Taking the knee

[1955vintage]

The number on the front of the shirt is his place in the roll of cricketers picked for his county. If he is number 664 , then 663 players had been picked before him.

[Michael Rolls]

The number on the front of the shirt is his place in the roll of cricketers picked for his county. If he is number 664 , then 663 players had been picked before him.

cross purposes - it is the big number on the back of players' shirts to which I object as totally pointless. The small number on the front does have a meaning, as you indicate.
Mike

[Alex]

At the weekend, Gareth Southgate confirmed that the England squad will continue to take the knee " to educate us "           
Southgate will lead the England team out in Qatar for the World Cup, I wonder what the reception will be there, given their reputation for human rights abuses.  Mr Wokegate should stick to the football.

[crabbyob]

Im afraid Mr Southgate does as he is told we need to aim both higher and lower
the ones with the biggest mouths Rio Ferdinand and Louis Hamilton both have mothers whiter than yours...ok... as white then
but they are welcomed as coloured, where as we turned or collective back on them, so i suppose its all our own fault

[Alex]

Im afraid Mr Southgate does as he is told we need to aim both higher and lower
the ones with the biggest mouths Rio Ferdinand and Louis Hamilton both have mothers whiter than yours...ok... as white then
but they are welcomed as coloured, where as we turned or collective back on them, so i suppose its all our own fault

My reason for turning my back on Ferdinand has nothing to do with his colour       only you will get that crabbyob

[crabbyob]

it weas funny Alex, my wife worked in the office of a recovery [car] company and when Ferdinand played with leeds she asked my if i had ever heard of him... Leeds were playing in darkest europe that particular day, so i asked why, she told me her company had taken delivery of a red sports car for Man Utd and they had been ordered to deliver it to manchester Airport and the keys deposited at the reception desk for collecting by one Rio Ferdinand when Leeds flew in that night, and this was six months before a mention of a transfer hit the TV... so not exactly a man of honour is he?

[Alex]

That doesn't surprise me. 
Talking of Leeds, did you see James Milner has signed another contract with Liverpool?  but on less money.   I always thought he would go back to Leeds his boyhood club, maybe he will one day !

[crabbyob]

he has done really well Alex, a real utility player..

[GrannyMac]

Im afraid Mr Southgate does as he is told we need to aim both higher and lower
the ones with the biggest mouths Rio Ferdinand and Louis Hamilton both have mothers whiter than yours...ok... as white then
but they are welcomed as coloured, where as we turned or collective back on them, so i suppose its all our own fault

Regardless of their behaviour, they have been abused because of their colour. Monkey chants were mentioned.  Some people won't even consider their white heritage, their famiky background, they just see the skin!  My close friend is an example, black dad, white mum. Born and brought up here, in a white, English household, northern accent. White husband, kids' skin colour varies, grandchildren vary even more.  Two are blue eyed and blonde.

Yet the hard of thinking feel its ok to be abusive to someone like her based on what? Pigment? It's hardly surprising that people who've had the same experiences have a bond. 

I don't condone or support extremists from any background, and I agree with you crabbyob that an equality symbol could be the way forward.

[klondike]

Equality symbol certainly but what they have picked is tainted. It needs changing imo. Not that I have any interest in football anyway.

[GrannyMac]

Equality symbol certainly but what they have picked is tainted. It needs changing imo. Not that I have any interest in football anyway.

Nor me, but there's no need for nastiness towards anyone based on a colour chart. How someone behaves is what counts. 

[crabbyob]

i cant be racist, im just going into the shower as a half cast
the top half is brown and below the belt is way beyond white... 
as you might suspect i have known some great coloured guys
but they dont help the cause, 
methinks thou dost protest too much. i loved the Blue Mink number with the words 'coffee coloured children by the score..

[Alex]

At the end of the day ' taking the knee' is not going to stop some semi literate idiots from kicking off.  (No pun intended :)) In fact it has reached the stage where ordinary fans are puzzled why England is the only team still copying this BLM gesture. Kick Racism Out of Football (Kick It Out) has been the official England campaign name since early 1990s.  While it hasn't managed to kick it out, it's certainly better for black footballers than it was in 1970s and 1980s.

[Scrumpy]

If the 'grown-ups' don't play fair how can we expect the children to do the same..
Nastiness  towards a skin colour be it black or white is abhorrent..

Taking the knee to respect the black person doesn't do anything for me when the white man is equally abused in many areas where the black man rules..
In years to come if it continues and gathers popularity it will be tables turned and the white man will then , in time, ask for recognition..

[crabbyob]

the white male is asking now Scrumpy, all too many doors are already closed to us, its not only racism there has always been them and us.. growing up in Scotland it was the religious 'thing' but as i pointed out to a priest when i was nine, it was he who took my pal away and put him in a 'separate' school 
i have mentioned before on here when i played football every so often i might on a rare occassion ...lol... make a clumsy tackle, now i played all my football in England [thank you England] so when i made my little mistake the guy who landed on the floor was always white and mostly English, ..so when he rolled over and looked up at me he rarely said 'oh i say' i was usually met wit 'ya big dirty scotch bas****' which of course wounded me deeply... its in the nature of the beast