Taking the knee

Still an important stand in the fight against racism? Or something which has run its course and is now a meaningless gesture?

Brentford are the latest club to say they'll no longer take the knee saying it's lost its impact. Where do you all stand on it?

I tend to think that it's run its course now and is a convenient way of football making it look like it's doing something without actually having to do anything. Though of course it's a societal issue rather than one solely in football.

As Les Ferdinand said not long ago, it's become no different or more meaningful than the wearing of t shirts or similar. What is it actually achieving in the so called fight against racism?


Poll to follow.

 

They could take the knee forever, it means nothing unless there are changes made because of that action.

 

Still think it’s worth doing. Yes it can and should be backed up with more meaningful action but I really don’t see the harm in it/the aversion to five seconds of kneeling before a match kicks off as long as no one is obliged to do it, as no one is.

 

i think they should do one handed handstands tbh

End of the day society is being divided on a constant basis, so unless people realise that and break from these little episodes of selfishness then we will continue 2 follow the path of the blind led by the forked tongue press and political puppets of the corporations and the insane for the rest of our days.

do you know we are the only animal stupid enough 2 pay taxes as we live on this earth for a nano second of time..............welcome 2 the madhouse

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No one may be obliged technically speaking but not sure how that works in practice. Reckon there'd be a huge outcry if random players decided not to participate, particularly if they were white.

Agree that it doesn't cause any harm and I wont lose any sleep over it either way. Just think it's become a bit of a token gesture to make the football authorities feel good about themselves.

 

In a nutshell mate.

Click the link and scroll down and look at the Executive Committee. That was last updated in December 2019, so less that 18 months ago....

https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/about-uefa/executive-committee/

Then take an organisation such as FIFA a history of corruption.

As you said token gesture to make them feel good about themselves. Not forgetting we've already been here before with kick racism out.

Edit: BTW to clarify, I'm not saying players shouldn't take the knee. I'm merely highlighting a bigger problem that is within the organisations themselves.

 

Loads of players don’t participate now, black and white. Some do their own thing rather than kneel. It’s been fine.

It’s good that players aren’t afraid to speak out and pressure is being put on social media companies. Not sure it’ll get anywhere but they’re giving it a go. Ultimately it’s impossible to rid society of racism but you can educate kids and make each generation a bit better than the last.

 

it didnt go down that well did it

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Until the social media platforms actually address the issue and ban the accounts of racists, then it's not really going to change anything.

I understand why the gesture is important, but all the while nothing is actually done about it, then it just makes it become meaningless in the end.

 

Fair comments. I agree that it's good that players are taking a stand, but maybe they should be pushing the authorities / the PFA to do more too.

The industry is big enough to have enough clout to put real pressure on the social media companies but that's not really happened yet. As you mentioned earlier, more can/should be done alongside it but we've not really seen that in the 8 months or so it's been going on.

Ultimately it's bigger than football and I don't see that the gestures makes much of an impact anymore compared to last Summer.

 

Sadly addressing social media is not as easy as it may appear.

I agree with Marcus Rashford on many things, but where he said just ban the accounts, it is not as simple as that. If only! By banning accounts, you are not addressing the problem or stopping it.

I can think of a way to address the problem, but it depends if socail media wants to go that route...

That route is account verification, you set up your email address as you normally do, which will probably be fake, but the added layer of protection would be a contact number such as a mobile.

You then send a verifcation to that mobile number, that the user has to accept.

If you then misuse social media, your mobile number is blacklisted. That then means you need to change the SIM, in any attempt to re-register. This will not cut the problem out completely, but it will stop the majority of numpties who think it's clever to post racism.

Also a mobile number gives the authorities something better to go on, if you do misuse the system, while protecting your identity from other users at the same time.

 

Yep agree, it's too easy for trolls to just set up new accounts with an email address. Like you say, there needs to be another layer of accountability that's linked to a real world device and as you mention, a mobile number is perfect for this.

It would need the social media companies and the mobile providers to work together, with Ofcom setting out a framework that is legislated by Govt.

But surely this is not beyond the realms of tech companies to set up, if they are really a committed to tackling racism as they say they are ?

 

When this first started there were plenty who denied there was an issue at all and others who decided that taking the knee was somehow about Marxism.

It’s ultimately up to the players, and how they feel about it. I can understand the feeling that it’s tokenism, but would counter that by pointing out the recent kick back against social media companies as players have felt empowered enough to speak out about the racism they’re receiving on a regular basis via mediums like Twitter.

That abuse alone highlights the fact that racism is alive and kicking, as it seems that there’s plenty out there who’ll start throwing racist insults at players for actions on the pitch. So the knee taking remains valid imo, if only to keep the focus on aspects of racism that are within the game and in our wider society.

I think many don’t get quite how deep that kind of abuse hits those on the receiving end of it tbh.

 

Facebook have been closing accounts for years if they had dodgy names and that, I had about 3 closed, then the last one they wanted me to send government I'd, was like Yeh bye Facebook.


Jus sayin

 

There is also an additional layer of protection that I've not mentioned, beyond fake email addresses and real mobile numbers, that is social media verification itself, I forget what it's called. But it's where you register for a social media main account, and it can be applied to all social media you use. It can still work on a fake persona, but the identity registered behind it is real or I think that's how it works, and I'm sure this technology already exists.

 

I think that's the point mate. The social media companies can simply **** people off if they don't provide ID or a traceable link.

It won't stop the racists completely, but it would probably nip most of it in the bud if 'have-a-go' racists know that there real world ID would be affected.

 

Thats what I was saying tho they already do in some cases, like I said I had 3 closed before they wanted official ID,

I dont like them asking my name at Starbucks

 

Peeps get brave over a screen init, look how many have Stfu after getting my postcode namean

 

For me it feels similar to the love you were all giving Lesta in their title winning season

The hype train and didn’t really mean it

 

I usually go with “Adolf”.