The practice of taking the knee was started in the UK in 2020 to support the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minnesota, USA.
In August 2022, following consultations with players, the Premier League stopped taking the knee before every match. Instead, it was decided that the anti-racist (and anti-discrimination) gesture would be taken in ‘No Room for Racism’ match rounds.
These fall in October, to coincide with Black History Month. The decision to take
the knee was made by club captains of all the clubs in the Premier League.
Thus the Wolves game was designated a game where players would take the knee and next weekend, players will also take the knee.
The Stadium of Light is a vibrant place, this season, with only two points having been dropped from the four games played there so far.
And before the Wolves game, players duly dropped to their knees immediately prior to kick-off. This was generally met with warm applause, but from my seat in the Jimmy Montgomery stand, I could hear a sizeable minority of boos — mostly emanating from the North-West corner of the ground (though I am told similar was heard in the South-West corner). East Stand regulars said they heard no such boos. Good — I’m very glad to hear it.
Sadly, I heard it and it infuriated me.
I put a tweet out via the ITHICS account saying this: The booing of taking the knee makes us look like a parochial, racist club. It’s embarrassing. To date, it has received 21,000 views, had 223 likes, nine retweets and 18 comments — the most for one of my tweets for many a year.
Happily, most agreed with me, but there were some claiming that we weren’t the only club: as if this makes it better.
One poster said “there can’t have been many”. That’s not the point, surely one person doing it is too many.
We had five black players involved in Saturday’s game and two of a lighter skin tone. What would they have made of the booing?
Another genius countered that if I watched Match of the Day, every ground booed it. Well, I did watch Match of the Day and wasn’t able to hear any booing, not even at our place, where I heard it with my own ears at the match. They must have removed the booing during post-production.
His premise was totally wrong, just because it was booed in grounds throughout the country, it doesn’t make it right. It’s abhorrent and an affront to a decent and humane society.
I’d love to know why it’s booed. I mean, really, what is the point?
It’s really not tenable to boo what is a stand against racism. If you’re booing it, you’re a de facto racist.
@NikkiJude commented: “If you don’t agree with it, fine. But why boo? It stinks. It’s eight seconds once a year ffs [well twice this year], so if you’re choosing to boo it really does make you look racist… and I have to stand next to some of those bigots. Grim honestly, riled me right up today.”
The black community has had to put up with persecution for centuries. Whilst it’s better now, there is still a lot of work needed to be done.
Surely it’s better to shout for your team than stoop to a vile and pathetic gesture as booing a valid and symbolic gesture.
