People to take the knee to mark one year since the death of George Floyd

People across Wigan & St Helens are being encouraged to join in with events in the region to mark 12 months since George Floyd was killed in America.

People will gather in University Square in Liverpool at 12:30pm and in St Peters Square in Manchester at 6pm in solidarity with the anti-racism movement.

George Floyd was killed last year in Minneapolis when Derek Chauvin, a police officer who has since been convicted of murder, knelt on his neck for over nine minutes.

It sparked huge anger and protest right across the world against police brutality and institutional racism.

Now campaigners say the conversation that started after George’s death can’t be allowed to end.

We’ve been chatting to former Wigan Athletic Captain and Emmerson Boyce now works with organisations to try and help diversify the football industry.

He said:

“It was a shock in terms of the reaction of the world because this sort of thing happens quite regularly and gets pushed under the radar.”

“I have mixed feelings because someone had to die and get recorded for us to get to this state where people are actually talking about it and trying to make a change.”

“It's just the first step and this is what's important.”

“This is only the first step and we don't want it to be diluted by any other message. We just want to keep it strong and keep people talking about.”

Emmerson told us he’s no stranger to experiencing racist abuse himself…

“I remember one time I was at a game and my team was playing and I was sat in the stand.”

“One of my fans was shouting at the players on the pitch saying ‘you black this’ and ‘you black that’”.

“Another fan said to him, ‘no, we've got black players on our team,’ and he's like, ‘yeah, but I'm not talking about our black players, I'm talking about their black players.’”

“You know, that just sums it up. It doesn't make a difference if you know them or not, you’re still being racist.”

“Not long-ago Rio Ferdinand was getting abuse from a fan at a Wolves game.”

“You can hear some of the boo’s in some of the stadiums when they take the knee.”

“The fact that fans are back now it highlights it a bit more because there’s not so much noise in the stadium.”

“It's not going to go away overnight, but we're at the first step. We just need to keep it going.”

“My dad gave me the message when I was growing up that this sort of thing happens.”

“People will be racist, and you have to get through it and be strong.”

“I'm saying the same things to my kids now.”

“What a lot of people want to put an end to is that circle.”

“I don't want my kids to be saying the same thing to their kids when they're growing up in ten, twenty years I don't want that same message being said.”

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