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A thread of some personal reflections on the booing of players Taking a Knee:
1. I am saddened but not shocked. I knew this would happen at some point but am saddened it has happened on the first weekend with fans back in stadia.
1. I am saddened but not shocked. I knew this would happen at some point but am saddened it has happened on the first weekend with fans back in stadia.
2. Taking a Knee is a gesture that has been driven by the players and supported by the clubs and leagues. Players do it to highlight the fight for racial equality. It is explicitly not an endorsement of any specific political movement.
3.Every time there is greater public focus on the fight against racial discrimination, there is always a backlash. Racists rarely admit they are racists - they try to hide their backlash under a seemingly respectable cloak.
4.The cloak this time is that the gestures are really in support of some political movements associated with the Black Lives Matter slogan and this is mischievously portrayed as a political disagreement. This is complete and utter nonsense.
5.All political parties are grand coalitions of people with different views on different issues. Some Conservatives are islamophobic. Some Labour members are anti-semites. We do not tar those entire parties with the views of the fringes.
6.BLM is a movement not a party. It is an even even bigger coalition of millions globally across political divides united by a single human rights ambition: to end racial discrimination. Of course there will be some in that movement with fringe political views on other issues.
http://7.To focus on those fringe views to seek to add a cloak of respectability to opposing a gesture of racial unity is wilfully obtuse and disingenuous. Racists tend to be wilfully obtuse and disingenuous.
8.Generally, the only people who oppose anti-racist gestures are racists. If Taking A Knee offends them, good. We want them to be offended.
9.I urge the players to continue to defy the hate and to defy the racists. Keep Taking A Knee. Keep protesting. Keep annoying racists. If you need to walk off the pitch, walk off the pitch.
10.I know that there are many good people at Millwall both in the boardroom and on the terraces who are deeply upset. We will continue to work with them.
