Glenda's Legs
Paul Walsh
I have experienced extreme antisemitism, as a Spurs fan I have experienced it more than have seen racism but thats not me saying it does not exist, its just natural that as a Spurs fan with a Spurs badge on my jacket I would be called a dirty yid. I would not necessarily though say that because of what I have experienced that I believe the UK is a hugely racist/antisemitic country because the kindness I have experienced in my life and seen by FAR outweighs the hurt and I would like to think educated people would also see that 150 men lead by Tommy Robinson does not reflect the whole of the UK.
As a Jew who has experienced Antisemitism in the sport I would not like players to take the knee for us because of what Chelsea and West Ham fans have done/do I would prefer to seek action, action which is not apologist because of the Y word use by Spurs fans. If I was Black like Les Ferdinand who echoed that view early on I see the same for the BLM knee and as I have said to death on here, make real actions to kick out racism rather than make it about booing the knee which despite being terrible is not anywhere near the real issue here when we are talking institutional racism in a sport.
I totally agree that there needs to be action and it is easy for gestures to mask the real issue. But that doesn't mean taking the knee is of itself meaningless. In fact, by supporting taking the knee, if there is a next time for racism to rear its ugly head within the PL, then the PL is going to have to take strong action, otherwise they are shown up to be total hypocrites.
Taking the knee keeps the topic visible. Education and action should be happening in parallel.
For anyone who hasn't seen it, Harry Kane spoke about taking the knee earlier in the week.
A few extracts :
"I hear people ask if we should still be doing it and we should," "What people don't realise is sometimes we are watched by millions of people round the world. Of course, for the person who watches the Premier League every week, they see the same thing every week. "But I think if you look around the world you see children watching the game for the first time, seeing us all take a knee and asking their parents and asking why we take the knee. "It's a great chance for people to explain why and get their point across. Education is the biggest thing we can do. Adults can teach generations what it means, and what it means to be together and help each other no matter what your race."
He also said that it was important for white Premier League players to play their part in highlighting racism.
"I don't like it when people say we should just play football and stick to kicking a ball, because we have a huge platform. We come across to millions round the world. Our voices should be heard. "All we want to do is help and help the world be a better place.
"The more education the younger generations get, hopefully as time goes by racism will be a thing of the past and that's got to be the aim - especially with children. We want to bring them into a world where were all together and we all understand each other.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55151065
Maybe, if the political aims of Black Lives Matter as an organisation, rather than as a concept/movement, are giving people something to hide behind in booing, and therefore distract from the main message, then maybe the PL, in consultation with the players, could consider dropping BLM references and instead link taking the knee to a clear anti-racism, anti-discrimination message. Then see who boos the gesture.
Either way, I'm happy for it to continue for as long as the players feel it is worth doing, but it shouldn't be seen as the only thing that needs to be done.