WashbrookBlue that was very well put.

positivity I agree with you that the players don't intend to push the BLM movement, it's just unfortunate that footballers aren't the most educated and don't realize the symbolism of taking the knee and the association with BLM in America. If they unthinkingly took to using the Seig Heil as a symbol of solidarity with black people, would you not find that existing association to be troubling? Linking of arms is a much better choice.

symbolism changes (look at the poppy and the swastika), and no-one sees (no-one who doesn't read the mail anyway!) players taking the knee as supporting marxist ideology or violence.

i'm not anti linking of arms in any way, but what are it's aims? once word gets round that it's an anti-discrimination action, the right-wing press will be rabble-rousing again, blowing their dog whistles and the booing will start there.

take the footballers at their words that they're showing solidarity with anti-racism, don't boo them for being well-intentioned.

if you don't agree with the method they use to show this, do something for the cause that doesn't offend your sensibilities.

You know how you get BLM to go away and to stop people from rioting? Get rid of systematic racism and oppression. It's not difficult to comprehend. Here in the US, our cops are being judge, jury, and executioner and murdering black men at an alarming and disgusting rate. At peaceful anti-police brutality protests, the police are conducting police brutality. A black man is far more likely than a white man to go to prison for minor non-violent drug-related offenses. That's been proven over and over again here. The US has a for-profit prison system and young black men are more valuable to private prison owners locked away.

The one interesting thing about articles like this, is the comments make it really easy to see who the racists are.

Nobbysnuts - "If I got on one knee with my fist in the air supporting white people i would probably be arrested" You're confusing white supremacy with equality. I'm pegging you as an all lives matter kinda guy.

matthewwylds - "BLM is an Racist group" You know what's racist? Murdering and repressing people because of their color.

ohnjmyers - "Perhaps fans just wanna get on with the game...?" Perhaps black people are tired of being murdered by cops.

TimmyH - "I'm certainly not racist but.." But this sentence is ALWAYS followed by something racist. The same as "I'm not sexist but... I'm not homophobic but..." I'm not racist, but I'm going to say something racist, but it's okay, as I'm not racist so it doesn't count. Jesus... do you listen to yourself?

And for god's sake, read up on "defund the police". It doesn't mean getting rid of the police force. It means using some of the budget for rehabilitation programs. Getting people off of drugs, off the streets. It means education and giving people a fighting chance to be contributing members of society. You know, getting to the root cause of why people commit crime. Treat the cause, and you fix the symptoms. Because crime, jail, overpopulated prisons and police brutality are the symptoms. The cause is a broken system. Broken economics, broken education, broken mental health. Fix that and we won't need black lives matter, because when we're finally on an even playing field, all lives will finally matter.

The LGBT community would be very proud of all of the posters on this thread.

Lots of grown men coming together to mass debate.

Well done to all contributors, you are inspirational.

🌈🌈🌈

FromIpswichtoPhoenix - well if you cut off the sentence 'I'm certainly not racist but'...your obviously manipulating it to sound like it, as I've said there is nowhere in any my posts I've been anti-discriminatory. This is just my opinion why I think there is a minority of booing but in your world it obviously equates to being a racist.

Posted earlier on here & there have been some good for & against comments, which i respect. My last comment on this thread is ...How many of these posts are from people of colour ? Perhaps when you count them up you will sort of get the message....

Didn't Greg Clarke have to resign for saying

" footballers of colour " instead of black footballers?

Careful now IPSWICH MOUSE.

😂😂😂

TimmyH whatever helps you sleep at night, princess. No one who is truly not racist ever needs to say "I'm not racist, but..."

@Northstandvetern
Not sure whether or not you're being serious but no, he didn't say ‘footballers of colour' but instead he referred to BAME footballers as "coloured people" and said a gay footballer's decision on whether to come out was a "life choice". He also stated that "young female players did not like having the ball hit hard at them" and suggested that "different career interests" led South Asian people to choose careers in IT over sport.

Above is a cut-and-paste job from wiki.

A friend of mine daughter is a serving police officer, 25 years of age and one year in the job when she was called in to help in London during the unrest and I can tell you she was spat at,kicked,punched and had bottles filled with urine thrown at her and called vile names. She was also ordered to get on one knee or get cut and all this was done by your friendly peace loving black protesters... so forgive me if I don't support this vile organisation.

Phoenix - how's the nose bleed mate?, you're so high up on the moral high ground. Twisting my post to suit your argument - berk!

I'm rarely serious Matt.

I was just trying to lighten the mood a little 😁

I have however just watched his interview and he said,

High profile women footballers and high profile coloured players.

Tangledupin blue I'm guessing Gary Lineker and Jeremy Corbyn are coming round yours for Christmas dinner you MUG

I detect slight majority support for the symbolism of players taking the knee and feel proud of fellow fans accordingly. Well done, Idris.

matthewwylds
Excellent reasoning in your post - ever thought of joining the Tory Party?

Just admit it Timmy H you got it badly wrong. We can all have a view about the politics of BLM and whether taking the knee should give way to applauding but what you seem to not get is that people of colour deserve their time to be heard and for society to change accordingly. The same applies to all groups that are discriminated against. Booing is an act of insult and cannot be dressed up any other way. There has always been an element at Col U who have been racist which is very sad. In my 50 years of attending games at Ipswich I have not heard anything like that nor do I expect to in the future. We all mistakes, me included, just swallow your pride and move on.

Anybody questioning players taking the knee is seriously dubious in my book. if you've got an issue with it then you've got clearly got issues with racial equality.

Gcon Anyone who after hearing the other side of the argument is still calling people who disagree with taking the knee racist is just doing so for political point-scoring or is an ideologue who is just not capable of listening.

FromIpswichToPhoenix You can't justify rioting by blaming racial inequality. Non-white people are not animals who have no control over themselves. Rioters are usually ruining their own communities or it is middle-class white anti-racism larpers out for a day out of mayhem. Some of these anti-racism activists are more racist than normal people. Give people agency and hold people responsible for their actions.
There is a lot of lower-level racism in the US, but actually, proportionately more white people are killed by the cops than black people. Check out the FBI stats. Look into any of the high-profile cases of black people being killed by the cops and come back to me with just one that was racially motivated. Black person is killed by white person is not proof of racism. There are major flaws with supplanting BLM from America. We have a much different history. Some people say that UK BLM is not Marxist like the American counterpart, but why would you copy the name and symbolism of a toxic group? Black Lives Matter is such an Orwellian name. Surely if you say anything against that you are a racist? Well no, because black lives matter because all lives matter. Equality is for everyone not for one group. There are legitimate concerns for sure, but by wrapping them in a lie you are losing support for a cause that everyone should get behind. Also, calling white people racist for not 100% agreeing with you is not going to work. You are legitimizing white identitarians when you push for a black identitarian cause.

positivity You are always going to have your extremists who are booing because they are straight-up racist. Look at the example of Millwall though and you will see that changing the form of kneeling to another expression will actually show that the vast majority of people who are against kneeling will support a reasonable form of solidarity. We can't be sensitive in only one direction such as arbitrarily changing "coloured people" to "people of colour" and not consider the valid concerns of people who find fault with the symbolism associated with kneeling and in fact BLM.

The basic conclusion I take from this thread is that you have anti-racists on one side who support kneeling and anti-racists on the other side who are against kneeling. I'm sure we have actual racists who support Town, but I can't see any from the posters to this thread.

A lot of people claiming BLM isn't political. Just look at these comments...

It only takes a minute to go check out BLM's website and look and their list of demands. That group doesn't want equality.

What was wrong with 'Kick It Out'? Did football really need to join the hype-train?

Not agreeing with BLM or taking the knee does not make anyone a racist. But defending those who boo the act of taking the knee does call into question their understanding of symbolism in raising awareness of the discrimination that people of colour suffer. I think this debate has in the main been a very mature one but there is a hint of white supremacy rather than direct racism in some posts. In my eyes we are all equal but for many people of colour that does not ring true in many aspects of their daily lives.

Just go away bert.....

Bert, Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Who are you accusing of being a white supremacist and where is your evidence? You have to cite your evidence, rather than using weasel words to discredit your opponents.

The tone of some of the comments fits the general description of a white supremacist. My words are quite clear but I believe the vast majority of posters post with respect so those who don't may want to reflect on that. Remember Nobbynuts et al that I said some comments hint at what I am alluding to do so there is no personal accusation in that.

FromIpswichtoPheonix; you say that “defunding the police” has nothing to do with being anti-police and everything to do with diverting some of the budget to rehabilitation.

However, if Governments want to fund rehabilitation programmes then they have several options available to them. For example, they could increase taxation, increase borrowing or take the money from another department's budget.

That BLM wants to use the police budget to fund these programmes suggests that it is more motivated by a hatred of the police than anything else.

Bert we know where you stand on this matter from a previous post, remember?...when you tried to pull somebody up on a possible racist post which certainly wasn't, remember the 'peanuts and monkeys post' - so I'll ignore your posts.