On: Booing the knee
Allow me to preface what I’m about to say, with this. If the shoe fits, wear it. If you’re in anyway, hurt, upset, or triggered by anything that I’m about to say, then embrace the butt hurt. Accept it, allow yourself to feel the emotion, and then ask yourself the question, “why do I feel so strongly against this?”
To be honest, I don’t particularly have any kind of feeling towards the England players taking the knee before kick off, I don’t see it as a negative thing, nor do I see it as a positive thing. It is purely, a “happening” in my opinion, I don’t think that a great service is being done for society, nor do I think that a great disservice is being done. The players have made the decision that they’re going to kneel, and that’s their god given right as autonomous human beings. However, that being said, what I would like to champion, and what we should ALL be championing, is the fact that we live in a society where individuals have the RIGHT to peacefully protest, which is what taking the knee is. We’re already in a precarious time when it comes to people’s right to peaceful assembly, and your government is literally trying to limit YOUR RIGHT to peacefully protest what it is that you believe in (see; The police, crime, sentencing and courts bill — it’s something that we should ALL, at the very least, be aware of and concerned about. Regardless of which side of the political spectrum you fall on). At a time like this, the last thing we should be doing, is trying to silence and stop people from standing up for what they believe in.
What happens when we discourage protests of this kind, again PEACEFUL protests, is we silence and stop important conversations; about race, inequality, injustice, from taking place. It’s important for any society to have open dialogue about its negative aspects (or, if you’re fine with how its all going, its perceived negative aspects), without open dialogue between 2 different points of view, how can we ever come to some sort of resolution? Quite frankly, I’d love for discussions about race and injustice to not be necessary, and that we lived in a world where there were no arbitrary divisions amongst populations, but the reality is we don’t live in that world. Just the other day Dea-John, a 14 year old TEENAGER was killed by a group of white MEN in a racist attack in Birmingham (my thoughts are with his family, friends, community and all those affected by his murder) and yet, there’s a section of the public who don’t want people to PEACEFULLY state their objection to such occurrences. Really and truly, I cant even hold the people who think that way responsible. British culture doesn’t really encourage the tough conversations, “keep calm and carry on” is more than a meme printed on some mugs, its quite literally how a lot of people think and act. With that sort of mentality, how can a culture grow and develop? — you can even see that way of thinking in action, we still operate under, and champion such an archaic system as a monarchy (which is a discussion for another time).
Now, I’ve heard the arguments of “it’s linked to the Black Lives Matter organisation” and “its just an empty gesture” “politics and sport shouldn’t mix”etc.. and, you may not necessarily agree with the reasons why they are protesting, and that’s fine — again, this is your god given right to your opinion, but I can’t see any logical reason why you would boo what is a peaceful protest against societal injustice by YOUR TEAM. (Also, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but an international sport tournament is absolutely political, it’s basically each country comparing the size of their dicks under the guise of football). The very fact that the FA had to release a statement informing fans that there’s no link to any political groups, shows just how muddied the waters are, and how misinformed a lot of fans are in regards to this situation. It’s not as if Black Lives Matter gets £50 for each time an individual player takes the knee before the match, if that (or something along those lines) was the case, I could appreciate and understand negative views towards the gesture, but I really would like to know, what is so polarising about this?
I don’t ask that last question rhetorically, I genuinely want to know, and I genuinely want to encourage the conversation. As I said earlier, without dialogue on uncomfortable and important issues, how can we grow and develop our society?