Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It is one of the worst forms of discrimination which has been taking place recently.
It originated from the country of South Africa where is was very prevalent. It has played a huge part in cricket and sports in general. One of the worst things about this racism was how predictable it was. Racism has long been found in European sports, and is intensified when players of colour are put in the spotlight during major international competitions. A tweet in response to the harassment captures this phenomenon: “When you score, you’re English. When you miss, you’re an immigrant.”
It wasn’t only English players who experienced such treatment during the tournament. French player Kylian Mbappé faced online abuse when Swiss goalie Yann Somer successfully defended his penalty in the second-round clash that sent les bleus home. Racist abuse resurfaces constantly. This has been on the long running issues in sports which has damaged the reputation of the game.
Recently we saw racist comments being passed upon Indian pacer Mohammad Siraj. Siraj has been a versatile fast bowler for India in recent times anr didn’t deserve the wrath of fans like that. This is a pretty grave issue as there have been many such cases which go unheard most of the times. We have noticed players voicing their concerns against the motion. One of the most popular effective ways is taking a knee.
Taking the knee’ is a symbolic statement against racism where an individual kneels upon one knee as against standing in attention. It has now become a global anti-racism gesture, as per The Scotsman.
More recently, people across the world have started take the knee in solidarity with ‘Black Lives Matter‘ protests which was in response to the murder of 46-year-old African American George Floyd by a white policeman in the US in May 2020. It has been performed at every match in this T20 worldcup by the players.
