I didn't boo and would never, ever boo a rangers player regardless (I even hate it when there's booing at the end of a game we've lost). But I really hate the taking the knee stuff and here's why I think players should stop doing it.
I don't for one second think any Rangers players or Marcus Rashford or Bakayo Saka or any players for that matter are doing the gesture in support of cultural Marxism or anything other than pushing for racial equality/justice (call it what you will). However the whole gesture came from an individual (or least became prominent to the masses) Colin Kaepernick in direct support of BLM etc. What has followed is months of violence, looting, assault and even murder (in the US) in the name of BLM. The group's stated goals are to end almost everything we would classify as western values.
Since the taking the knee became the done thing in football you've had organisations like sky sports news falling over themselves to tell everyone how racist this country is. The perfect example being post the England v Italy final with all the abuse aimed the black players who missed penalties. A study showed that well over 80% of the racist tweets the England team received came from abroad (75% from Asia and predominantly Islamic countries like Pakistan, UAE, Saudi Arabia etc if I remember right). This is not a fact you'd hear if you listened to the British media. The point of highlighting this is to show the players using the gesture in a well meaning manner are being manipulated and weaponised by those with more nefarious agendas.
To use a bit of an analogy, imagine a group, say anti lockdown groups, started using the Nazi salute as it's symbol of unifying gesture. Imagine there were people marching around city centres protesting by doing the Nazi salute. They tell you it's nothing to do with Nazis, it's simply a gesture that they want to end lockdowns. How do you think that would go down? Would a distinction be drawn? Would we have media groups falling over themselves to say "don't boo them, they aren't using it as a political gesture, just simply for the sign of freedom"? Of course not, they've be labelled far right Nazis before Jim Whyte could start preaching about it. The more worrying thing would be that it would be a perfect recruiting tool for actual Nazi groups to show that their movement as widespread support.
That's the same issue I have with the taking or the knee. The gesture has been weaponised to such an extent by the media that it will provoke a reaction and provide an untrue narrative of racists booing. It can then be used as a recruiting tool by those within BLM organisations to sew the seeds of racial division amongst young black people who see images of Rashford etc being booed.
So my big ask of the players would be, if you really feel a football pitch is the best place to display your message, don't pick one which is clearly already tarnished. Pick something different. Would show racism the red card 10 seconds before kick off be any less impactful? No. Would it receive any boos? I highly doubt it.
