‘Taking a knee’ became a worldwide phenomenon that was reignited in 2020 by protesters around the world following the death of George Floyd in police custody in the US state of Minnesota. But its origins date back to 2016 when an NFL player, Colin Kaepernick sat on the bench when the US anthem was played on 26 August 2016.
Kaepernick himself took inspiration from the civil rights movement in the United States, where figures such as Martin Luther King Jr kneeled after a group of protesters were arrested during a march to the Dallas County Alabama courthouse.
Has this gesture stopped those with racist intentions and mindsets to refrain from spewing their hate – regrettably no because social media continues to undermine this effort and the sun still sets in the west.
How many of the thousands of sport personalities use their social media handles – be it Facebook, Twitter, Instagram among others to continue drumming the message about saying no to racism hoping their influence will change the mind sets of such individuals among us.
Taking a knee is not untoward but certainly needs much more to it so that the sport stars are able to take activism beyond the pitch or courts.
Early this year, Queens Park Rangers Director of football, Les Ferdinand took a bold decision when he announced that the message had been lost and this entire exercise had just become an excellent PR stunt and as a consequence QPR have since stopped taking a knee prior to kickoff.
Ferdinand asks a pertinent question – will people be happy for players to take the knee for the next 10 years but see no actual progress made?
On the pitch it does make significant impact but away from the on-field action, a lot more needs to be done because the reality is when we think we are over it, racism always has a way to rear its ugly head.
To borrow the great Bob Marley’s words from his 1976 song War – Until the philosophy which hold one race superior, And another inferior, Is finally and permanently, Discredited and abandoned, Everywhere is war.
