Boro, please 'take the knee' next season

equaliser

Well-known member
The booing of the England players by a crowd of Hungarian children makes it clear. Without wishing to sound over the top, I must still say, in this simple gesture is crystallised a battle for the soul of the world: on the one side tolerance, inclusion, compassion and respect; on the other, hatred, fear, ersatz 'division' and the 'othering' of outsiders. In Hungary you see a country where free debate is being systematically closed down and instead a narrative which holds that European society should properly be white, Christian, heterosexual and conservative is being imposed. And of course, like any crusading ideology, the most important place it is imposed is in the minds of little children, the next generation of obedient worker slaves.

Again, that the 'gesture' has power is clear - which is why culture-warriors such as Priti Patel leapt to decry it in the first place - and why the England players' unity is an important, and in many ways remarkable, challenge to the prevailing media discourse which would prefer to tidy up the anti-racist conversation and place it back in its little box, thank you. Whilst Southgate deserves enormous credit for his heartfelt and beautifully judged letter to England fans last year, he shows that he still lacks understanding with regard to the wider context when he claims to be "surprised" by the Hungarian crowd's booing. If he knew what has been going on in Hungary under Orban, he wouldn't be.

I completely understand why Middlesbrough players took the decision they did to abandon the taking of the knee before kick off. In their decision they probably felt a duty to reflect the apparent opinions of many of their supporters, some of whom last summer were undoubtedly among those booing the England team at the Riverside. Nevertheless, with the alarming sight of thousands of Hungarian children effectively declaring themselves 'for' racism, I hope they might reflect again. As role models, and as a happily diverse and inclusive workforce, they can continue to make a humble, but insistent, difference.
 
I think if the players decide not to take to knee, we need the reasons why, as britt explained perviously. I think now that we’re a couple years down the line I’d like us to make public what we are doing to help with racism
 
Its a symbol of resistance and its up to the individual if they want to make the point.
Equally - if one player makes that choice, its their choice..
Anyone who expresses support for discrimination by using their mouth or gestures under the 9 "Protected Characteristics" of The Equality Act 2010 - should get out and do something else.
The 9 Protected characteristics of the Equality Act [for anyone interested]:*

What are protected characteristics?

It is against the law to discriminate against someone because of:
Violence starts with thoughts and words: we know all the chants and gestures - and the typical nick-names......
If you find it acceptable to denigrate people for loving someone of the same sex - but not you, have a different skin colour to you, dont believe in your God, dont have the same sex-organs as you, dont have limbs or have ambulatory issues which you dont, or happen to be younger or older than you - if its ok to use and demean them - you`re not welcome.

If you go away and think - or get involved with learning from other people [not the same as you] - then welcome back(y)
Sometimes we dont realise its not ok


*
 
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I think it's very much down to the players. The reason we stopped were clear after a statement from the then Black captain Britt.

I'm pretty sure it was run past his fellow Black players. It's interesting that after he left the stance continued. So I'm guessing our current Black players were 'happy' to continue not taking the knee. I can't believe it's something we are doing without the Black players concent.

To be fair it's not just Boro. Plenty of champo clubs seem to have gone away from it. I don't know if they do it in leagues 1 and 2 and even below?

I'm yet to see a prem side not do it. Although you'd imagine it's hardly an option. So you see the odd black player standing as its more of a statement (Zaha/Toney). That actually looks more 'powerful'. Yet if everyone follows suit then I guess it wouldn't.
 
I genuinely don't think it's achieving anything anymore except for highlighting that there are still issues when idiots and racists boo the players doing it.

But that's an unintended and unfortunate side effect, not the purpose of taking the knee.

The only reason I can see for continuing with it is that it'd be seen as conceding to bigots if it was dropped too closely to an incident.
 
Two years down the line from the start of taking the knee, it's still alarming the number of racists who are triggered by this very simple action. Couple of footy sites yesterday, knuckle draggers were openly congratulating the Hungary kids for booing........🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️
Thought this country was heading in the right direction regarding tackling racism (pre 2020)...... obviously not. The little Englander mentality never went away, and a combination of BrEXit and RW government / media condoning this behaviour has let the genie out of the bottle.
Very, very sad state of affairs.☹️☹️
 
It is, of course, down to the players.

However, last night's events forced home the relevance of the gesture, and should prompt a reconsideration of it on our teams part.

Given that, once crowds started growing after Christmas, the were quite a few racist boos from the South Stand, I'd say our club in particular needs it.
 
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