FROM THE ENROLLMENT TO LONDON. Italy remains standing and in reality stands and watches, admitted that its policy on getting on its knees or not depends on the opponents. And he says it with captain Chiellini: “Today I believe that there are no requests, when it happens we will do it too out of a feeling of solidarity towards the other team. And then we will try to fight racism in another way, through initiatives decided with the federation over the next few months ”.
The gesture concerns something else, it makes no sense to imitate others, not even out of respect: standing is not an insult to those who kneel. It’s a choice. As Mancini correctly said: “First of all there must be freedom” and it is sacrosanct, but then we should have the face to bring this freedom. If you decide that the knee is American culture, it concerns other societies, if you don’t share the symbolism or find a reason, then you don’t. You don’t change your mind depending on how the photo looks. Putting oneself on is a gesture borrowed from Black Lives Matter, not invented by the movement, the first to do it, during the protests of the Sixties was Martin Luther King and the first to reintroduce it in this confused contemporaneity was an American football player, Kaepernick. Reducing the flag gesture of activism that is judged by someone to be too political is an excuse. One can legitimately not feel this reaction, not be at ease, even as a convinced anti-racist, but in this case the symbol is not used based on how the evening turns with the excuse of respect. After Italy-Wales, the feeling of total loss was evident, the alibi or the fault, it depends, was never having talked about it. After days of confrontation, Italy has decided to imitate the gestures of others and has overturned the meaning of getting on one’s knees. No longer an act of raising awareness in a world where racism exists and how, a universally known interpretation, but an act of support for a colleague who thinks so, a vision that does not cross the border. And not the European one, that of Coverciano. Italy remains beautiful, exciting, innovative, regenerating, but precisely because it is exactly like this and knows how to carry the cheering, it should have the courage of its thoughts. Just like on the pitch.