Great to see a Palace player leading the way. All lives matter. If he was white he couldn't do it without severe repercussion and that shows you how broken the idea is. This will probably be killed by the pcers but hey. ???

Kudos to Roy as well. His support for Wilf was sincere and quite articulate (for someone in football ).

I have now sufficient funds to last me the rest of my life. Provided I don't buy anything.

He wasn’t the first,Ivan Toney of Brentford did the same thing in Friday nights game v Blackburn.

They’ll be required to stand up for that. Then they can lay down for LGBTQZFGTKL rights, stand on one leg for global warming, and then adopt some other poses for other “issues “.
Set it all to some fast paced music and the routine could become more enjoyable than the game itself.

BLM silenced themselves by proving what they really were as an organisation.

Wilf considers taking the knee an empty gesture, which he is probably correct to do. Fighting against racism in football and BLM are two entirely different things. One I agree with, the other I don’t.

Wilf's reasons for not taking the knee are very different to the ones I would have, but I'm not surprised to hear some of those who bought into the whole 'BLM are going to make big changes to society' thing are now frustrated. How could it ever be otherwise?

One of the many problems with BLM is that they don't have any specific, reasonable and measurable targets (apart from previously advocating that the Police be defunded, which the Tories were working on anyway, though which one of those two organisations will admit such an agenda now is unclear).

BLM is full of meaningless, general speak. We want to end racism. We want a better world. We want things to be nicer. Trevor Philips (former head of the Commission for Racial Equality) wrote a piece in the Economist telling BLM that they needed to 'exchange sloganeering for substance'. There are mixed views about Philips, but it is of note that even he's telling BLM they are without point or clear purpose.

If anyone is serious about addressing the role racial (and other) prejudice may or may not play in the construction of our society, then they need to start by laying out exactly where they think it operates, demonstrating that it is significant, and harmful. That isn't the same as telling me about an awful experience you had, any more than it is about me telling you that as a white man I feel certain I have lived my life taking each person on their merits. We need to take our individual experiences and place them in a demonstrable statistical context. BLM can't, won't, don't do that. They are just a walking narative machine given far too much platform. They could never achieve a thing because they were never a serious, evidence based, outcomes focused organisation. They are amateurs, when what the modern world needs is professionals. That's how climate change gets addressed, or international food poverty, or structuring economies to limit the impact of things like Covid, or the rule of law. Yet for some reason, when it comes to removing hurdles from the path of a person relating to their race, gender, sexuality etc (which is truly vital work to do when necessary), we allow amateurs to take the stage, and they don't come any more amatuer than BLM.

I would love to ask Wilf if, aside from what seems a fairly constant (and utterly unacceptable) stream of abuse from trolls online, he feels he lives in a racist society. BLM may tell him that he does. I would point to a family from Africa coming to England, finding housing, work, free education and health services, and thriving in the security of a law abiding, structured, policed society. Weigh the former up against the latter, and see how it balances. You might find that the issue at hand for Wilf (online abuse) can be better understood and addressed if it were focused on as a specific, rather than being used to support a wider narrative.

Edited by TheBigToePunt (15 Mar 2021 1.50pm)