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Nottingham Forest’s Lyle Taylor hits out at Black Lives Matter and taking a knee

Nottingham Forest’s Lyle Taylor astonishingly hits out at Black Lives Matter and taking a knee, something rarely seen from footballers.

It was back in June 2020 which saw players from Sheffield United and Aston Villa become the first to take a knee as professional football return and boy did it send a powerful anti-racism message across the world.

Clubs have had the Black Lives Matter slogan shown on the back of their shirts where their names would normally be and broadcasters also showed the logo whilst also discussing racial equality following the death of a black man, George Floyd, when police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into the male’s neck for as long as eight minutes. Chauvin has since been charged with murder but it’s changed so much in the world today.

Teams continue to kneel before games in the Premier League and many top leagues globally, though those in the EFL have a choice if they want to continue.

We’ve seen incidents at Colchester, Cambridge United and most notably Millwall with fans booing players who knelt before the game.

Now Nottingham Forest’s Lyle Taylor hits out at Black Lives Matter and added that taking a knee has been lost for a number of months.

He hit out against Black Lives Matter the group, which was formed in 2013 after the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who was shot dead but the man charged with his murder was acquitted.

#BlackLivesMatter claim themselves to be an organisation to tackle white supremacy and racial injustice, but Taylor believes it has become a business as he hit out at broadcasters for their backing it.

“My support for what is that we’re trying to achieve is absolute, but I do not support Black Live Matter as an institution or organisation,” he told BBC Radio Nottingham after scoring in Forest’s 1-0 win over Cardiff City on Saturday to guide his side to 19th in the Championship table.

“I would request anyone looks into Black Lives Matter to look into what that organisation does and what they stand for because it’s scandalous that the world and the world’s media has got behind Black Lives Matter.

“Not the message, of course black lives matter. Standing behind Black Lives Matter and the all the institutions that have done that – the BBC, Sky, all of them saying Black Lives Matter, it’s not a good idea because of what the organisation stands for.

“The message overall is 100 percent important, don’t get me wrong on that. You see what is happening – I’m not going into my beliefs into what went on in the Capitol building (referencing the attack on America’s congress) this week because I’ve done my fair amount of research into it.

“In terms of black lives actually mattering and black people being killed by police more frequently, that’s not a good thing.

“Black lives do matter, but you’ll never hear me say Black Lives Matter again in reference to that company.”

Lyle Taylor says he has not been criticised for his literal stance before games and has the backing of manager Chris Hughton not to take the knee.

“The message has been diluted beyond belief. If we stopped this three months ago it was diluted,” he said.

“It’s gone past the point. What’s really happening?

“Every week I see a player has been racially abused. What are Twitter and Instagram actually doing to stop these people being able to make fake accounts and abuse black people?

“What about how long it takes to tackle it too (when you have a complaint).

“There’s channels we have to go down to it the right way though, otherwise we end up with martial law and civil unrest. It is what it is.”

Taylor, who himself is mixed race, says he is not taking a back seat in representing the black community, supporting charitable causes or trying to be a role model for children.

Every October he has dyed his hair pink to raise much needed funds for Cancer Research UK and last year he visited a young mixed race boy who wanted to have straight hair like white footballers.

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Lyle Taylor (@lyle_taylor33)

“I got a message from his mum. It was about him coming home and trying to straighten his curls with washing up liquid,” Taylor told Nottinghamshire Live.

“I thought of my nephew and I thought of when I was young. Growing up in south London I was surrounded by black kids and white kids.

“I was mixed race. Everyone was normal to me.

“I remembered my little brother’s best friend was a white boy called Jack who used to spike his hair up.

“I remember my brother asking my step mum why he couldn’t have hair like that and it was like well you’re hair isn’t like that.

“I’ve said to my nephew when he’s told about his curls, I’ve said your curls are what make you, you.

“Don’t ever change so people will accept you. If they don’t accept you then they don’t accept. You are special in your own right.

“That’s the message I wanted to get over to (the little boy). He’s a special little boy.”

In the far from typical post match interview, the 30 year old, also claimed society had become too politically correct.

“You have some people saying you can’t say black,” he said.

“You can’t say mixed race because it’s now dual heritage. No, no. I’m mixed race. My mum is white and my dad is black.

“He’s black not coloured. My mum is white not, I don’t know, beige. The problem is the words we use and which words we can use.

“We get told you can’t say certain words so often. I don’t want to be called dual heritage.

“Are we going the same way as people choosing their pronouns, saying I don’t want to be called he or him, I want to be it or they or them.

“Are we maybe missing the point? I wouldn’t disagree. Maybe we’re a bit too politically correct where people are hanging on you making a mistake.

“If you say a word in an interview you are waiting for someone to be offended. That’s the issue. Everyone wants you to be offended, especially us in the public eye, or you writing these pieces, people want to be able to say ‘oh I’m outraged now’.

“I can now say what I want to say. No you can’t, just get on with it.”

There was a huge number of reaction as Nottingham Forest’s Lyle Taylor hits out at Black Lives Matter and taking a knee…

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