No it isn’t. It was started by Kaepernick to solely protest about American policing abuses against black people in America. The clue for you is in the name ‘black lives matter’.
Good strawman by the way. Let’s ignore the comment about the issue of BLM and hence kneeling like a fool is irrelevant to British Society and focus on the issue of ‘virtue signaling’. And not only virtue signaling more so it’s just become a cringeworthy identity politics religious cult. Kneel and there shall no longer be racism or something. Yet the issue of a child’s success in the UK isn’t down to his or her race. It’s down to his or her cultural capital and opportunities.
If footballers care so much about equal opporunities so much they could invest some of their millions in giving some disadvantaged youths sponsorship instead of kneeling like a prize dickhead, which does nothing for anyone other than their own vanity
No one ever wants to consider this or organised withdrawal of Labour.
The English FA and Premier league are two of the most powerful sporting entities in Europe and the best they can come up with backing a pointless gesture like knelling, corporate virtue signalling makes me sick. The players mean well enough but they can make use of their platform and resources in more effective ways
The superleague mess showed everybody where their true priorities are
This is the thing. BLM founders have talked about black lives matter. Yet they take 100s of millions in donations for black lives matter. Not one family who lost their black family member saw any of this money from BLM. Yet BLM founders have started buying up loads of million dollar properties in white neighbourhoods, with the donations, to live in, alongside white people, far away from black people.
They should change their name ‘Our black lives matter, because we don’t want to live with black people’. Doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as well.
I said this was going to happen because it always happens. All these black activist telling poor blacks what to think and do don’t live anywhere near black people or any black community. These people in these poor communities need band together to sort the communities out. Because electing outsiders back by big business and corporations are not going help that at all. What black community has Black Lives Matter helped? Just preaching a bunch of nonsense that will make black communities worse off
What we did at our school was have black men or women who’d previously studied at the school and made a success of themselves come in and give speeches. Not only that, but question and answer sessions.
I think that really helped. Success can be invariably measured in a wide range of different ways. A doting mother, an obedient son, a helpful neighbour. Seeing someone come in with a steady job and telling us about their day to day work can be telling for impressionable 14 year olds.
Well I will say it’s still important enough to me. I would like to see more productive action, sure. But I’ll take the symbolic gesture over nothing. Which for some reason is being omitted was the norm before people got shamed into doing something.
Btw it’s rich this conversation started with Rashford, you know a guy that actually goes out of his way get shit done.
As a Blackman I see the gesture as good as nothing because it’s always symbolism nothing tangible. Most people show they are in favor of helping without actually helping. Anyone can’t put a black square on they profile anyone can kneel but how help the people you want to help. Symbolism is just a way to saying you are for a cause without doing anything for that cause
Can’t agree it’s better than nothing, it’s nominal gains sure in the grand scheme of things. But visibility is better than not being noticed, even if there is no results. As frustrating as that is.
It’s also the biggest sport in the world and influential in all sorts of ways. This is one of the better ways to raise awareness among kids. Change will only come with better education and understanding.
It’s minuscule for now but youngster’s are the real hope.
Believe me I understand where you are coming from I really do but for far to long it’s always the same. My gripe is that forcing these gesture down people throat is killing any goodwill that was there/is there. Most fans are not racist so why are we treating them like they are? That’s where people’s frustration comes from. Yes there are a few but kneeling is not going to make them say “wow that knee has made me reconsider my views”
Yes and even moreso, sports is probably the best method for getting people of all different cultures, ethnicities, races etc. to come together to enjoy the event and drop any other baggage that we all have to deal with outside. This isn’t to say there isn’t racism and other forms of discrimination in sports obviously, but by in large I can’t think of a better way of getting people to connect with one another and to forget about the other things that divide us in society.
This is why I feel like these kinds of gestures while coming from a good place, are frankly counterproductive most of the time in sports because you’ve essentially come into the area with arguably the least amount of racial tension and have decided to make that topic a focal point when it isn’t at all the venue to be dealing with it in. And again we need to be tackling racism, but kneeling down on a pitch for 5 seconds before every match does absolutely nothing in that regard. Yet despite it doing nothing, if you question it you can be very quickly branded a “racist”. I don’t even buy the argument that it raises awareness, who isn’t aware of racism nowadays? The racists are aware of it cause they’re the ones doing it, and everyone else is aware of it because it’s a conversation that is dominating now as it should be in particular realms. But for the love of God not in sports, that’s literally the very last battleground we should be fighting these issues on imo.
You’re right it’s always been the same. Putting aside whether they should do it or not. I can’t agree kneeling is forcing anything down people’s throats. How long does it last, 10 seconds at most? You blink and you can miss it.
If they can’t handle this we’ve got no chance.
Most fans are not racist so why are we treating them like they are? That’s where people’s frustration comes from. Yes there are a few but kneeling is not going to make them say “wow that knee has made me reconsider my views”
Whoa whoa, aren’t we jumping the gun here? Where’s this narrative come from?
