Strong words... Sat in the home end at Layer Road when we won 1-0 there in the Cardiff playoff season. Seemed like a very pleasant, placid group of fans.
Apparently the Colchester fans booed the taking of the knee last Saturday too. Seems an unnecessarily confrontational approach by the owner. Better to say, look, when we take the knee, we do it for racial equality and not for any political purpose. Then that's clear
Sorry if you felt I ignored part of your post, I thought you said the BBC said the BLM movement rather than mentioning any political aspect, as far as I was aware the clubs statements should have eliminated any ambiguity, as previously mentioned the raised fist goes back to Martin Luther King Junior and not exclusively a symbol of the political group who uses the name BLM. Just as there are some groups who call themselves patriots and use the union flag, this does not mean their political agendas are the same as all people who own a flag and consider themselves patriotic Oh it appears the BBC ****ed up
Again so proud of my club. We explained we had left it to the players to do what they felt best with .. as the whole club had discussed and many felt it was a bit if an empty gesture. Now the club has said that the players are going to take a knee in solidarity with the Millwall players who were booed on Saturday.. Well done QPR, we certainly can make a point when we want to.
You obviously didn't read the full statement as that's exactly what he said..... Colchester United owner and Chairman Robbie Cowling has issued the following statement: It was so good to welcome our fans back into our stadium on Saturday for our League Two game against Grimsby and so much about the day was perfect. My journey into the stadium felt so much more exciting knowing other fans were making their way there too. The amazing efforts of the staff to ensure the stadium was Covid-19 secure were finally tested and because of the brilliant compliance with the code of conduct by the fans who attended, the months of hard work and preparation worked extremely well. Junior Tchamadeu at just 16 years and 348 days old became the youngest player to ever start a game for Colchester United and marked his debut with an excellent performance that belied his tender age and his lack of first team experience. Well done Junior and well done Steve and Hayden for being brave enough to start a young player like Junior in such an important game. Those in attendance may have been low in numbers but that was not obvious because those that did attend got right behind the team and made plenty of noise. Winning the game means we have gained seventeen points from our last nine league games. Considering the financial cut backs we were forced to make this season, I think that’s amazing. Dare I say it’s punching? However, the game is not being talked about for all of the things I mentioned above but because of the ridiculous actions of a few who decided to boo our players whilst they took the knee before kick- off. Our club supports the players and their choice to take the knee for a few seconds before every game. Callum Harriot described the purpose of the gesture perfectly to me explaining that taking the knee dates back to early civil rights movements as a way of silently showing solidarity in support of political inequalities suffered by oppressed communities. Those that take the knee want to highlight that all lives should be valued and should not be treated inhumanely or inferior to others just because of their race. It is undeniable that black and other ethnic minority people are still the victims of racism, and the black footballers and staff at Colchester United feel that they are in a position of privilege that has been fought for through the blood and sweat of their ancestors. A position that in 2020 the average black person is still not afforded. Those taking the knee, and supporting the taking of the knee, not only shows their willingness to support the drive to eradicate racial oppression but force it to be a talking point even when it’s uncomfortable. Undeniably, taking the knee is a fundamental catalyst in pushing the conversation and thus the necessary changes forward. I’m sure the vast majority of Colchester United fans are supportive and want to play their part in showing they back the actions of our players. Maybe those that booed on Saturday might now understand what this gesture means to our club and will at the very least remain silent during future games whilst the players continue to take the knee before each kick-off. Alternatively, they should just stay away from our club because anyone that still wants to boo now that I have explained the purpose and importance of the taking of the knee is not welcome at our club. I will be happy to refund anyone for the remaining value of their season permit if that is the reason they feel they can no longer attend our games. It would be very disappointing if anyone does decide to boo again. Therefore, going forward I would like to make the actions of those fans who do boo the taking of the knee completely irrelevant. For every game where the players choose to take the knee, I would like all of our fans to join me in applauding this gesture to ensure our players know we fully support them.
I hadn't read the whole statement and thank you for putting it up, Strolls. I see no problem in that whatsoever.
Absolutely fantastic statement by the Colchester owner Robbie Cowling. Dressing the good points if the day, pointing out the bad points, addressing it...and then saying if you cannot accept that...please take your money back. Excellent. Far better than the Millwall response..which stated that it was just the political movement (BLM) that the fans objected too and not the anti racism aspect...was it ****. Still angry
Lots of opinions on here, and lots of ill informed statements - people like Beth branding the rascist card without knowing what it was all about. If the players had just taken a knee, the booing might not have happened, but one of the Derby players faced the Millwall crowd and did the black power fist salute. That singular action triggered the booing, but you carry on discriminately calling us all rascist's Beth.
And your point is. One of our players does that....it is his choice. Oh by the way your chairman says the booing was actually to because Millwall fans disapprove of the Marxist anarchist political leanings if the BLM movement...not that they are racist. Please can you all get your reasons sorted out.. I can't keep up
lots of ill informed opinions, are you aware of the 68 Mexico Olympics? Do you know why those guys made the stance? Do you think it’s controversial for that player to emulate them? Why do you think him doing so gets the reaction it did? it sounds like you’re trying to make excuses, and your explanation seems whilst not impossible, unlikely for what happened especially as the club felt it necessary to release a statement prior to the game advising why they were taking the knee and some supporters, well over 10% according to radio reports still decided to boo. Even if you are objecting to the one for whatever justification you have, which is the first time I’ve heard of it anywhere, you must be off your head to think it’s not going to be seen as disrespectful to the others. Nobody is saying all Millwall fans are racist, but I can’t see any justification to why the fans booed.
No education is obviously not for me.... I will just go with the gut feeling that racism is wrong. Fundamentally wrong People should be respected what ever the race or religion or gender they identify with. Go in peace with your beliefs TC. Thank you
Strange comment. You have no idea what my beliefs are Beth. I agree that people should be respected for their race or religion, but people should not have it forced upon them! Disagreeing with football players making political gestures does not make you a racist - whether YOU think it or not!!
Not a strange comment at all. I do not know anything about you TC, and you nothing about me You have your beliefs, I have mine. I have just said above that my gut feeling feels that any form of racism is wrong...as is any form of sexism or any favouritism due to religion, place of birth, wealth or even the football team you support I do not think a footballer standing at the middle of a football field with his first raised...is forcing his beliefs on any one. We can agree to differ TC...that is acceptable not strange
It’s not a political statement in sport it’s a show of support to an equalities movement. Even the fist, Mexico 68. Strange that people get so up tight when they think people are making assumptions as to what their motivations are yet are happy to make unfounded assumptions as to the supposed political motivations of these sportsmen.
You keep going on about the precedent set for raised, clenched fists in Mexico 68, Will. You do realise the Black Power movement was militant and prepared to use violence to achieve its aims?
Should our footballers be down on their knees? There's a reason people are uncomfortable with this strange new ritual BY Douglas Murray Millwall players taking the knee on Saturday. Photo by Jacques Feeney/Getty Images please log in to view this image Douglas Murray is a best-selling author and award-winning journalist based in London. December 7, 2020 On Saturday, the aspiring religion of the age met the masses. The two did not get on. This year has seen a series of extraordinary events. First and foremost are the unprecedented lockdowns, which have removed from almost all our societies not just our ability to congregate, but also almost all of our social antennae. It is not just actors, comedians or public speakers who have lost that mechanism: we all have to some extent. “Will this statement/opinion/joke go down well or badly?” is a fine judgement call. In public and relative private we all try things out and experiment all of the time. Take away all audiences beyond your immediate household and we must all subject ourselves to some other way of testing which way the wind is blowing. The only such device left is the online world, which — as should be obvious to all by now — has its own problems. And so, during the middle of the oddest mass psychological experiment in history, came the death of George Floyd in May and the rapid escalation of the Black Lives Matter movement. A movement that attempted to push, inveigle and eventually intimidate itself into almost every walk of life inside America and beyond. In Britain, institutions as far away from the scene of the crime as the British Library and Cambridge University seemed to think that the death of an unarmed black man at the hands of a Minnesota police officer (currently awaiting trial on a charge of murder) demanded some kind of response, lest they be accused of being insufficiently devout. In ordinary times, people might have been able to get a sense of where other people stood on such a matter. Did users of the British Library really feel any culpability for events in Minnesota? Were things so bad in the state of race relations in America and across the western world (only the western world, naturally) that a stance was required — indeed demanded — of everyone? For a time, it seemed so. Almost every major British institution, including all its universities, issued statements about the death of a man in police custody on another continent, in a jurisdiction over which we have precisely zero control, and similar levels of influence. ‘Taking the knee’ became one of the emblems of obedience, or subservience, to the cause. Soon, even questioning the reverence of that hallowed, brand new tradition was cause to be pummelled online. And when all gatherings of more than six were banned by law, what other world mattered? When Dominic Raab good-naturedly reflected on air that he wasn’t massively in favour of this new trend, that it seemed to come from Game of Thrones and that the only person he had ever gone on one knee for was Mrs Raab, social media rammed him hard. Had the Foreign Secretary never heard of Colin Kaepernick, they asked? How dare he suggest that a mere television show had any input into this ancient and noble custom, making light of such an important tradition. By the summer, the ritual had spread. BBC cricket commentators would announce, as an England cricket match began, “And now both teams will take the knee”, as though this were an agreed-upon and ancient rite. It’s hard, though, to define precisely the line of causation between the actions of a policeman in Minnesota and the England cricket team. Similarly with football, where, after the Premier League restarted in front of empty stands, the players took the knee. And then they took it again. And then they just kept on doing it — as though they weren’t sure how to stop and were worried that if they did stop, they might be accused of racism. One felt them in the situation of the party faithful on their feet giving an ovation after a speech from Comrade Stalin. No one wants to be the first person to stop clapping after Stalin has just made his latest brilliant speech blaming systematic racism for the country’s ills and promising to eradicate it in just five years, with enough effort. You don’t want people to think you’re not 100% against systematic racism. And it was all to do with the absence of crowds. BLM is in Britain largely an elite faith, and one can just about imagine the stands at Lords or the Oval sitting patiently while the teams do whatever it is they feel they need to do. At a push, it is possible to imagine the crowd at a rugby match scuffing their shoes awkwardly as the teams perform whatever ablutions are needed. But a football match? No. There seemed little likelihood that they would put up with this new performative gesture going on not just once, but months and months after the event that kicked it off. Football grounds, even after decades of gentrification and rising ticket prices, are not always genteel places. They are places where strong views are held about peoples’ failings, real or otherwise, with crowds who do not always keep their opinions to themselves. And so, as the months dragged on and the strange new ritual seemed impossible to shrug off, the day was always going to come when the clubs reacquainted themselves with their supporters. Sure enough, on Saturday that happened, and the inevitable, predictable thing took place, at the home of one of the less genteel of football clubs: Millwall. At the start of the match between the south London side and visitors Derby County, both teams went down on one knee as is now their custom — and as they did so, many of the supporters began audibly to boo. Since then, there has been a chorus of condemnation of Millwall supporters from every possible quarter. Derby’s interim boss, Wayne Rooney, described the booing as “disgraceful and mindless”. Millwall itself declared in a statement that it was “dismayed and saddened” by the incident, while the commentator and crisp-seller Gary Lineker lambasted those who had expressed their views by booing as “a minority”. Soon it was a mistake not to actively condemn the booing. On Sunday, the Environment Secretary George Eustice was asked about the incident and walked into trouble by (correctly) saying that the Black Lives Matter movement itself does not reflect “what most of us believe”. Cue outrage and condemnation from those who insisted that this reply must mean that Eustice is not opposed to racism. In fact, what happened was not just inevitable but necessary. A necessary reminder that while the presumptions of a relatively small number of political activists may have been able to intimidate vast institutions into going along with their claims and agenda, those claims and that agenda are not nearly so widely shared as they imagine. Saturday was, or should have been, a wake-up call. The players looked genuinely shocked and surprised that the fans reacted the way they did — but they shouldn’t have been. It simply goes to show how easy it is, during this era of isolation and social distancing, to lose contact with the wider society around you. Most people in Britain are clearly shown — in poll after poll as well as their everyday actions — to have little or no tolerance for racism. They want nothing to do with it. At the same time — and here is the nuance that the boards, corporations and celebrities miss – they feel no obligation to continue to perform any obeisance to a specific political movement. Or to continue to express remorse across the space of more than half a year for an act of violence carried out in Minnesota. A majority feels that the BLM agenda is divisive and even dangerous, and were upset by the vandalism they saw in London over the summer, and the violence in America. Millwall supporters might have something of a reputation themselves, but on this occassion their sentiments are shared by many more — the difference is that most people just keep those views to themselves. Maybe because they’re polite. Or perhaps because they’re intimidated. What happened on Saturday was one of the first times this year that the world of the internet and the real world collided. On the internet — social media in particular — it is possible to intimidate people into agreeing with whatever it is you would wish to make them do. Post a black box on your Instagram page or you are a racist. Say “Black Lives Matter” as though there is anyone — almost literally anyone — who says they do not. And if you are in isolation and feel the terror that the whole world may come stampeding towards you, then it is easy for this tactic to work. But outside in the real world, it’s possible to look around and see that perhaps there are others who feel the same way as you do, and that maybe the ritual has gone on a bit too long already.
