Why do people have pineapple with gammon? Its gotta be 2 eggs surely?

I think this issue is pretty much like any in modern society - it becomes massively polarised, the debate becomes poisonous and nobody benefits.

Whether Black Lives Matter is political is surely debatable. Whether people like it or not you can probably make a fairly well reasoned argument to say it is or it isn't.

Sky Sports and other companies have already continued to show support for the Black Lives Matter movement and distanced themselves from the organisation. You'd be lucky to find many people who say they are actively supportive of the organisation in this country, many aren't aware of it. It's not impossible that a movement can be distinct from the people who organised it and their political opinions. After all, many of the original civil rights marches, protests and movements were organised by communist sympathisers and former members of the communist party in the US. The whole Civil Rights movement isn't null and void because of the beliefs of some people involved. No doubt at the time there would have been people labeling the civil rights struggle as 'political' whereas we know now that staying out of it was the same as endorsing the status quo. Likewise, the Black Lives Matter movement isn't necessarily Marxist just because the people who helped the movement take off may be Marxist.

On the other hand, the group that made the movement take off shares their name with the movement. That's not a coincidence. The term Black Lives Matter was supposed to spread across the world and support a social cause but no doubt to promote the organisation itself. Whether it's the evil marxist cult that people seem to want to make it out to be I don't know, but their stated aims certainly seemed to go beyond social equality and into the realms of politics. I can see why people might believe that you can't separate the movement from the organisation because they have the exact same name.
I debated this on another forum and one of the things I mentioned was that no matter how much you try to separate BLM the movement from BLM the organisation, if one person associated with BLM the organisation says or does something considered unacceptable the movement itself will be tarnished. It's the way of the world, and makes it inevitable that people may have to backtrack or clarify their position, as Sky had to when the BLM UK account started tweeting about Israel.

What I can't understand is why no one saw controversy coming and decided to counter it before it happened. Why not have a different anti-racism protest or message. It was obvious that the BLM message in the US doesn't quite fit perfectly over here with some of the stated aims. We also have some pretty major issues of racism against other ethnicities that aren't as prominent in the Black Lives Matter movement.

Surely there is no issue with having flags and banners for anti-racism charities? Maybe work with 'Kick It Out'. I know they seem to focus mainly on football by why not expand that message to RL. Why not look into a specific RL related anti-racism message and display it prominently during games? It seems like there were many other avenues to be explored with this.

BLM doesn't have a monopoly on anti-racism. It's not a choice between displaying BLM flags and kneeling or being a racist. Part of me wonders whether the organised BLM kneeling is a way of organisations making it look like they are doing the right thing while putting in the least amount of effort. RL going its own way with anti-racism slogans, messages or supporting charities would take more effort, but I think it's something they'd be more likely to stick with long term. Plus there'd still be plenty of opportunities for players to take the knee if they wanted to - during the team photo or just before the kick off. It would just be individual rather than pre-arranged to happen after a whistle.

I think what we've had instead is massive focus on an already controversial figure within the game, providing more negative publicity, even though his reasons seemed fair enough. I'm not religious, but in this instance if he feels he can only kneel before god then fine, it doesn't make him racist to not kneel. He may even be supportive of BLM. In fact it becomes a bit awkward when a load of mostly white people start criticising his decisions regarding protesting racism when there's a greater chance of him facing racism as a son of Tongan parents in Australia, than they have as white people in the UK or Australia. Similarly, we've also had Wakefield generating negative press for all but one of the team not taking the knee, while also finding some new supporters for that stance that I'd hope they wouldn't want at their games. It reflects poorly on the game and I feel like there was an easy way to avoid it. Although maybe I'd misinterpreted the mood and people would have objected even if they displayed a different anti-racism message. Although if that's the case then stop the world because I want to get off.

I have both

I think you've summed it up perfectly.

Noooooo just wrong that. Although you did refer to yourself as intelligent before so i suppose owt con happen now.

Noooooo just wrong that. Although you did refer to yourself as intelligent before so i suppose owt con happen now.

Err yes, and please do some reading, as you clearly do not know of the leaders of the US BLM.



I also support the Police, unlike BLM !

Now have look at BLM's statements on THEIR website, it's not hard to do.

Please don't make it up, like most BLM supporters and yes, they are far left marxists now you mention it. I didn't. It's hard to argue with idiots.

If anyone is getting an raw deal where equality and fair treatment is concerned, it is more so, the ingenious people of countries like Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA.

I agree and if sportspeople want to do get down on one knee, it should be by their own thinking and not being told to do it of not wanting to be different than their teammates.

Like I have said before, in no way do I believe that every sportsperson in our country wants to do it, but by doing so en bloc, making it look that you no mind of your own and acting like a flock of sheep being led by american extremists shepherds!

Even the Democrat Party in the USA have now jumped on the bandwagon by selecting for the first time ever, a black woman as running mate to their Presidential candidate in order to get votes from the black population.

But that's Politicians for you, will say or do anything at election time!

p.s. We even have one here in Wigan!

.... or maybe they think she's the best person for the job? It is possible to be black, female and competent believe it or not.

I think the 3 or 4 post above yours explain Exactly why these causes need to continue.

My head hurts from trying to understand their logic

I think that's one of the problems that perpetuates a lot of todays problems, the left struggling to understand logic.

Give them a break, they've worked very hard to come up with an acceptable problem with it. You can't expect them to say "I don't like this cause because it's not about me or the people I care about."