Crystal Palace's Wilfried Zaha calls taking a knee before games 'degrading'

Following social justice demonstrations and protests that occurred in the United States and around the world last spring and summer, the English Premier League temporarily replaced names on shirts with the "Black Lives Matter" slogan, added "Black Lives Matter" patches to jerseys, and has routinely had footballers, coaches, and referees drop to a knee before kickoffs to honor the "BLM" movement. 

Crystal Palace's Wilfried Zaha, who has received racist abuse online, would like to see more than what he feels are empty gestures. 

"The whole kneeling down -- why must I kneel down for you to show that we matter?" Zaha said during an appearance on the "On The Judy" podcast, per ESPN. "Why must I even wear Black Lives Matter on the back of my top to show you that we matter? This is all degrading stuff.

"When people constantly want to get me to do Black Lives Matter talks and racial talks and I'm like, I'm not doing it just so you can put 'Zaha spoke for us.' Like a tick box, basically.

"I'm not doing any more because unless things change, I'm not coming to chat to you just for the sake of it, like all the interviews I've done.

"All these platforms -- you see what's happening, you see people making fake accounts to abuse Black people constantly, but you don't change it.

"So don't tell me to come and chat about stuff that's not going to change. Change it. All that stuff that you lot are doing, all these charades mean nothing."

Handfuls of Black footballers have received online racist abuse over the past 12 months as supporters have been kept outside of stadiums due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Last July, a 12-year-old was arrested for directing racist abuse towards Zaha.