Legendary West Indies pacer Michael Holding believes it is impossible to get rid of racism completely from the world, but he would "bruise his knee" to the grave if he was still an active player.
Racism has become a topic of global debate following the killing of George Floyd – a 46-year-old African-American, who died on May 25 last year in Minneapolis after Derek Chauvin, a white policeman, knelt on his neck for several minutes.
Floyd’s death sparked protests across the United States while demonstrations were held in various countries in support of the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
Holding had openly supported the BLM movement and also delivered a powerful message against racism during the England-West Indies Test series in UK last year.
Speaking on Sky Sports' 'The Cricket Show' on the first death anniversary of Floyd, Holding said: "You will always have racism, always have racists. Getting rid of racism totally is like saying you are going to get rid of crime totally. It is impossible."
"The less crime you have in your society, the less racism you have in your society, the better off the world is as we go ahead," he added.
According to Holding, the gesture of "taking a knee" should be organic rather than a "tick the box" exercise.
"I am not going to tell people they must take a knee - I am not here to tell people what they need to do. I don't want people to take it as a tick-in-the-box exercise.
"You must want to support the cause, you must be willing to understand and see that something is wrong and this is the worldwide accepted way of showing support for the cause," he said.
The fast bowling great feels not everyone can understand the challenges that black people endure through their lives.
"People don't understand what it is like to come under that sort of pressure throughout your entire life. Some people say things and don't even realise what they are saying or the effect it might have on a black person.
"It's something they get accustomed to saying," the 67-year-old said.
Holding also vented out his anger on people who resort to casual racism while interacting.
"As a black person, when you hear certain people say certain things it burns inside. I have had many occasions when people have said something or treated me a particular way when I think to myself 'are they just rude or are they racist?
"Is it because I am black that they are treating me this way or is it because they don't know any better because they are rude?," he said.
While Holding agreed that the intent of a comment is not racist at times, he reckons a black person, who has suffered a lot, is ought to get offended.
"I have no idea - but as a black person the first thing that comes to your mind, because of the constant battle with racism, is racism. Sometimes you are wrong, sometimes the person is not racist, but it builds up inside of you and the first thought is racism."
As per Holding, UK hasn't done enough to wipe out racism.
"But, right now, I don't think we have made enough ground, especially in the UK. I am going to be blunt now. I don't see enough action in the UK.
"I see a lot of action in the US. Big corporations in the US putting up millions and millions of dollars toward programmes to levelling the playing field," he said.
"Apart from Sky, who are we seeing in the UK doing anything? There is a little bit of lip service every now and again but what really positive signs of action have we seen?" he asked.
"I want to see companies in the UK coming out and taking action and let people see what they are doing to support this cause. It takes a huge amount of work to get this thing done.
"Until I can see that on a regular basis, action being taken and progress being made, if I were a sportsman right now, I would be taking a knee, I would be bruising my knee. Bruising my knee until I go into my grave."
(With PTI inputs)
