Hi keith,
This weekend, Premier League players across the country will be kicking off their season. Before they do so, they’ll take the knee. This powerful message of antiracism is so important because of the presence of racist hate in our game and in our society. The players are saying that they don’t want it – for themselves or their teammates, or for anyone in our country.
Let’s back the players taking the knee and show that we want a game that is welcoming to everyone.
This morning, our friends at the Daily Mirror published new polling we commissioned. A massive majority of people think that racism in football has got worse in the last few years. Depressingly, they’re probably right. But here’s the hope: big, big numbers get why the players are taking the knee, and a majority back them in doing so. And two-thirds say they back players taking stances on social issues like racism or poverty.
At this weekend’s Community Shield game between Leicester and Man City, a few idiots booed the players taking the knee. But they were soon drowned out by fans who cheered and applauded the gesture.
That’s what we want to do on social media this week. We know there are idiots who claim taking the knee is Marxist or divisive. We know there are some cynical politicians who want to whip that sort of sentiment up. But there’s more of us than there are of them so let’s make some noise and use social media to say we back the players.
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Thanks for reading, and here’s to a great season for Palace,
Matthew
PS - to coincide with the season starting, we’re publishing a new magazine – the Heroes of the Terraces. It’s a huge 100+ page publication all about the role football fans have played in the antifascist and anti-racism struggle. It goes on sale at the end of the week but you can get a FREE copy by becoming a member of HOPE not hate before Sunday. We’ll send a free copy to you and you’ll be supporting our work. Join here.
