At the heart of it, it’s a sad reflection of our society that it’s necessary to highlight an issue like racism, in any way, for any reason. But here we are.
I do think ‘taking a knee’ in the UK (before sports events) is slightly incongruous, compared to the situation in the US. In America the Star Spangled Banner is played before each game as a display of nationalistic pride, and players are expected, as ‘true patriots’, to stand. Colin Kaepernick originally sat this out, stating “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.”. Taking a knee was a later compromise, to show respect to former and current U.S. military members. I don’t believe we force, or endorse, that same jingoistic culture into our sporting events, so I’m not convinced it’s necessary for ‘sport’ to respond to the crappy aspects of our society in quite the same way.
That said, saying ‘keep politics out of sport’ is like saying keep humanity out of sport. Every societal interaction is political to some extent. Only extremely privileged people never have to engage with ‘politics’. And there are plenty of examples of ‘clearly good’ political stances in our sport that we happily accept, just because some issues are more ‘difficult’, it doesn’t mean they are any less valid.
Whatever certain people make of BLM, or particular unsavoury members (there is no 'membership'), I think it’s only fair for us to assume that other people (club and players) have the intelligence and autonomy to decide what their own statements and actions mean for them personally. Let’s give them some credit. If you don’t agree with how other people use their voice, well tough, that’s how civil societies work.
I don’t know who is in charge of club policy and statements, but I’m very impressed with the level of reason and rationality. A position that is clearly well thought out and considered is a lot easier to respect, even if one doesn’t agree entirely. It seems to me that the players, Clubs and sport are displaying a pretty good reflection of the attitudes and respectfulness that is the reality in our wider society. Let's not get dragged into believing that extremes are in any way representative of the whole.
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Always a Wasp
