Perhaps it's because many people including sportspeople (not just men) where politics is concerned know sod all about the subject and just follow others like sheep!

Football started it, Cricket followed and then Rugby League because they did not want to appear to be different, followed the flock.

At least, the players of Wakefield have had a think about it even if they are then also pressured to to do it like the rest!

Wigan is re-known for it at election time!

Well done on telling everyone what they're thinking and why to fit your narrative

I'll do the same

Maybe peiple who dont agree with the black lives matter message are all sheep because they listen to the right wing, racist rhetoric from Facebook/Twitter etc rather than researching the subject and understanding the nuanced issues surrounding them

They're all sheep who cant think for themselves and rather than engage in reasoned debate just like looking at headlines and quick empty slogans. They have no empathy and just view everything from their own experiences or pont of view because they're arrogant and think they know everything. Once met with reasoned debate they resort to using terms that in reality they dont understand such as "Marxist, lefties, Woke, snowflake, etc." To discredit other peoples arguments.

I'll let you decide if any of the above is true, and which bits fit your stance.

You realise that the same can be said for some (not everyone) on the other side of the arguement tho?

Sadly the middle ground has disappeared and we now just have two sides at polar opposites of the debate with zero willingness to compromise. I think this is particularly true when it comes to BLM or LGBTQ issues as there's a lot of dogma and insistence on both sides that there's only one 'right' path. You only need to look at the comments on here and stuff like 'over 70s followers won't be missed', due to them not fitting the narrative of what said person thinks. For a message of inclusion that's pretty appalling.

Let's use a real world example - there's been plenty of talk about some sports and how they need to accept that they have a racism problem. Now any logical person after hearing that, or looking at the makeups of squads would be right to challenge it Does that then make them racist?

I personally don't think our sport or others have racism problems. Now I'm not stupid enough to say that society in general doesn't have an issue - because it does. Just don't tell me that the colour of your skin has an impact on if say a rugby or football team will pick you up. These players will then be subject to racist abuse, but that's a society issue and as long as the sports are working to kick the idiots out then that's as far as they should go imo. Sadly the trend is now to blindly admit to things that aren't that true, or try to fix things outside of your control & no one will win there.

I think that taking the knee should be left to the individual, not something that's imposed from on high.

But surely you can see that of all the clubs in the game, Wigan have very good reason to send out anti-racist defiance?

All the way back to Boston and beyond, we've fielded black players who've been grotesquely abused at away grounds. Some of the stuff that Offiah, Hanley and Henderson Gill had to endure - I remember bananas being chucked onto the pitch at Knowsley Road! - were mind-blowingly awful.

If today's players want to show solidarity with those stars of the past then surely it's up to them?

I agree.

The whole band wagon was a result of a perfect storm of the media wanting to report on something other than Covid-19 as people were fed up of seeing it on the news so they doubled down on BLM. It was pushed along by a load of frustrated students unable to do their exams, study, party, go to festivals, go on holiday, go to the pubs and social events and with a mixture of hormones being all over the place and a want to rebel they provided the muscle and the numbers. Not wanting to be left out of a social justice cause most slebs jumped on the band wagon. As did Sky Sports who since being sold by Rupert Murdoch has turned into a social justice preaching service, so they have pushed the agenda onto the sports which it controls, the pay master told football, cricket and rugby league what to do and they followed.

Once the anti-semitic comments came out a good few people distances themselves from it, when people found out what it stood for they also distanced themselves from it and a few people wouldn't be bullied and brow beaten into supporting them. With the pubs opening the cause died a death and its only actively being pushed by Sky Sports because they've doubled down on it.

It's a peculiar cause because anyone who disagrees with it or doesn't tow the line is called a racist, and nobody wants that so many take the easy option and just go with it.

If you try and help, you're called a white saviour.
If you do nothing, silence is violence.
If you're black and don't agree, you're an Uncle Tom.
If you disagree, you're a racist.
If you don't see racism, you've got white privilege and need to be re-educated.

You can only get by by doing exactly what they want you to do, which is kneel, an act of subservience. Kneeling does not say equality, kneeling shows you're beneath whatever you're kneeling for. This is why it's a marxist cause and a divisive one that sows disunity between races, one that wasn't there before 2020 and has only served but create a wedge between the two. But BLM, the left and co will be happy about that because having people turn against them justifies their behaviour and antics over the past few months. Kind of self serving if you ask me and no doubt will create plenty of jobs for people in big businesses eg a culture and equalities manager like the Soviet Unions Commissars they used to have in the military to ensure the military was towing the political line.

There are many people vocal in support of it, this gives a false indication of public opinion, because the modern day stasi are monitoring social media posts ready to make you an un-person should you have free thought and go against an idea which they promote.

All in all, politics and sport don't mix. The club should not be picking a side, and don't come 'Oh my God, they are two different things' if you believe that then it's you who is naive, very naive. The club and league should promote an anti-racism cause, thats fine, but it has to be against every form of racism like the 'Kick it Out' campaign, one with a name/cause/phrase that covers all.

Jukes I'm very positive about supporting anything against racism and I was fine fine with the message black lives matter but after hearing a leading representative of the organisation Black Lives Matter from London on the radio advocating an end capitalism, defunding the Police and an end to the "western" nuclear family my support for that organisation stopped immediately. I went onto their website later in the today to see if his comments were validated on the site and they were so that just re-enforced my view.

I don't do Facebook or Twitter, I have only ever voted Labour and I'd probably consider myself just left of centre so I'm not right wing by any stretch of the imagination.
I'd like to consider myself to be a reasonable bloke but I will not ever condone any organisation that is either Marxist or Fascist as they both cheeks of the same harris.

Re the nuanced comment go on Twitter and renounce the Black Lives Matter organisation and let me know what reaction you get.

What do you suggest someone like myself should do? It's a genuine question and I'm not trying to be a smart harris.

I don't support the BLM movement or any other political movement, party, stance whatever you want to call it that wants to de-fund the police or turn the country into a war zone.

I do however support the fact that racism in all forms needs to stop whether it be abusing a player from the sidelines, on social media or in the workplace.

Taking the knee in support of BLM is quite simply (in my eyes and opinion) the same as holding a minutes silence in memory of those that died of covid or anything else. It is a gesture and a symbol that we, as a sport, do not agree with racism. If you see it as something else then you are well within your rights to do so but you have to ask the question as to whether sports would support such an organisation. Do teams wear "Vote Labour" t-shirts when they warm up around election time? This is not a political stance it is a human rights stance, IMO of course which we are all entitled to as I said, however choosing to boycott the club because they have chosen to stand up against racism may not paint you in the best of lights to other people.

Just to add to the above BTW, Bevan French and David Fifita draped an Aboriginal flag over their shoulders on Sunday. How exactly was that supporting a political movement wanting to de-fund the British police?

Who said that I was boycotting the club??????????????????

Not aimed at you that part but there are people on this thread saying they will/are

What is a "Western nuclear family" and what was being said about it? Genuine question.

Quick google brings up this comment on the BLM website:

"We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and “villages” that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable."

Sounds like trying to foster a wider sense of community and care for one another beyond the narrow definition of family and associated responsibility? Hard to find too much to rail against there.

Or was something else said on the radio that suggests it means something else?

Reply to Itchy

Hes nailed it here, just like he nailed it 4 pages ago

The message Black Lives Matter is what is being relayed.
Anybody's views on the organisation in the USA (the original one which I have more time for) or the UK arm of the same organisation (which I havent read too much about but seems to be a little more Bandwagony) is irrelevant

Dont wear an England shirt at the next England game, Because the EDL or any other right wing facist party's/organisations try to use it as a slogan for their Vile causes.

Its equally as nonsensical

People either accept that Racism is an issue or not
If you do, then you should speak up about it as "Evil wins when good men stand by and do nothing" (I know that's not even the real quote but you get what I mean)

Or
Someone doesnt believe it is a problem and if so then either :-

They are listening to the people trying to deflect/gaslight that message because the people doing that are ever so slightly racist
Or
They're just wrong

Black lives matter the message is simple, Black lives matter
Now without getting into the complex, nuanced detail, there has been and continues to be a systemic abuse against that basic human right.

No one is saying white lives dont matter, no one is saying that black people dont kill black or white people, no is saying black people are perfect, bo one is saying white people today should be ashamed of what white people did 100/200/500 years ago.

The message is to raise awareness that tmBlack lives havent always had that equality and still dont.

I back that message

Quote: Jukesays "Reply to Itchy Hes nailed it here, just like he nailed it 4 pages ago The message Black Lives Matter is what is being relayed. Anybody's views on the organisation in the USA (the original one which I have more time for) or the UK arm of the same organisation (which I havent read too much about but seems to be a little more Bandwagony) is irrelevant Dont wear an England shirt at the next England game, Because the EDL or any other right wing facist party's/organisations try to use it as a slogan for their Vile causes. Its equally as nonsensical People either accept that Racism is an issue or not If you do, then you should speak up about it as "Evil wins when good men stand by and do nothing" (I know that's not even the real quote but you get what I mean) Or Someone doesnt believe it is a problem and if so then either How can you say that black lives don't matter as much in the UK, what a load of rubbish. There are laws that protect people of ethnicity from being treated differently, anyone would think there were gangs of KKK rampaging through the streets lynching people. I think people get our history and Americas mixed up or they've watched too many films set in the deep South during the Jim Crow era. All in all, it just goes to show why Politics sport shouldn't mix. Don't say it isn't politics because it is and reminds me of this advert from years ago. IN https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ame0j8jbMY4OUT

Quote: Jukesays "Reply to Itchy Hes nailed it here, just like he nailed it 4 pages ago The message Black Lives Matter is what is being relayed. Anybody's views on the organisation in the USA (the original one which I have more time for) or the UK arm of the same organisation (which I havent read too much about but seems to be a little more Bandwagony) is irrelevant Dont wear an England shirt at the next England game, Because the EDL or any other right wing facist party's/organisations try to use it as a slogan for their Vile causes. Its equally as nonsensical People either accept that Racism is an issue or not If you do, then you should speak up about it as "Evil wins when good men stand by and do nothing" (I know that's not even the real quote but you get what I mean) Or Someone doesnt believe it is a problem and if so then either How can you say that black lives don't matter as much in the UK, what a load of rubbish. There are laws that protect people of ethnicity from being treated differently, anyone would think there were gangs of KKK rampaging through the streets lynching people. I think people get our history and Americas mixed up or they've watched too many films set in the deep South during the Jim Crow era. All in all, it just goes to show why Politics sport shouldn't mix. Don't say it isn't politics because it is and reminds me of this advert from years ago. IN https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ame0j8jbMY4OUT

Can't see where he's said that TBH