uk/article/62836b6a-5483-11ed-a03e-f7ac672386f7?shareToken=88f1130d5fa67f7a89fe2b137395c20d

But surely signalling that one is anti racist is a good thing- is ‘virtue signalling’ always a bad thing? It sends out a good message to young Black boys in the sport that their idols are doing this.

Performative gestures matter. Rosa Parks refused to move. That was a performative gesture. Gandhi picked up a handful of salt from the sea and broke colonial law and started a revolution. The Iranian player who pretended to cut his hair. These are all ‘gestures’ and symbolic gestures have always been important for social and political change.

Who is asking you to take a knee? Are you a footballer?

Me too!

Yeah it definitely is strange..

And it's Genuflecting, but taking the knee!

Not!

OP: "I'm not racist but...."

I think it's got to the stage where they are shit scared not to do it anymore