The booing of players taking a knee in support of the fight against discrimination is a reflection of modern politics in Britain and beyondWhy, to paraphrase Mario Balotelli, is it always them? Millwall. Always Millwall. Despite the attempts of many good people to soften the club’s features, to give them a more friendly face, there is always a knucklehead element dragging them down. ’Twas ever thus for the club with the longest rap sheet in football.Do you know how long it took for the Den to be closed down because of fan unrest after it opened in August 1920? Less than two months, after fans threw missiles at the Newport goalkeeper, John Cooper – and then, for good measure, punched...
The Black Lives Matter movement has highlighted problems faced by players who have felt alienated by teammatesBack in July the South African fast bowler Lungi Ngidi answered a question about the Black Lives Matter movement: “It’s something we will be addressing as a team,” he said, “and if we are not, it’s something I will bring up.” It was a tiny spark, but it started a fire that has burned through the South African winter, as more and more black players have started to open up about their unhappy experiences playing for the national team. In the end, Cricket South Africa launched a Social Justice and Nation Building project, to investigate whether it ought to pay reparations to players who...
Fifty-two years after Tommie Smith and John Carlos used the Olympic podium to protest against racial injustice, a new documentary examines the legacy of the gestureChaos on the streets. Poison seeping into minds. Athletes speaking out against racial injustice being vilified as villains by those in power. Right now 2020 looks a lot like 1968, recast and rebooted.Certainly when LeBron James and other NBA stars went on strike last week, they were standing on the shoulders of giants of that era. And two in particular: Tommie Smith and John Carlos, whose podium protests at the 1968 Olympics are the subject of a timely and vital new film, The Stand: How One Gesture Shook The World. Related: Most Australian athletes believe...
The Jewish tennis player Angela Buxton, who has died aged 85, broke down barriers and showed a healthy disregard for convention along with her doubles partner, the African American Althea GibsonI met Angela Buxton only once, in New York about a year ago, at the US Open. What a treat it was. She was sitting there in her wheelchair in the main media room of the Billie Jean King Center like an unexploded hand grenade, looking with mild suspicion at the notebooks and tape recorders of a small clutch of reporters, most of whom were not born when she was playing her best tennis and who struggled now to figure her out.Buxton died at home in Florida at the weekend,...
The Rugby Against Racism campaign was belatedly born this week, 25 years after the game turned professional and thanks in the main to the raised awareness brought by the Black Lives Matter movementBlack lives matter. Those three words – a statement distilled to its purest form – are the best explanation I can give as to why I will take a knee when rugby restarts on Friday night. I am totally aware that the statement has been politicised and I strongly disagree with some of the things the organisation stands for, but there is one reason why pretty much every household has developed a greater understanding and awareness of anti-racism recently: the Black Lives Matter movement.I also want to clear...