Gesture has become so superficial that Lionesses have decided not to continue
with it ahead of Euro 2025 semi-final
The shock value of the Lionesses’ decision against taking the knee was that
they still laboured, five years on, under a misapprehension that it was some
vital instrument in the fight against racism.
Kneeling felt tokenistic even then, a tick-box exercise for football to show how
much it cared, an easy PR win while avoiding any commitment to deeper
change. In 2025, it has become so perfunctory that the England women’s team
are forced to admit it serves no useful purpose.
The reality that these players dared not acknowledge was that it had never
had any power in the first place. This was not some 21st-century equivalent
of the Black Power salute, when Tommie Smith and John Carlos stood atop a
podium at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and raised black-gloved fists to the
sky at grave personal cost to themselves.
This was an empty, performative
piece of gesture politics.
Jess Carter has spoken of “vile” and “abhorrent” comments directed towards
her online during the latest tournament. For all that she deserves sympathy
over her ordeal, it is revealing that she and her team-mates are abandoning
their anti-racism campaign on the pitch at the precise moment that they
confront evidence of racism off it. There could scarcely be a more damning
illustration of the gesture’s hollowness.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football...05-lost-power/