Tyrone Mings - signed permanently and confirmed as even more awesome

[Ger Regan]

chrisf should set up a rent-a-boo business. No job too small, at very competitive prices.

[chrisf]

I'd boo that too if I was there because I'd paid to watch them race cars not to show me how caring they were and suggest implicitly that I was a bit less caring than I should be.

So presumably by the same logic you would boo national anthems and any minutes silences/applause before a game?

It seems to me you are offended by the BLM movement, and so question peoples motivations for wanting to demonstrate their support for anti-racist sentiments, if so the problem is with you not them.

Being so comprehensively tied in knots on this point has given me genuine food for thought.

[Toronto Villa]

The fundamental request of observers being made by those taking a knee is a momentary show of sympathy. And that it is for a few seconds to try to step inside the lives of those impacted by racism in society. Not just today but across hundreds of years of the most vile hate you can possibly imagine. It doesn’t ask you to be empathetic because not everyone can be. Not everyone has enjoyed the privilege of not having to be worried about what someone else may quite randomly say or do simply because of the colour of your skin. That’s not just a black thing but frankly across all races but most certainly the experience for black and brown folk.

It’s not a lot to ask but the request has been weaponized and politicized by those who have turned it in some sort of “Marxist” crusade who aim strip that unearned privilege away. Those same people couldn’t tell you who Marx was; likely thinking it was one of three brothers.

When you want to look up ignorance; which is at the lowest rung of the ladder of prejudice, see the people who boo taking the knee. And then look further up at that ladder at the hate and bigotry those lower down privately revel in, less overtly subscribe to, and for some even aspire to.

[brontebilly]

I don't want to boo Tyrone but will boo Tyrone for taking the knee to his corporate masters. Who do you think Tyrone is takiing the knee to?

Making a stand against systemic racism in British society would be my take on it. About time someone did. Johnson and his jukebox jingoists don't like it but fuck them. Southgate and the England squad have shown some courage here as the easiest thing to do after those friendlies was to stop. The further England go in the tournament the worse it's going to get. The Scotland evening game will be interesting.

And even if you didn't agree with the motives for taking the knee for whatever reason if it's important to your players then why boo? Surely just stay silent if it offends you that much.

[dave.woodhall]

If you want to know what someone really thinks about racism ask them their view of anti-racism.

[dr.chekov]

The KKK used to peddle the line that commies were filling the heads of, “otherwise content”, black people with unamerican ideas.

It’s the kind of crap that’s always been used by racists or the ignorant (or racists and the ignorant) to discredit black causes.

Utter bullshit.

[Meanwood Villa]

I like how he threw in the comment about Lewis Hamilton. "Some of my favourite sportspeople are black"

Far more telling is the comment about suggesting implicitly "I was a bit less caring than I should be" I really don't think this is what they're doing but it's interesting chrisf picks up on this. Feeling a bit guilty about being a racist perhaps?

[Monty]

Well, it's been educational.

[Percy McCarthy]

I like how he threw in the comment about Lewis Hamilton. "Some of my favourite sportspeople are black"

Far more telling is the comment about suggesting implicitly "I was a bit less caring than I should be" I really don't think this is what they're doing but it's interesting chrisf picks up on this. Feeling a bit guilty about being a racist perhaps?

Also, he started off his trolling yesterday by saying they should ‘do something else’ instead of the knee. Then he talks about a sport that ‘does something else’ and says he would boo that too.

[Dave]

To be fair, given his most recent post was an acknowledgement that he might have to give the whole issue more thought, the responses since could probably have been a bit more charitable.

[Villan82]

I'd boo that too if I was there because I'd paid to watch them race cars not to show me how caring they were and suggest implicitly that I was a bit less caring than I should be.

So presumably by the same logic you would boo national anthems and any minutes silences/applause before a game?

It seems to me you are offended by the BLM movement, and so question peoples motivations for wanting to demonstrate their support for anti-racist sentiments, if so the problem is with you not them.

Being so comprehensively tied in knots on this point has given me genuine food for thought.

I do hope you give this some reflection.

Try to put yourself in somebody else's shoes- reflect on their experience, their history. Or, better still, don't project onto them. Listen to them and accept that they are better placed to understand their lived experience of it than one who isn't in those same shoes and that same experience.

[brian green]

The most verbally devastating of the (four I believe) Marx brothers Groucho once asked of a Beverley Hills country club that banned Jews from its sports facilities if his son who was only half Jewish could go into the swimming pool up to his waist.

[mr underhill]

Surely we still live in some sort of a democracy and people who oppose taking the knee are free to express that view. As some French geezer said, I don't agree with your opinion, butI defend to the death your right to express it. Or some shit similar to that.

[LeeB]

Surely we still live in some sort of a democracy and people who oppose taking the knee are free to express that view. As some French geezer said, I don't agree with your opinion, butI defend to the death your right to express it. Or some shit similar to that.

No one is getting locked up for booing are they? The rational, decent folk are merely expressing their view that such folk are fucking bellends.

[Smithy]

Surely we still live in some sort of a democracy and people who oppose taking the knee are free to express that view. As some French geezer said, I don't agree with your opinion, butI defend to the death your right to express it. Or some shit similar to that.

They are free to express it. As far as I know, no one has been put in prison for booing the knee?  Freedom of speech is important, but it doesn't give you freedom from the consequences of that speech.

I think most people in the thread seem to understand that many (if not most) of the people booing aren't doing so because they are explicitly racist (I don't believe), they're doing it because they mistakenly believe it's some sort of Marxist political statement.  That's why they get called up on it.

If someone is booing, I want to at least make sure they're booing against something other than the hallucinated intentions of the players.