Taking the knee

The Euros have come and gone but amidst the heartache (if you're an England fan) I look for the positives. And the one positive I found through the whole tournament, was the kneeling of the England players before the start of every match.

Unfortunately, it appears not everyone shares my opinion. I was surprised to see on fb that there was quite a negative reaction to this gesture. 

Curious to find out why anyone would have a problem with all players in the England team uniting to reinforce racial awareness through a fairly harmless gesture, I encountered comments such as, 'All lives matter', and 'Kneeling is only for church' and 'Enough is enough'. Unsurprisingly, most of these comments were not from people of colour.

If you are one of them, please let me recount something that may help you understand why that simple, united gesture, means so much to some of us.

Just two days ago, I walked into a shop and looked for a particular item. Not seeing it on the shelves, I approached the till and greeted the person behind the till (no reciprocal response) and asked him if they had the item I was looking for. All I got was a pointed finger in the direction he had seen me coming from. 

As I took a step away, another couple came up to the till and were greeted with a 'Hi, good morning, how may I help you.'

Because I am undaunted by this type of behaviour, I picked out my second choice of item and proceeded to chat with the man. He really wasn't a terrible person, it's just in his DNA to unconsciously  respond in a more positive way to some people than to others.

At this point, I would like to point out that this isn't the first time this has happened and sadly, it won't be the last.

So, if you are a person of a privileged race, perhaps it may be wise to refrain from commenting on players kneeling for racial equality because, even in this day and age,  although all lives certainly matter, some appear to matter more than others.

Just saying...