Is the reality now that racists can no longer hide away?
■ In response to the comments regarding the reaction of Millwall fans booing players who took a knee, I find it laughable when people like George try to dismiss it by saying ‘all lives matter’ (MetroTalk, Tue).
Yes, all lives may matter, but you don’t see white people regularly discriminated against to the point of being abused for the colour of their skin, unlike many people of colour, who can receive racist abuse just for walking on the street.
Until POC are treated the same way as everyone else, movements like Black Lives Matter will continue to show support for people who face discrimination. Because what is the point in saying ‘all lives matter’ if we try to turn a blind eye to racism whenever someone actually tries to make that statement true?
Likewise, to Jay, who says ‘political correctness is making racists out of us’. Far from it, it’s just harder now for racists to hide their true nature.
Matthew, Birmingham
■ I go to games to watch football. Like many fans, I am not interested in players taking the knee. Match Of The Day shows it in the highlights. Why does it have to be continually shown?
The players are at their place of work and how many other people take the knee before they go to work? I don’t! Does the prime minister? Shop workers? NHS staff? No. So why do footballers keep pushing this down our throats?
Yes, we all want to do away with racism, but maybe those people booing just want their football back.
Anyway, these are the same players who wore poppies on their shirts but said nothing when Black Lives Matter idiots sprayed graffiti on statues of war heroes. Sometimes players need to take a good, hard look at things and not just follow like sheep.
LJB, Liverpool
■ Black Lives Matter isn’t saying others’ lives don’t matter any more than campaigning to save the whales means you don’t care about hedgehogs.
If a police officer is killed, there are headlines, a debate about the death penalty and severe sentences for the killer(s). So clearly blue lives do matter.
When a black person, like Mikey Powell (poet Benjamin Zephaniah’s cousin), dies in police custody – an inquest ruled police restraint killed him and he died of asphyxiation – and nothing happens, his life clearly doesn’t matter as much.
Black people are disproportionately more likely to get stopped, arrested and convicted. They get longer sentences. They even get an extreme extra penalty, like deportation, if there’s an issue around their citizenship.
If people riot, like over the killing of Mark Duggan, they’re told that’s wrong. When they protest against injustice through the simple act of taking a knee, along with non-black allies, they’re now also told that’s wrong.
If you’re anti anti-racists please consider that you are, in fact, racist.
M Reader, London
■ The booing has been rightly condemned. In sport, as in life, there is no room for racism.
However, why one should be subjected to a public display of anti-racism every time one watches a Premier League or major football match is beyond me.
Why do footballers see themselves as the physical representation of a section of public conscience?
And just because you don’t publicly acknowledge the gesture and what it represents does not imply agreement or disagreement. I go to watch a match irrespective of the colour of the players – in fact, it is not an issue. Why does the footballing community make it one? Phil, Lancaster
■ Why is it that any opinion other than that of BLM is deemed racist? Many people want an end to racism but do not agree with the terminology ‘black lives matter’ – it excludes by colour and isn’t that racist?
William, Catford
■ As a football fan, I was embarrassed by the scenes at Millwall. As a proud white Scottish male, I welcome all races as we are all human beings.
I believe if the knee was being taken against police brutality rather than Black Lives Matter, these scenes would have been avoided. These so-called fans are showing racism beyond belief, which I and hopefully the rest of Scotland don’t want to be part of.
Scott Gowers, Edinburgh
■ It should be painfully clear by now that all European and Western societies hide within their societies groups that are racist, bigoted, xenophobic and misogynistic.
Given the right stimulus, they can’t help themselves. This way of thinking is passed down through the generations and there is no way to stop it, except to kneel for what you believe in and stand up against the things you don’t. Mike, Dagenham
■ Joyce Wokoh is being somewhat disingenuous when she says BLM is about protesting police brutality (MetroTalk, Tue).
It may well have begun as that but unfortunately it has been hijacked by people who are wholly ill-disposed towards the police whatever they do.
As to those who say ‘all lives matter’. If they really believe that, they have to accept it must therefore include murderers, rapists, paedophiles, terrorists, people-traffickers, drug dealers, cyber-criminals and all other people who do not abide by the laws that govern the normal state of society.
Chris HG, Maidstone
■ Your headline yesterday asked, ‘Why does taking the knee get on people’s nerves?’ You then published reader contributions that did not adequately address the question. Perhaps you could employ a guest journalist, brighter than your in-house team, to write a 500-word article on the subject of genuflection. Its significance answers your question. John, Southgate