Protest against right-wing rally: US college basketball players kneel during the anthem

Eight players from the University of Mississippi college basketball team have been kneeling before the Georgia game during the US hymn. Six players knelt at the beginning of the tune, two more joined them a little later. The protest of the athletes was directed against a gathering of supporters of the Confederation, who had met a few hundred meters from the hall for a rally.

"We are sorry for those hate groups who come here to convey the image that these groups really exist on campus," said player Breein Tyree, explaining the protest on his knees, "We saw one of our teammates do it and wanted it not that he is alone with it. "

"It was about these hateful groups"

The coach of the team, Kermit Davis, had in the past criticized this type of political protest and had been surprised by the action of his players. After the game, however, he showed understanding for the protest and said, "It was about those hateful groups that came into our society to spread racism and fanaticism."

Several student groups had arranged counter-events to the marches of the right-wing groups between different Confederate monuments.

The followers of the Confederacy are reminiscent of the history of the southern states, which had split off between 1861 and 1865 from the United States and allowed, inter alia, the slavery. Similar gatherings of these right-wing groups had already led to violent riots, such as in Charlottesville in 2017.

Kermit Davis is referred to the kneeling, as well. pic.twitter.com/Lk9zg2FsZ8

"There has been a lot of tension on our campus," Davis said. "Our players have made an emotional decision to show these people that they are not welcome to our campus, and we respect it when players choose such an action."

The knee-jerk protest goes back in the US sports to the former NFL player Colin Kaepernick, who had refused in August 2016 before a training game of the San Francisco 49ers, to stand up during the US anthem. He wanted to protest against police violence and racism in the United States. Numerous athletes joined in Kapernick's protest.

The subsequent game Mississippi won by the way 72:71.