Staying seated rather than standing, and subsequently, kneeling on one knee, was a bold gesture done during the American national anthem, inside America, by Colin Kaepernick, an American footballer of mixed heritage, adopted and raised by European-American parents in America, and who identifies as African-American. The US national anthem is traditionally played at the start of American football games. Kaepernick's act was was done to symbolise the oppressive effect of American chronic racism toward African-Americans, manifested most vividly by police violence and brutality on a day-to-day basis in several states. It was a statement of protest against this. As it happened, he did this in 2016, during the first year of Donald Trump's presidency, Mr Trump not renowned for championing civil rights as pertaining to African-Americans. At the time, it didn't draw huge headlines here in the UK, on the other side of the pond, and therefore few people knew about it. As more American footballers of African heritage began to follow suit, with "taking the knee", as it became known in the US, Mr Trump, the US President, decided the following year to intervene on this political gesture becoming a regular feature in this branch of American sport. He said football clubs should "fire" (sack) players who "insulted" the US national anthem in this way. This drew some headlines here, but that was it.

It was not until the murder of Mr George Floyd in 2020 that British football leagues including the Premiership, decided to emulate this gesture - footballers, managers and their staff on the touchline, referees and assistant referees alike all 'taking the knee' just after the whistle was blown at the start of football matches, and it has, by and large, continued.

My view on this, and the recent booing of this of a substantial portion of the crowd at recent England Euro 2021 'warm-up' friendly games is this:

The 'taking of the knee' over here by professional footballers, in a country that has yet to get its own house in order in a tangible way on the British form of racism toward people of non-European heritage generally, but people of African heritage in particular, is nothing more than empty, visual symbolism and copycatting. It serves no useful purpose; it is gesture politics,  it is hypocritical, and here's why.

Unlike American racism, which is essentially unsophisticated, unsubtle, monomorphic, in-your-face racism, British racism is a completely different animal: it is polymorphic, multifaceted, chameleon-like. At one end of the spectrum, it is subtle, smile-in-your-face, non-confrontational, middle and upper middle-class racism that manifests at interviews, and in job promotion decision-making for those who have got past interviews and have managed to secure work. It manifests day-to-day in backbiting, clique-ism and other forms of ostracism ranging from the covert victimisation that can be easily denied as being racially-motivated, to the overt victimisation by those not sophisticated enough to hide behind that screen. At the other end of the spectrum is the working class form, and to some extent, the lower middle-class form, that manifests itself most freely in stadiums hosting professional football matches at all levels up and down the country, by players (those in the Premiership and Championship very highly paid indeed), coaching teams and supporters ('fans') alike. In the case of these 'fans', it can happen whether alcohol-fuelled or not. It's odd, even ironic, isn't it, that the word 'fanatics' should be abbreviated to 'fans'. Perhaps the racists should be called 'fanatics' in full, while the decent supporters are called supporters.

But here's the thing: none of these protean manifestations of British racism are seriously going to be dented, let alone cured, by imported American gestures like 'taking the knee', which come from a completely different cultural and historical context. Instead, it draws cynicism from a swathe of the British public, including me and the likes of Sherelle Jacobs, who is also non-European. Yes, she is an Assistant Editor for the Daily Telegraph, but writing as she does for a broadsheet on the right of the political spectrum does not disqualify her. She makes the same points as I do, and she makes them articulately. I've seen and heard her on TV and radio and, in short, we share the view that this gesture, apart from its cheap symbolism on this side of the Atlantic, is not only as useless as 'Kick it Out'  and "Show racism the red card", but it actually provokes the racists, recruits racists and thereby aggravates and perpetuates racism. British racism is not going to be solved by copying everything the Americans spout out, no matter how over-simplistic, ignorant and toxic:

- terminologies with "black" in it to refer to people, occasions and businesses etc. - "Black History Month" (that it is just a month is a self-defeating joke, anyway),

" "Black Lives" Matter" (again, the  concept of the "black life" is worthy of ridicule)

- terminologies with "white" in it to refer to people

- terminologies with "brown" in it to refer to South Asians

- terminologies with "colour" in it to refer to people at all who are non-European - "people of colour".  Why not call Europeans "colourless people" then? That's what it implies.

The different types of British racism require different solutions:-

The working class form requires education from an early age (in the home and infant school onwards) on respect for different heritages minus the contamination caused by "colour" terminology. " "Black people" are equal to "white people" " is polarising, oppositional, is a proven failure and has been for more than 50 years: it simply doesn't work. "Heritage" is the key word - heritage conveys respect and for all people.

Ditto for the lower middle-class form.

The solution for middle-  and upper-class racism is more complicated. Knocking on the door of wilfully deaf and blind corporations, media outlets, advertising agencies, publishers, legal chambers and public sector institutions and pleading: "Please let me in!" has been tried for 50 years+ and has largely failed. The British education system, aside from the private schools (formerly known as public schools) has been tampered with for the past 40-50-odd years with grammar schools being phased out in the late 1970s to leave just comprehensive schools, then in the early 2000s, 'streaming' brought back in again by the then Prime Minister Tony Blair with 'grant-maintained schools', 'academies' etc. while, again, leaving the private schools well alone to that sector of the population that can afford it. Yes, we know the majority of Prime Ministers, senior ministers, judges and QCs and captains of industry and their board members for the past 100 years+, be they male or female, have been privately educated. But opening up private schools to the general public is not the solution to middle-class, upper middle-class, or indeed any form of racism. Neither is a quota system; yes it seems to work in corporate America, but not in corporate Britain, with its culture of clique-ism, freemasonry and "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours". Ditto for senior positions in the public sector (judiciary, medical profession, to name some).

There is a motto that my father liked to use: "Respect should be commanded, not demanded."

In other words, it should be earned, not asked for or demanded. What I know Europeans, not just the British, sit up and listen to, is entrepreneurial spirit and success, i.e. ideas and innovations of your own, put into practice that has usefulness for the general public or consumer and earns that entrepreneur or innovator a profit and a living, as well as generating revenue for the Treasury. I have said for many a year to those around me of African heritage and those youngsters I know and meet who are of African heritage going into university, are at university, or not, that we can and should change the narrative: strive to stop history repeating itself, generation after generation for our community by adopting an entrepreneurial mindset to fall back on, as well as just "I'm going to look for a job" (which will almost invariably be in companies owned by people who are not of African heritage). With your law and engineering and architectural and journalism degrees, club together, put money together (borrow if need be - be creative and look to where you can borrow at low risk; including well-to-do relatives or friends' relatives if you can find some; not just banks, though they have an obligation to lend more readily post-2008 and their bail-out by the public) and form your own law firms, engineering consultancies, media companies, PR companies and grow these. When they become successful, you earn respect, even if grudging, even if tinged with a modicum of jealousy. This is what many South Asians, for example, have done.

These are  the practical solutions to these different, but equally pervasive, forms of British racism.

Simply importing 'taking the knee' or any other posture from a completely different context is not.

© Allswell E. Eno