‘GET RIGHT DOWN TO THE REAL NITTY GRITTY’
an anGrY backlash against professional sportsmen kneeling before matches in support of Black Lives Matter is under way in the u.s.
Fans of a number of nFL teams, including the Denver Broncos, the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers, have voiced their disgust. There’s even talk of a boycott when supporters are eventually allowed back into stadiums.
at least the nFL players are demonstrating about something which happened in their own country, the brutal killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis.
While we were all horrified by that incident, there’s absolutely no justification for the subsequent, hysterical over-reaction in Britain, however well intentioned.
inevitably, English football has clambered on the bandwagon and we are forced to endure players taking the knee and giving the black power clenched-fist salute.
My guess is that, if and when stadiums reopen here, sections of the crowd will also react negatively to this transiently fashionable showboating. People don’t go to football matches to have politics shoved down their throats. For what it’s worth, i sympathise with the players. if they refuse to comply, they’ll be falsely and wickedly smeared as racists. The BLM fanatics don’t brook any dissent.
Yes, racism still exists in society, sadly, but football has been in the vanguard of fighting discrimination for the past 25 years.
Back in the nineties, i can remember doing radio and Tv shows promoting the Kick it out campaign, with founder member Paul Elliott, the ex-Chelsea defender.
That worthy cause has never received a fraction of the attention currently being paid to Black Lives Matter.
Yet since the BLM madness kicked off in Britain, broadcasters have been falling over each other to get in on the act.
sky sports news plasters BLM logos on screen at every available opportunity. it’s becoming unwatchable.
The BBC has even banned commentators from using ‘racist’ expressions, including ‘nitty gritty’, which allegedly refers to the detritus found in the hold of slave ships. i say ‘allegedly’ because other reports claim it wasn’t used until the Fifties.
You pays your money. i first heard nitty Gritty on holiday in Detroit in 1969. it was the title of a hit single by Gladys Knight and The Pips taken from a Motown album of the same name. The song still features in her setlist to this day. Diana ross and The supremes covered it, too.
nitty Gritty was composed by black american Lincoln Chase, who also wrote for The Drifters and ruth Brown, the first ‘Queen of r&B’.
it was originally recorded in 1963 by shirley Ellis, a black american of West indian heritage, best known for The Clapping song and The name Game.
and if nitty Gritty was good enough for Miss Gladys, Diana ross, shirley Ellis and ruth Brown, all descendants of slaves, it should be good enough for the BBC.