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Knee on the ground: where does the gesture that the Blues will make before their match against Germany come from?

2021-06-17T21:47:06.873Z


FOCUS - Popularized in 2016 by an American football player, this controversial gesture of protest against racism and police violence is invited to the Euro.


The blues will put their knee to the ground before kick-off against Germany.

The gesture has already been made, when the France team faced Wales.

They will do it again tonight.

Since the start of the competition, several teams have done the same, like Belgium, England, Wales or Switzerland.

A gesture that is controversial, criticized by several personalities on the right.

Sports Minister Roxana Maracineanu stressed on France Info that this gesture was a

“personal commitment”

on the part of the player.

To read also: Natacha Polony: "We only have the victories of the Blues to feel we belong to a community"

This gesture was highly publicized last year in the United States, by supporters of the cause "Black Lives Matter" (Black lives matter, in English) who knelt on the ground in protest against police violence in the against African Americans, who claimed the life of George Floyd on May 27, 2020 in Minneapolis.

To read also: Philippe d'Iribarne: “The“ woke ”and decolonial madness, daughter of the utopia of perfect equality specific to the West”

Kneeling was popularized in 2016, when Colin Kaepernick and teammate Eric Reid, two African-American football players, knelt during the national anthem.

Four years later, the gesture has become a movement, the “take a knee” movement, a symbol of African-Americans' mistrust of the police.

Colin Kaepernick (R) and Eric Reid (L), kneel down on September 12, 2016. THEARON W. HENDERSON / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP

From Martin Luther King to George Floyd

"

I will not show pride for the flag of a country that oppresses blacks and people of color,

" said Colin Kaepernick, quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers in an interview.

I am not anti-American.

I love the United States

[...]

I want to help make America better,

”he added after the match.

The gesture is not trivial.

It had already been used by Martin Luther King as a gesture of prayer and humility during the civil rights movement.

In 2017, Eric Reid, the companion of Colin Kaepernick, explained his gesture to the

New York Times.

We chose to kneel down because it is a respectful gesture.

I remember thinking that our posture was like a flag fluttering at half mast to mark a tragedy

”.

As for John Carlos and Tommie Smith, the famous African-American athletes who raised their fists on the podium at the Olympic Games in Mexico in 1968, Colin Kaepernick's gesture cost him: yet star of his discipline, the quarterback did not found a team at the end of his contract.

"

For many owners

[...]

, signing a contract with Kaepernick,

[is]

bad for the business,

" explained Joe Lockhart, one of the communications managers of the National Football League (NFL) at the time. , in an article published on CNN.

The gesture had provoked the boos of the spectators, and divided the Americans.

John Carlos and Tommie Smith raise their fists to protest racism in the United States on the podium at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. EPU / AFP

But the gesture is echoed by other NFL players. It earned them the disapproval of part of the American political class. Donald Trump, then in the presidential campaign, takes up the subject. “

It's a terrible thing. Maybe he

[Colin Kaepernick]

should find a country that suits him better,

”he says. Having become president a few months later, he lost his temper during a speech in Alabama on September 22, 2017. “

When someone disrespects our flag, wouldn't you like to hear from one of these owners of the NFL say, "Get that motherfucker off the field immediately. He's fired!"

".

Gradually, the gesture leaves the stadiums and is essential in the demonstrations "Black lives Matter".

With the death of George Floyd, he became the symbol of police violence against black people all over the world.

In France, the participants of the demonstrations organized to demand the light on the case of Adama Traoré - young black man of 24 years who died in 2016 after his arrest by the gendarmes - also put the knee on the ground.

It is now the turn of the players of the France team.

The team of France and Wales have put their knees on the ground.

ERIC GAILLARD / REUTERS

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-06-17

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