Taking a knee is degrading

Wilfried Zaha: Taking a knee is degrading and we should just stand tall


Wilfried Zaha believes taking the knee before matches is “degrading”. Picture: Richard Heathcote/NMC Pool/PA

THU, 18 FEB, 2021 - 19:37
SONIA TWIGG


Wilfried Zaha has reiterated his belief that taking the knee before matches is “degrading” and insists that on the subject of racism: “Unless action is going to happen, don’t speak to me about it.”





Since project restart last summer, players, officials and staff at Premier League and EFL games have been taking the knee prior to kick-off to show support for the movement for racial equality.





Premier League clubs’ shirts also carried the Black Lives Matter slogan during the restarted 2019-20 season before being changed for this season to feature a patch promoting the league’s own anti-discrimination campaign No Room For Racism.





However, racist abuse of footballers on social media has been prevalent in recent weeks and several teams, including Brentford last weekend, have stopped taking the knee before games – something Crystal Palace forward Zaha believes has become an empty gesture.


“Obviously I’ve said before that I feel like taking the knee is degrading and stuff because growing up my parents just let me know that I should be proud to be black no matter what and I feel like we should just stand tall,” Zaha said, speaking at Thursday’s Financial Times’ Business of Football summit.


“Because I feel like taking the knee now, it’s becoming…we do it before games and even sometimes people forget that we have to do it before games.


“Trying to get the meaning behind it, it’s becoming something that we just do now and that’s not enough for me.


I’m not going to take the knee, I’m not going to wear Black Lives Matter on the back of my shirt because it feels like it’s a target.


“We’re isolating ourselves, we’re trying to say that we’re equal but we’re isolating ourselves with these things that aren’t even working anyway, so that’s my stand on it. I feel like we should stand tall and now I don’t really tend to speak on racism and stuff like that because I’m not here just to tick boxes.”

[/QUOTE]

I think he's 100% correct, it's an empty token gesture in the Premier League

 

Yes, even so an FA ban and a fine are in order here I think.

 

Look at you two bored internet trolls.

 

I don't think it's degrading, it's certainly a symbol of attention.
Problem is the attention is there and has been there for months and months, yet tangible difference is very little.

So what now keep kneeling for the next decade?
And that's the contribution to reducing racism.

 

It's a symbol alright, but it's only a symbol.

If the Premier League were to review their own situation and look at how they could address issues like say the under representation of minorities in senior positions in football clubs and the various agencies involved it would be significantly more impactful than public gestures.

 

Yeah, it has lost its effect. Did it even have an effect in England?
It was never about kneeling, it was about kneeling during the American national anthem.

I honestly think most players would choose to stop doing it now.

 

Mane obv isn't arsed.

 

The point was for it to be transgressive. When it's institutionalized by an organization as a token gesture and as cover for their own actual racist practices, it's totally meaningless.

 

I think all our players should make the effort to take a knee in the Derby.

Preferably Richarlison’s.

 

White people: shit all over black people because they're racist
Black people: draw attention to it by a symbolic act of non-compliance against a symbol of the white people's institutions
White people: make everyone comply with the symbolic act, join in themselves to virtue signal that they're not racist, thus implying black people are protesting over nothing
Black people:

 

You talk so much rubbish, it's not even 9am and you're revved up already.

 

No, I calculate the actual outcomes of actions, you feel emotions about the actions. That's why you get stuff wrong and fail to solve anything, whilst I solve everything I do.

 

At first it definitely got noticed - but it needed to be followed up with actions. Things are getting worse as it is becoming more common for black players to get racially abused online. I also don't fully understand why players and pundits think twitter can stop it and do this ID thing - its a global platform and people can be logging in from Africa/Antartica to do it. Impossible to police - not sure how they address it.

 

The technology exists.

User selects whether to see tweets from IPs outside home country

Home country requires ID to post.

It would cost money on the social media's part, which is why its pushed back.. then you'd get the 'they are spying on us' arguments.

Then a country would debate whether it should be law, and the social media platform will block users in that country trying to provoke outrage.

I feel like I've seen this script before...

 

I've said it before and so have many...

The heart of the problem is the problem of the heart.

 

You like to paint your lack of emotion as a help, but actually it's a hindrance in these discussions. Your complete lack of any social intelligence means you have only a superficial understanding of things. So while you're sitting there thinking you're on a higher plain, literally everyone else can see that your completely out of your depth.

 

Robot Dante feels no emotions and accurately calculates ....emotions.

Glad you've managed to solve ..everything.

 

Dantes 2.0

 

Loads of people post anonymously because they'd be in trouble with relationships or work or whatever so it's the only way they can express what they're really thinking. How many people on here have got their full identities on display? And would it be such a laugh if they did? These kids giving out a bit of abuse tend to get caught. Forcing people to give IDs to social media companies is not the answer.