UK foreign secretary thinks taking the knee is from ‘Game of Thrones’

It may surprise you to learn that some politicians apparently still haven’t heard of Google.

Take, for instance, UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab, who said in an interview on Thursday that the peaceful protest act of taking the knee “seems to be taken from the Game of Thrones.”

In an interview with UK radio station Talkradio on Thursday, Raab was speaking about the removal of racist statues and protests against systemic racism and police brutality across the U.S. and parts of the globe, including the UK, following the killing of George Floyd, who died after a police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes. 

These protests reached the English Premier League on Wednesday, when players took the knee ahead of matches across England between Manchester City and Arsenal FC at Etihad Stadium, and between Aston Villa and Sheffield United at Villa Park — the return of the league following the coronavirus pandemic lockdown. Players took the knee in solidarity with the global Black Lives Matter movement against systemic racism and violence, replacing the names on the back of their jerseys with the words “black lives matter.”

The next morning, when the UK’s foreign secretary was asked by interviewer Julia Hartley-Brewer whether or not he would personally take a knee if asked, Raab issued a staggering response (skip to 9:50 in the video below).

“I understand this sense of frustration and restlessness which is driving the Black Lives Matters [sic] movement,” he began. “I’ve got to say on this taking the knee thing, I don’t know maybe it’s got a broader history, but it seems to be taken from the Game of Thrones, feels to me like a symbol of subjugation and subordination rather than one of liberation and emancipation.”

Hartley-Brewer then asked the question again, would Raab take the knee. “I’ll take the knee for two people: the Queen and the missus when I asked her to marry me,” he responded.

People on Twitter reacted with understandable outrage.

To be clear, the act of taking the knee is by no means from the HBO series Game of Thrones. Not even close. Taking the knee has become a peaceful protest symbol since 2016, when San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick knelt during the singing of the national anthem to protest police brutality, namely violence inflicted by officers against black people in America.

“I’m not anti-American,” Kaepernick said at the time. “I love America. I love people. That’s why I’m doing this. I want to help make America better. I think having these conversations helps everybody have a better understanding of where everybody is coming from.”

Since then, it has become a symbol of solidarity with the movement against system racism and police brutality, seen most recently in the widespread protests across the U.S. and cities across the world. It is not, as Raab puts it, “a symbol of subjugation and subordination,” but rather a means to peacefully demonstrate racial disparity in police violence, and the ongoing lack of consequences for these actions.

And if Raab even knew anything about Game of Thrones, he’d know it’s “bend the knee,” anyway.