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In 2015, artist David Butler helped curate a group exhibition at the Elijah Pierce Gallery dubbed Forceful Perceptions, which centered itself on the violence enacted on the Black community and included Butlers painting of Trayvon Martin, who was shot and killed by George Zimmerman in 2012 at age 17.

Forceful was all about us talking about violence and the things happening to Black people, Butler said. Its number one purpose was to talk about the violence against the Black body, putting it on display, so that it was front and center.

For Whiteland, which opens at the Vanderelli Room on Friday, July 2, Butler wanted to explore similar issues of race, but without again centering Black pain, or being forced to educate a white audience on the Black experience innavigating tragedy. I didnt want someone coming in just because someone had died two months before the show, said Butler, who solicited contributions for 'Whiteland' from artists who previously displayed in Forceful Perceptions, along with a few new faces. As of press time, Butler said he expected at least eight or nine artists to show work, including Lisa McLymont, Lance Johnson and April Sunami, among others.

In conceiving the show, Butler decided he wanted toexplore the concept of whiteness, as well as how that idea plays into the larger societal contract and the continued repression of communities of color.

If we want to get into the underbelly of the real issue, its whiteness, he said. The issue is white people not wanting to come to the grips with the fact that whether youre rich or poor, well-to-do or rural Appalachian, or you just got here from Europe or Canada because of the color of your skin, youhave benefited from thesystem that has been created. And if you buy into that on any level, it becomes a problem for people who look like me.

This idea of the white populace not wanting to examine its own role in preserving systemic racism is one that is currently playing out in the conversation around critical race theory, an academic framework created four decades ago by legal scholars to explore how racism is embedded in Americas laws and institutions that has recently become the target of an intense right-wing disinformation campaign. (No, theyre not teaching critical race theory in your kids public school.)

Butlerstarted brainstorming ideas for the show by writing out a list of things that angered him, including the reality that Black people continue to be shot and killed by the police, as well asthe political personalities who are continually granted a media platform to sell white supremacist talking points to a national audience.

And I started asking, How can I talk about how all of these people still exist, and they look just like you? Butler said.

Going in, Butler said he knew he didnt want to paint portraits of individuals like Jason Meade, the sheriffs deputy who shot and killed Casey Goodson, or Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown. So instead he started to collect photos of these types, largely grouped into three categories: police officers who had killed Black citizens (Derek Chauvin, Meade, Wilson); politicians who regularlyespoused white supremacist ideologies (Donald Trump, Matt Gaetz, Jim Jordan); and their female equivalents in the worlds of politics and the media (Tomi Lahren, Ann Coulter, Marjorie Taylor Green).

Butler then fed these photos into Artbreeder, a website where users can create an account and upload up to eight parent photos, which are then used to producea composite child. The artist then painted a portrait of each of these unique digital spawns, none of whom exists in real life.

But it was freaky, because it felt like you knew the people. These are all people I could walk by in the Short North today, and thats creepy, Butler said of his initial reaction to seeing thecomputer-generated images. Then it becomes a metaphor for how you never know which person could do you harm. And it also brings up the idea that these children, these digital children birthed of these parents, [represent] the ways that racism reverberates through generations.

While Butler had zero interest in painting portraits of people like Meade, he said the digital amalgamations offered him a needed distance from the source material, describing the works as just data, and thats how I see them. I still havent painted a real white person in 10 years, he said, and laughed.

The trio of portraits by Butler will be flanked on the gallery walls by myriad complex pieces crafted by contemporariesincluding Lance Johnson, a graffiti artist Butler labeled an abstract gra-futurist. I was born and raised in New York City, so coming out of that bubble, it was a little disconcerting, said Johnson, who, in addition to a handful of pieces gracing the walls of the Vanderelli Room, also painted a mural on the exterior of the building. I call [the mural] We the People because America … should be a celebration of diversity. Weve come a long way, but theres a lot more to do.

Butler said that he hopes the work on display in Whiteland angers people, and forces them to confront a system that too many live comfortably within. And Im not saying you have to stop being white. You cant stop being white just like I cant stop being Black, he said. No, what you have to give up is the social construct that gives you power over my life. … And thats all anybody in this show is asking folks to do, is to remember that all of this (Butler gestures at the three composite portraits) creates dead Black people in the streets, the white-washing of histories and laws that are structured to preserve white supremacy.

Regardless of how this message is received, the artist said this group exhibit would likely be his last venture into this realm, serving as a bookend to a drive that started with paintings he started to create even prior to Forceful Perceptions.

This is my last hurrah with this type of [work], Butler said. After this show, Im only painting beautiful Black people and flowers. I want to be able to paint a landscape, or to do something surrealist that doesnt necessarily have race at its core, but that celebrates a more positive, joyful [aspect] of Blackness. And thats what Im going to do from here on out.

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David Butler tackles the other end of the racial spectrum in stunning Whiteland - Columbus Alive

'Boys n the Hood' - John Singleton

Often, to get the whole scope of a cultural problem, more than documentaries or news pieces, it is the work of fiction from those who live within the issue that is able to shed the most light. Initially developed as a requirement for an application to film school in 1986, John Singletons Boyz n the Hood would become a cultural phenomenon, voicing the issues of capitalism on the effect of black families living in poverty-stricken areas of Los Angeles.

Selling his work to Columbia Pictures upon Singletons graduation in 1990, his script drew inspiration from his own life as well the lives of those he grew up alongside in LA. I think I was living this film before I ever thought about making it, Singleton stated, whilst taking considerable inspiration from Rob Reiners 1986 coming-of-age film Stand by Me in crafting his own tragic tale of the adolescent transition.

Putting actors Ice Cube, Cuba Gooding Jr., Morris Chestnut, and Nia Long on the cultural map, Singletons film follows the lives of three males (Ice Cube, Gooding Jr. and Chestnut) living in the Crenshaw ghetto of Los Angeles, weighing up their future prospects as they avoid the troubles that are inflating around them. Dissecting questions of race, class and violence, it is remarkable how relevant John Singletons groundbreaking script remains, typified by one scene in which Laurence Fishburne, father of Cuba Gooding Jrs Tre Styles, lectures a group of people on the effects of gentrification in their local community.

Its called gentrification. Its what happens when the property value of a certain area is brought down, he explains. They bring the property value down. They can buy the land cheaper. Then they move the people out, raise the value and sell it at a profit. The themes and issues of Boyz n the Hood can be reduced into Fishburnes gripping two-minute speech which goes onto question the reason for drugs, guns and violence in the future, concluding his monologue by saying you have to think young brother, about your future.

Though, the characters of Singletons film, and indeed the lives of many black individuals across the USA, are caught within a systemic web of oppression and prejudice, causing violence, fear and in-fighting. Unfortunately, much of what is explored in the film remains equally pertinent in modern-day society, particularly evident following the Black Lives Matter movement that emerged in 2012 following the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of African-American teen Trayvon Martin.

Speaking of the films legacy, Singleton states: Its really of its time but its also timeless because the conditions and things that people are going through still exist, the director comments, elaborating, Whether thats those in urban environments living under a police state, prevalent black-on-black crime, or the nihilistic view of the world that young people have when they dont see anything else. Continuing, the director rightfully points out that neighbourhoods have changed and evolved but many things remain the same and as long as thats the case then things wont change.

At its heart, Boyz n the Hood is a tragic fable and coming-of-age tale, situated within the context of the prominent issues that disturb the everyday lives of the black community. Nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay at the 64th Academy awards, Singleton became the youngest person, and the first African-Amcieran to be nominated for Best Director, demonstrating just how far-reaching the effects of the 1991 classic stretched, transcending cultures and generations in the process.

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Revisiting John Singletons classic Boyz n the Hood 30 years later - Far Out Magazine

When a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd last year, the video of his killing immediately ricocheted around the web. The massive social movement that followed may have been the largest in U.S. history. Millions took to the streets and the internet to express a desire for racial justice in the United States, in a movement that has become encapsulated by the viral hashtag #BlackLivesMatter.

But a year after Floyds killing many observers have begun to ask whatif anythinghas fundamentally changed? These questions are in part about the possibility of racial equality and real police reform in America, but also address the extent to which a political and social movement with online origins can break into the U.S. mainstream and effect real change. In the year since Floyds murder, online interest in Black Lives Matter has steadily grown. An analysis of more than 50 million Twitter posts between Jan. 28, 2013 and April 30, 2021 finds that the outpouring of online support for #BlackLivesMatter following Floyds killing resulted in a lasting shift and a more vocal and engaged online public, with no evidence of hashtag cooptation by more conservative users over the past year. While the Black Lives Matter movements impact on the policy landscape remains uncertain, its online presence is undoubtedly stronger.

The growth of a hashtag movement

On July 13, 2013, George Zimmerman was acquitted of all charges in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin. Immediately, several Twitter users aired their disappointment and reminded the world of a simple truth: Black Lives Matter. Their tweets marked some of the first uses of a hashtag that would enter the mainstream a year later, on November 25, 2014, when a grand jury declined to indict Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of Michael Brownand protesters online and off turned to the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag to express their anger and grief. As police violence has persisted and the movement for racial justice continues, the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag has emerged as an enduring feature of online discourse. As of April 30, 2021, it has been used in more than 25 million original Twitter posts, which collectively have garnered approximately 444 billion likes, retweets, comments, or quotesroughly 17,000 engagements per post.[1]

Since Floyds murder, this online activism has only accelerated. In the seven days between his death on May 25, 2020, and the police attack on protesters in Lafayette Square on June 1, the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag generated approximately 3.4 million original posts with 69 billion engagementsor roughly 13% of all posts and 15.5% of all engagements on Twitter in that period. #BlackLivesMatter content peaked on June 8, with some 1.2 million original posts mentioning the hashtag.This marked an astonishing increase in use of the hashtag: Prior to the June protests, the record for posts had been July 8, 2016, following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, when original content reached 145,631 posts with an average of 7.4 engagements per post.

Figure 1 plots this dramatic increase in use of the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag, alongside markers of milestones in the movement. Following Floyds murder, posts increased exponentially and previous spikes in content barely register in comparison. The figure also plots use of #BlueLivesMatter, a hashtag movement expressing support for the police and that, here, illustrates the disparity in interest between the two hashtags. Between 2013 and 2021, #BlueLivesMatter has registered 1.6 million original posts and 1.7 billion engagements (about 1,000 per post), which while smaller in scope than #BlackLivesMatter, is not insignificant. Use of the two hashtag movements appear to rise and fall together.

Figure 1: Total Original #BlackLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter Posts

The basic time series detailed above highlights how atypical last summers social media discourse was surrounding #BlackLivesMatter. But the skewed nature of the data masks underlying patterns. Though it may not be immediately apparent, Floyds murder marked a turning point in Twitter conversations around #BlackLivesMatter. By transforming the data to a log-scale, the steady growth of a movement (and separation from a countermovement) becomes clear (Figure 2). This type of transformation is particularly useful on highly skewed data. Visually, the log transformation represents data as a percentage change, such that going from 1 to 2 will appear the same on a graph as going from 100 to 200, even though the absolute change in value (1 vs. 100) differs.

Figure 2: Total Original #BlackLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter Posts (Logged)

In the run-up to Floyds murder, #BlackLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter content tracked together, rising and falling in response to instances of police violence. But Floyds murder breaks this pattern: Both #BlackLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter content surge, but the former does not return to its pre-Floyd normal. #BlueLivesMatter content declines steadily in the subsequent months after the initial spike, but #BlackLivesMatter content rises relative to the time prior to Floyds murder. Between January 1 and March 31, 2020, the average daily number of original posts for #BlackLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter content was 1,829 and 836 respectively. During this same period in 2021, these numbers stand at 4,368 and 394 respectively. This represents a nearly 250% increase in #BlackLivesMatter content on the year, a sizableand seemingly durableshift.

Over the years, the overlapping spikes in #BlackLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter content have sparked intense rhetorical competition online among Twitter users. As a result, the sustained growth in #BlackLivesMatter content might be dismissed as a case of hashtag cooptation, in which the movements opponents ironically or negatively post using the hashtag. But by examining the expanded network of users sharing content, it is evident that this is not the case. Figures 3 and 4 plot the average political ideology of Twitter accounts using the #BlackLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter hashtags at two contentious political moments over the past yearthe January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol and the Derek Chauvin trial.[2]

Until early January, the political ideology of these users was as we would expect itusers sharing the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag more liberal, users sharing the #BlueLivesMatter hashtag more conservative. Then, the ideology of users sharing the #BlueLivesMatter hashtag becomes dramatically more liberal for a brief period of time. This is likely due to an ironic appropriation of the hashtag in response to the Capitol assault, which resulted in one police officer dying and many more being injured. By contrast, the steady ideological score associated with posts that used the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag suggests that content during this period was driven by users supportive of the hashtags message.

Figure 3: Average Political Ideology of #BlackLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter Hashtag Users

The political ideology of users posting #BlackLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter has held steady during other periods of upheaval, indicating that it is unlikely that hashtag cooptation is causing a significant portion of the growth in use of the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag. Over the course of April, a police officer shot and killed Daunte Wright during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, while former police officer Derek Chauvin stood trial nearby for Floyds murder. Figure 4 shows that, as in January, the average ideology of users posting content with the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag barely fluctuated. Unlike in January, however, the average ideology of #BlueLivesMatter hashtag users did not change. Instead, what registers is an online battle for control of the #AllLivesMatter hashtag, which fluctuates wildly over the course of the month in ways that coincide with Wrights killing and Chauvins conviction.

Figure 4: Average Political Ideology of #BlackLivesMatter, #BlueLivesMatter, and #AllLivesMatter Hashtag Users

While support for the Black Lives Matter movement has declined in recent months, particularly in conservative America, there remains a steady interest in this online conversation. A growing number of users are actively engaged both during and outside the times of intense interest associated with moments of upheaval. For a social and political movement bolstered by a hashtag, this growth may serve as a silver lining to a challenging year. The difficulty, of course, is translating online activismcommonly critiqued as slacktivisminto offline political change. Yet some research has found that online support can translate to meaningful offline action. And this may be particularly true of young people, who unsurprisingly are disproportionately represented in online political conversations. This may be somewhat less difficult for #BlackLivesMatter, which began, in part, as a social media conversation and has now firmly entered the political mainstream.

Valerie Wirtschafter is a senior data analyst in the Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies Initiative at the Brookings Institution and a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles.

[1] In this analysis, I exclude retweets, which are counted as observations in some analyses. Instead, retweets are included in engagements, which also includes likes, comments, and quote tweets. Data for this analysis from January 2013 to June 2020 comes from Giorgi, et al. (2020), which due to Twitters terms of service, provides only posts ids for approximately 41 million tweets that reference #BlackLivesMatter, #BlueLivesMatter or #AllLivesMatter. I use the rehydratoR package in R to pull the Twitter content from the post ids provided. Finally, I use the Twitter API to pull the remaining posts from July 2020 through April 2021. Twitter post IDs for this expanded dataset can be made available on request.

[2] In his 2015 Political Analysis paper, Pablo Barber develops a strategy for calculating the partisan ideology of Twitter users, based on the network of Twitter users they chose to follow. The idea is that the decision to follow certain elites is a signal of political interest, which can then be used as an input to determine the partisan preferences of a given Twitter user. This estimation strategy aligns well with other common measures of ideology, including party registration records and DW-NOMINATE scores. Given that these calculations are data intensive and Twitter API rate limits for this content are fairly restrictive, I utilize this strategy but restrict my analysis to users who shared relevant content over a given time period that received at least fifty likes, retweets, comments or quotes. In order to ensure the precision of ideology estimates, I also exclude users who follow fewer than five elites. Elites include politicians, media outlets, think tanks, political commentators, and other influential Twitter users. Positive scores are more conservative and negative scores are more liberal. More details on the methodology and implementation can be found here.

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How George Floyd changed the online conversation around BLM - Brookings Institution

Patrick Washington is the CEO and publisher of The Dallas Weekly

The Texas-birthed holiday ofJuneteenthis a very interesting holiday, to say the least. See, I, a native-born Texan, have two Yankee parents. As such, Ive been able to hear both sides of the idea of Juneteenth, and now am at a final resting place for my attitude about this NEW celebration of what used to be a regional observance.

Im ok with it.

Let me explain; I love the idea of Juneteenth. Its simple to me. Civil War ended, white folks were trippin, army had to come in, let everybody know whats up. Easy right? I thought so toobut then the other side came in.

Now, for the sake of fairness, Idoget some of the opposition that was very prevalent in my younger days. Its kind of strange to celebrate the late arrival of emancipation, however, I also didnt understand why others cared so much when this wasnt a national thing. It was for us Texans. Then an elder of mine stated plainly, They dont like that we celebrate our freedom, because they dont celebrate theirs. And never have. But will celebrate the fourth of July like it meant something. And there it was: clarity. The line had been drawn in the sand and I now stood firmly on the side of Juneteenth.

I admit I never understood why other Black communities had no observance of their freedom. I figured someone heard about the Emancipation Proclamation and said thats a good day to light up a barbecue and shoot up some fireworks, but no. Even a simple observance of Black liberation would be cool, right? Butno.

So, I carried on quietly eating my ribs and finding some strawberries to munch on (Im not a watermelon fan, so I kept it 19thwith another red fruit). Then something happened. I met someone who would eventually become a close friend from upstate New York; Syracuse to be exact. At some point, we were talking, and I mentioned Juneteenth and she said, yeah, I havent celebrated that since I left home.

You know I the native-born Texan was confused. How couldwhy would a New Yorker know anything about Juneteenth? As curious as a cat, I probed for everything she knew about MY holiday, and to my surprise she got it all right! She told me that there were observances in small places all the time, and they were often met with the same disdain as I was familiar with when it came to outsiderslearning aboutJuneteenth.

Still, at that point, I couldnt care less. I was far too excited to have a friend to silence the haters who didnt have a country accent. It was glorious. And we both were soldiers in the army of Juneteenth laying tongue thrashings to haters at the drop of a dime.

Then, in late February 2012, George Zimmerman killedTrayvon Martinand the world changed. For years, the Black community had endured a seemingly unending display of Black bodies murdered by police with no accountability or consequence. Now, here was this civilian, with a far more extensive criminal background than the child hed literally stalked against police orders before instigating contact with and killing him, being given the same hand-waving latitude as police officers, while social media exploded with concentrated efforts to dehumanize the victim.

Call it the first moments of the resurgence of the Civil Rights Movement, and the global awareness campaign that would become Black Lives Matter. Everything had changed, but not really. It was still business as usual but something else was there. An underlying tone was getting louder. A fervor that was just under the surface ready to explode, and we all knew it was coming.

The next few years, things just grew more and more tense. During that whole time, we still celebrated Juneteenth. More Black celebrities were talking about it; I sawUsherwear a shirt on stage X-ing out the Fourth of July and underlining Juneteenth. Cool. I look up and folks in California are explaining to the internet the importance of Juneteenth.

What the hell is happening? I called my friend; she already knew. We lamented, asked whats the deal with this, laughed, and casually dismissed the fair weather freedom lovers for what we thought was, at best, a momentary interest.

Thankfully, we were wrong, but I still had a few lingering reservations. After all, my mother told me about growing up in the 1960s and watching all her peers rock afros and Afrocentric garments, but by the mid-70s to early-80s she said, Most of them negroes went back to perms and tight fades to appease white folks to get jobs in the corporate sector.

I couldnt deny that, nor could I separate how humans use trends in horrible situations to feel better about what we feel we cant control. Id be lying if I said that didnt sit at the top of my thought process when bringing up Juneteenth with certain people.

And then there was George Floyd. The chillingly silent explosion we had all been waiting for. That tragic, horrific, damn near 9-minute bomb that blew up in our faces as we just watched. Say what you want, but we all watched. For whatever reason, we watched. We saw that clock ticking, and we watched. We heard that fear, and we watched. BOOM. The whole world heard that explosion, but this time, the world was not turning away.

For a while, the planet was engulfed in conversation about Black lives. Not only through marches, but also via dialogue, history lessons, context, perspectives, think pieces, andwait for it, Juneteenth. Yep, right there in the middle of all this turmoil, were groups of people talking about Juneteenth.

To be fair, Juneteenth occurred that year as usual, however, at that time, I was feeling like, oh, it just takes slavery, Jim Crow, civil right movement, black power movement, hip hop, countless black people killed by the police and a global protest to get Black people to recognize thisgreat. Looking back, I think I was just upset that thats the norm for things like this.

My mother-in-law blames it on socialization. According to her, Americans are not wired to learn lessons easily. It takes a lot, but once we move the needle, it tends to stay moved. Today there are national talks about Juneteenth, as well as different states recognizing the date as important in the history and context of the USAs racial past.

I was still having reservations about supporting this, but like most things in my life, an elder spoke to me. Saying mostly better late than never, but also re-affirming what I already knew to be true.This isnt about white folks not letting us go free. It aint about Black folks not knowing about the end of the war, nor not being given anything.

Juneteenth is about us.

Its about us recognizing our inherit liberty and freedom. The thing is, when did any enslaved person truly know they were free? Hell, Malcolm X was talking about the mentally enslaved DURING the Civil Rights Movement. When were the shackles truly taken off? And did they stay off? What reminds you of not slipping back into a place of subjugation? No need to guess, Ill tell you; Its a ritual. A ceremony that takes all that and puts it in its place. I took for granted that I was born in a place where that was the norm, and others were just now waking up to the idea that we deserve a day of recognition that are NOT slaves. Who celebrates that? We do.

In the words of the illustrious Charles ONeil, Chairman, Board of Directors at U.S. Black Chambers, Inc, Apparently there was NO party before Juneteenthwhat emancipation date is commemorated in SC, AL, GA, TN, KY, MS, LA, AR, VA, NC? Juneteenth mighta been late, but wutno party til Texas got there! Its a point of pride really. Through all this weve been telling yall we free! Late sure, messed up, yes, but were here EVERY YEAR, doing our most to enjoy us, to celebrate us.

So, welcome all you colored people time-having freedom lovers. Pull up a seat, pour some fresh prepared strawberry soda, slice a watermelon, and inhale the sweet smells from the grill, cuz we are all free. Free to be who we want and who we are now and forever.

We now understand our foundational influence on this place. Our ownership of its history and our roles in making sure that it never reverts.Were in it now, like yesterday never left. Voter suppression efforts like its still the Jim Crow era, law enforcement still acting like slave catchers, and racists in power doing their best to keep it.

But we have Juneteenth. Not just the day, but also the attitude, the philosophy, the ideal. Its ours.

I do not know what the future holds, clich as that is, but I can be sure of a one thing this year. On the 19thof June, the United States of Americas African population will be as unified as ever, and I cant see that going away. Im thankful for that. I appreciate that, and I will allow that to melt away the younger sentiments I had towards my fellow Black folks whom I welcome with open arms into this new head space.

Just dont forget where it comes from: TEXAS BABY!

Patrick Washington is the second-generation CEO and publisher ofThe Dallas Weeklywhich has been serving the Black community of the 4thlargest metroplex in the nation since 1954.

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Texas Native Son talks Juneteenth: Better late than never - St. Louis American

A smattering of boos was drowned out by applause in Londons Wembley Stadium on Sunday, as Englands best soccer players were both jeered and celebrated by their fans for taking a knee to protest racism before the national teams match against Croatia in the European Championship tournament.

While the Croatian players chose not to make the gesture, the Italian referee and his assistants joined the English team and their coaching staff in kneeling for a few seconds before kickoff.

One day earlier, there had been much louder boos when Belgiums multiracial national team, joined by Spanish match officials, had taken a knee before playing Russia in St. Petersburg in the same tournament.

Last week in Budapest, which is one of the host cities for the tournament, Hungarian fans booed Irelands national team for the same gesture before a warm-up match against Hungary.

The dissent from a section of the crowd in London on Sunday was noticeably less intense than it had been before two pre-tournament matches in Middlesbrough last week, when the English players were jeered along with the national teams of Austria and Romania which joined them in kneeling.

That pitiful display, from fans unable to separate racism from patriotism, had prompted an articulate plea for tolerance from the England manager, Gareth Southgate, who said that the squad was united in its determination to keep taking a knee throughout the tournament.

The English Football Association, the sports governing body, then explicitly connected the booing to racist abuse directed at Black players on social media in a video message that urged fans to unite behind a team representing a multiethnic, multiracial England.

While the jeering racists were largely drowned out on Sunday and England won the match,thanks to a goal created by a player of Jamaican and Irish descentand scored by a Londoner who was born in Jamaica it was hard not to notice, as Daniel Taylor of The Athletic observed, that the bar is set particularly low these days if English football feels this pathetically grateful that this weeks booing of anti-racism was not as loud as last weeks.

It is also hard to miss the extent to which this entire scenario, now repeating itself in nation after nation across Europe, is an offshoot of Americas culture war.

Turning Point UK, an offshoot of the American pro-Trump youth organization, gleefully shared video of fans booing on social media, although the right-wing activists had to cut away abruptly from the original BBC video just three seconds into the protest, to conceal from viewers that the boos were quickly overwhelmed by cheers.

The gesture, inspired by the blacklisted NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernicks defiant protest, has been part of the pre-match ritual at soccer matches in England since last June. As racial justice protests spread worldwide following the murder of George Floyd, David McGoldrick, a Black British player with Irish roots, suggested that players should take a knee before kickoff.

The idea quickly spread across the country, and for months, players knelt in somber silence, in stadiums kept empty during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, many of which added signs displaying the slogan Black Lives Matter. But since the return of fans to English stadiums, loud boos and angry shouts have frequently been heard as players took the knee.

In heated debates online and across the airwaves, far-right figures in England, like the pro-Brexit campaigners Nigel Farage and Darren Grimes, have refused to draw the obvious conclusion that people who are incensed by an anti-racist protest might just be racist.

To defend the English fans jeering their own players, Farage and Grimes have drawn attention to the fact that Patrisse Cullors, the American activist who turned the phrase Black Lives Matter into a Facebook hashtag in 2013 following the acquittal of Trayvon Martins killer, George Zimmerman once described herself as a Marxist.

Although the English, Belgian and Irish players have made it clear that they are kneeling to show support for anti-racist protesters united by the slogan Black Lives Matter, rather than the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation co-created by Cullors, Farage and Grimes argue that the booing fans are not racists, just staunch opponents of Marxism.

The idea that ultranationalist soccer fans, who have aimed racist jeers at nonwhite players for years, are really engaged in ideological debate has been widely ridiculed, but conspiratorial fears about the supposedly hidden influence of cultural Marxism have been deeply embedded in far-right thinking for decades and were cited repeatedly in the manifesto of the far-right Norwegian gunman Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in 2011.

Still, far-right activists, including the actor-turned-politician Laurence Fox, continue to invoke Marxism as a specter haunting Europe a decade after Breiviks killing spree.

A handful of fans even gathered outside the stadium on Sunday beside a version of the national flag with the slogan Dont Kneel for Marxism scrawled on it. One man standing near the flag wore a Trump-style red cap, complete with the phrase Make Britain Great Again.

Unfortunately for Farage and Grimes, an explicitly white supremacist, anti-immigrant group with rhetoric that closely echoes Breivik also turned up at the stadium to urge players to Stop kneeling for migrants & their descendants!

The reaction from Belgian and Hungarian politicians has also echoed the rhetoric of the American far-right. Filip Dewinter, the former leader of Vlaams Belang, a xenophobic Flemish party with thinly veiled white supremacist beliefs, exulted over video of fans of the English club side Millwall booing their own players as soon as they were allowed back into their stadium in December.

Tom Vandendriessche, a member of the European parliament for Dewinters party, shared a meme on Twitter last week that showed the Hungarian crowd booing the Irish team over the words All Lives Matter, and added the comment: BLM = racism.

The fact it was booed was incomprehensible, Irelands manager, Stephen Kenny, said after that match. It doesnt reflect well on Hungary and the Hungarian support, he added. The Irish striker Adam Idah, whose father is Nigerian, was also shocked. Obviously, its disappointing to see the fans and the whole stadium booing us taking the knee, he told reporters. Its for a good cause, trying to stop racism. Its a sign to kick racism out of society and just the reaction was very disappointing for us. We werent expecting that.

Viktor Orbn, Hungarys xenophobic prime minister, responded by attacking the Irish team that traveled to Budapest to help the Hungarians prepare for the tournament. If you are a guest in a country, then understand its culture, dont provoke the locals, dont provoke the host if you visit as a guest, Orbn said. We cant interpret this gesture in any other way, Orbn added, than as a provocation.

The Hungarian prime minister then suggested that since Hungary never had slaves, its citizens have no responsibility to combat racism.

After the Belgian national team took the knee in Russia on Saturday, before a 3-0 win, Vandendriessche tweeted that the Russian players, who remained standing during the protest, had lost the game but at least not their dignity. Kneeling is submission. BLM is pure racism. ALL lives matter!

Originally posted here:
European Soccer Stars Refuse to Yield to Racist Fans Who Jeer Them for Taking a Knee - The Intercept