Show Racism the Red Card
When people took the knee or stood up in solidarity with the world to say Black lives matter, it wasn’t an organisation that they were supporting but a whole mindset change, to highlight that Black lives are not mattering and they should and do matter in order to make the statement quoted by ‘all lives matter’ true, trust us when we say we wish we could say ‘all lives matter’ with the same conviction knowing they really do.
The football reaction in England yesterday almost certainly proved racism is not a thing of the past and reports such as the Sewell report saying ‘there is no such thing as institutional racism in the UK’ and those saying it is American issue as we don’t have the same level of racism here, Black equality movements are dividing things further, taking the knee is just a superfluous gesture, I sure hope ego does not get in your way today to understand that everything is so necessary and hold your hands up to say you were wrong.
Racism has no place in society and football is just a game, to go around with an absolute thuggish mindset, use racist language and beat anyone who is different in your path of destruction (forget after losing the game but even before a ball was kicked), has proven the taking the knee is the least people can do to raise awareness for equality, there is still so much work to do.
I am waiting to hear from those who said it is a meaningless gesture as it is not necessary, to apologise and if you are an MP who had this sentiment you need to publicly apologise and accept you are out of your depth.
PM Boris Johnson tweeted -
‘This England team deserve to be lauded as heroes, not racially abused on social media.
Those responsible for this appalling abuse should be ashamed of themselves.’
I hold you responsible PM for this behaviour too because Brexit, Sewell Report, saying you don’t believe in gestures in relation to taking the knee and refusing to condemn those booing players who did, has had a direct impact on the racism you see today, you should be ashamed. You gave the green light.
To all the England team especially the three lions who stepped up and are being abused. We your true fans have the utmost respect for what you have achieved on and off the pitch, you have given young children and adults everywhere some hope by just seeing England in the final in our lifetime and achieved amazing things on and off the pitch.
Bounce back with a roar!
Statement from Wajeeda Yusuf - TREC Board Member.
