Something has bothered me whilst I watch some of the Premier League games since the resumption of the season.
Whilst I am not going down the line of “some of my best friends are black” in order to mitigate anything I wish to say (I don’t at this moment have any black friends), I have questioned how I behave towards anyone and everyone.
In one of my previous roles I worked quite a lot in the US and it did strike a nerve when I asked my black colleagues why I’d not seen them in a bar in the evenings and it struck me when they mentioned black and white bars. To me my colleagues were Mike and Crosswell, my other colleague was Alan who white and I thought I was even minded with everyone. Colour never mattered. I worked with another black guy in the states but I can’t for the life of me remember his name because he was a d1ck but this was not to do with colour as far as I was concerned. Anyway, I digress. Needless to say I do not have a racist thought towards anyone although I have an opinion about prejudice and perceived prejudice or even positive discrimination.
The main problem I have with the PL when faced with taking a knee is the Black Power symbolism of the raised fist. As we have been told that racism is about White power over Black peoples it does smack of hypocrisy that this symbol is now being elevated before every game. When Kapernaek (spelling) began his solitary protest about police brutality, his protest was against the standing for the American anthem which he saw as belonging to a country that had systemic bigotry and racism. Because he didn’t want his protest to be Black against White but about changing people’s attitude towards how they saw people of different races and colours in society. The raising of the fist is a symbol of racism every bit as the raising of a forearmed salute (you know the one) and for this reason I believed Kap did not make this symbol during his protest.
When any symbol of this sort has been brought up in football the powers that be rightly punish the individual, another example being Gascoigne when he mimicked playing a fife in an old firm derby = punishable.
Will the Black Power salute be banned from football the same way other symbols of racist doctrine have been?