Kneeling ritual: Aren’t we drawing everyone back into the sick gutter of racism instead?

Author, Mr Moses Banturaki. PHOTO/FILE.

What you need to know:

  • For those who didn’t watch the game in 2014 go to YouTube. In a game, with bananas being thrown at him in no complementary manner, Dani Alves picks one and eats it before proceeding to assist two goals. 

Racism shows up in many forms. It could be a white policeman kneeling on an unarmed black man’s neck for all of the eight minutes it takes the victim to die, or football fans making monkey chants at a black player they don’t really like. 

In both the above instances it is clear that this is just an ignorant minority who are convinced they can assume superiority by putting down others based on their perceptions of or the physical differences that exist amongst us humans. 

But this is 2020 you see and not 1820 and the knowledge and exposure we have accumulated over the years tells us that racial discrimination is many times the drug simple minds use to fix their insecurities. 
Yes, different races have different attributes. They could be physical or behavioural and that is an apparent fact of nature and nurture that should represent no crisis at all. Yet it still irritates us that some people still rely upon evolutionary and historical differences to discriminate against others. 

Football hasn’t been insulated from all this. Racism is as much present in the game as it is in everyday life. In all fairness, football has acknowledged this and fought back severally. These days before every kick-off, we see players taking a knee in that now global ritual developed in solidarity with the famous “Black Live Matter” movement. 

But like all rituals one wonders whether it isn’t starting to get tired. Does it serve a purpose any longer? Has it ever served any in the first place or does it just look good on television? How many of all those players have a choice in the matter? I have for instance seen some people choosing not to kneel. Not in the premiership, but in the NBA for example. Do they all still believe in this whole kneeling thing and its ability to communicate a message? 
In a search for answers, I have arrived at two conclusions. Racism is socio-cultural conditioning woven into our social fabric for centuries that I am afraid no amount of kneeling can heel. 

Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, I strongly believe that by giving racism the kind of attention it receives these days, we are in a way drawing everyone right back into the gutter we are trying to climb out of. If racism in whatever form is just an attempt to assume dominance, then all this attention is an acceptance of this assumed superiority – a big threat that must be dealt with heavily. 
I would rather we treat racist behavior with the kind of contempt it deserves yes, but also that this would be best achieved by giving it the least possible attention. I am not for riots and rosy gestures. I prefer the Danni Alves method. 

For those who didn’t watch the game in 2014 go to YouTube. In a game, with bananas being thrown at him in no complementary manner, Dani Alves picks one and eats it before proceeding to assist two goals.  
Suddenly Racism is faced with a weapon it has never had to contend with. This can’t be termed as silent suffering of the downtrodden or the venom of street riots that only serve to fan flames of racial hatred.
 This is coolness itself. There is a certain victory to be harvested from denying a person suffering from a superiority complex the attention they crave for.
This then is how ignorance must be fought – with a universal light heartedness that will serve the ultimate purpose of reminding all of us that peace can disarm even the evilest of methods. Just saying.