Racism in sports: what that says about our politicians
You might have seen the England national footballers taking the knee, a sign of support for racial justice which has been used since the death of George Floyd last year. It’s great that they’re doing it, that they want to keep up the pressure for anti-racism in football and the rest of society. Their manager, Gareth Southgate, wrote a piece for The Players’ Tribune and he rightly says that he never believes “that we should just stick to football”. That message should, in my opinion, get into the heads of those who says “stay out of politics” and/or “stick to [insert subject here]”.
But this gesture was met by a load of boos, from people who think taking a knee is showing “support for Marxism” (the Black Lives Matter movement was referred to supporting “Marxism”) and don’t give a shit about football, which they claim to do. If they actually did, they wouldn’t boo anti-racism gestures like this.
And here comes the horrifying part — Tory MP, Brendan Clarke-Smith, likened taking the knee to footballers doing a Nazi salute in 1938. This comparison is deeply anti-Semitic for a couple of reasons because, as you know already, doing the Nazi salute is support for racism and genocide against Jews. Taking the knee is opposition to racism and injustice. Of course the Tories will do nothing about Clarke-Smith, because they are too slow on racism and have a history of racism, which I mention as you read along.
It was also reported that Boris Johnson won’t condemn the booing at the taking the knee, but (with culture secretary Oliver Dowden) did condemn the suspension of England cricketer Ollie Robinson pending an investigation following his historical racist and sexist tweets. This is the same Boris Johnson who called black people “piccaninnies with watermelon smiles”, Muslim women wearing burkas “letterboxes” and Barack Obama “part-Kenyan” and produced a race report which said there was no institutional racism in the UK, an appetite for gaslight.
Former cricketer Mark Ramprakash kinda agrees with me too. On BBC Breakfast on Tuesday 8th June, he rightly called out Johnson’s racist past and didn’t accept his involvement in the Ollie Robinson situation. This man is literally bang on.
As I edit this on the day after England progress to the semi-finals of the Euros after beating Ukraine 4–0 on 3rd July, home secretary Priti Patel was among those congratulating Gareth Southgate’s club for what they did. Bet ya she forgot about what she said about them taking the knee, calling it “gesture politics” and that fans have the right to boo them for it.
I also edit this on the day that England lost to Italy in the final of the Euros, leading to hideous racist abuse of Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho on social media. Three brilliant young g’s who smashed it out of the park despite a tense night. Rashford (as I mentioned) did tremendous work off the pitch, mainly feeding our schoolkids and making sure they don’t get left behind. Our politicians (including the likes of Boris Johnson and Priti Patel who did racist stuff themselves) have obviously condemned the scale of the racist abuse.
Gary Neville, football broadcaster and former player, is spot on mentioning Boris Johnson’s racist history on Sky Sports News:
When our politicians — who used racist language in the past — get involved with racism in sports, remind them of that. Their hypocrisies never ever fail to amaze me and probably you too. My good Lord.
There’s another column I read — it’s by the Guardian columnist Marina Hyde — and it comes with a brilliant title that should be said out loud: “If this is how they react to taking the knee, please keep politicians out of sport”. It should also be said that those who want to keep “politics out of football” are the same people who use their politics for their bullshit gain. If you’re gonna say that, don’t be political yourself. Don’t be a hypocrite. Simples.
