Andrew Bolt: Cancelled de Kock exposes bigotry of woke ‘anti-racists’

Quinton de Kock has never bent the knee to the BLM movement to advertise he’s no racist, so when the cancel culture came for him, it was always going to end ugly.

The cancelling of de Kock that exposes the evil at the heart of this new race-mongering. Picture: Getty Images

Quinton de Kock is the world’s best wicketkeeper-batsman because – for one – he’s never intimidated. Just ask Dave Warner.

Warner viciously sledged de Kock during the fourth day of Australia’s Test in Durban in 2018, but the South African just focused and ground out an 83.

Only in the tunnel to the changerooms during the tea break did de Kock give a mouthful back to Warner, who was so incensed he had to be dragged off by teammates.

So when the cancel culture came for de Kock on Tuesday, it was always going to end ugly. De Kock was never going to back off – and has now exposed the intolerance and bigotry of the Black Lives Matter movement.

You thought racists were intolerant? See what supposed anti-racists now do.

Knee-bending is big at the T20 World Cup now being staged at the UAE and Oman. Picture: Getty Images

De Kock has never bent the knee to the BLM to advertise he’s not racist, as many sportsmen now do out of conviction – or fear.

He never explained why he remained standing while teammates knelt, and shouldn’t have to in a free world.

“No one’s forced to do anything, not in life,” he once said. “That’s the way I see things.”

If only more people saw it that way, but freedom is no longer valued. Not by the fascists of the cancel culture.

Knee-bending is big at the T20 World Cup now being staged at the UAE and Oman. Australia did it before their game with South Africa, but newspapers made much of a photograph of the South African team with several players – including de Kock – standing, while others knelt.

This expression of individual opinion horrified Cricket South Africa, which ordered all players to kneel, because “the different postures taken by team members in support of the BLM (Black Lives Matter) initiative created an unintended perception of disparity or lack of support”.

The cancelling of de Kock exposes the evil at the heart of this new race-mongering.

Freedom of thought was forbidden. Players now had to bend the knee to display personal support for a Marxist-led movement that sets races against each other.

Yes, Black Lives Matter is in effect a racist movement, but let’s not get sidetracked. The real issue here is not racism but freedom.

Who thought de Kock would react well to an order to make a political gesture “or else”? De Kock refused to humiliate himself and pulled out of the team “for personal reasons”. He is now out of the competition.

Unashamed, administrators issued a tweet that I had to check wasn’t a hoax: “Cricket South Africa believes success … will be guaranteed if all South Africans stand united to build a new innings based on the pillars of inclusivity, access and excellence.”

The hypocrites. How can CSA say a “pillar” of its team is “inclusivity” when it’s just excluded a player for not sharing its political opinions?

Of course, this isn’t the only hypocrisy on show at the World Cup. The Indian team dutifully knelt against racism, yet makes no protest against India’s most obvious form of discrimination – not racism but the Hindu caste culture, with Brahmins on top and the Untouchables far below.

But it’s the cancelling of de Kock that exposes the evil at the heart of this new race-mongering.

The knee-droppers claim to fight racism, yet promote race as our key characteristic and fundamental divide.

The knee-droppers claim to fight racism, yet promote race as our key characteristic and fundamental divide. Picture: Getty Images

The knee-droppers want us to see their gesture as a brave stance against racism, but it’s in part a cowardly act of submission.

The knee-droppers claim to be for tolerance yet are intolerant of any dissent – or, with De Kock, the mere absence of assent.

Be clear about that: no one accused de Kock of racism.

Oops. Correction: ABC commentator Tony Armstrong has now spluttered: “How racist do you have to be, to not just take a knee but … even pretend to show support?”

That’s right: de Kock’s sin is not to give in and “pretend”.

Woke virtue signallers demand people pretend to support them even when they don’t – and for reasons the woke never bother to understand. They just want obedience.

So many are exactly what they condemn – narrow-minded bigots and power-junkies, screeching hate without pity or moderation. Killers of freedom.

Judge by their deeds. I’ve never heard of racists forcing out a player from an international cricket team – not since the fall of South Africa’s apartheid.

But woke “anti-racists” have now done just that – and from the South African team. The new race warriors have managed what no old-style racists have in decades.

Isn’t that the kind of bigotry we once fought?