Since Colin Kaepernick, a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, began sitting for the national anthem during the National Football League’s preseason, national anthem protests have surged into the national spotlight. Across the country, athletes from around the NFL and from other sports have joined, some taking knees and some raising fists — an homage to Tommie Smith and John Carlos’ 1968 Black Power Olympic protest — yet all recognizably taking part in the same demonstration.
The protests have prompted a barrage of outrage, support and discussion. The story has been widely covered in the mainstream media, and is routinely discussed on sports channels and in social media. Whether or not Kaepernick planned it this way, he has kicked off a phenomenal episode of civil resistance against racism and police violence.
Organizers and activists should take note. It is easy to get trapped in the repertoires of tactics we are used to and comfortable with. This moment is a reminder of how sometimes the most powerful and effective tactics are right in front of us. Black Lives Matter and the larger racial justice movement it is a part of have been skilled in using disruptive maneuvers that are both creative and simple, such as highway blockades. Similarly, with a simple action, national anthem protests have pushed the envelope in new directions.
Civil resistance takes all kinds of shapes and forms, but at its best it does three related things: it disrupts the status quo, dramatizes a social injustice and forces people to choose a side. Better yet, it has replicable tactics that are easy to do and difficult to punish. The more clearly the action itself points to its meaning, and the more it raises pulses on all sides, the more powerful it is. Ideal tactics can be taken up by anyone without affiliation or directions. The national anthem protest does all of this. What’s more, in the context of a movement that is often maligned for its few violent episodes, it is an unequivocally nonviolent action.
The protest began with professional football players but was quickly taken up by athletes from other sports and at all levels. Now it has spread to spectators. In less than two months since Kaepernick first sat for the anthem, protesting the national anthem has become what The Atlantic called the “new normal.” This action has the potential to occupy areas of social life that have been insulated from politics and infuse them with a racial justice imperative.
Perhaps the most famous example of nonviolent direct action in the United States is the lunch counter sit-ins of the civil rights movement. By simply sitting in places that had been marked “whites only,” black activists shocked and infuriated those who took Jim Crow segregation for granted. The response was extreme and violent, while images and stories of the protests and repression spread across the country (and world) like wildfire. With the growing tension, it became more and more difficult to not take a side, making it easier for those who supported racial justice to speak up and more difficult for those who supported segregation to hide their racism.
“Rules for Radicals” author and organizer Saul Alinksy once suggested — as a strategy against a department store with racist hiring policies — that thousands of black activists flood a flagship location, shop around all day, tie up staff with questions and clog checkout lines. The shopper-activists would each buy something small, charge it, and have it shipped to them, where they would later refuse delivery and demand a refund. This could be repeated indefinitely, and — while being completely legal — would ultimately wreck the store’s operations. Management would not be able to ignore the protest, but any attempt to attack it would backfire. In chess this kind of situation is known as zugzwang, or putting one’s opponent in a situation where any move they make worsens their position.
By sitting (and later kneeling) during the national anthem, at a time and in a place when people are expected to stand and face the flag in a sign of respect and devotion to the country, Kaepernick moved us toward such a moment on a grand scale. Through people’s reactions, the protest exposed the deep but otherwise hidden meanings lurking beneath the national symbols we often take for granted.
The anthem is not just a song to many people. What exactly this song means — particularly to many white people — is revealed in their response to a person of color not doing what he is supposed to do while it is playing. Sitting and kneeling aren’t particularly disrespectful postures (it is not as though he raised his middle finger for the anthem), but the simple public sign of quiet disobedience cuts deep. The tension between the action and the reactions forces public discussions, which expose the racism that often intersects with patriotism, and evoke the white supremacy that resides at the core of our national culture. In one simple move, the national anthem protest shines light on a virtual powder keg of racial and political realities.
Anywhere the national anthem is played, people are now able to politicize the space in a legible way. Arenas or locales could make rules mandating that people stand and place their hand on their heart, but this would only make them look desperate and intensify the drama around protesters. Alternatively, imagine the momentum (and the venomous reaction) it would generate if some venues stopped playing the national anthem altogether in order to prevent protest scenes.
The elegance of the national anthem protest lies in its simplicity. It takes courage to do it — for some, like individual high school students, extraordinary bravery — but nothing else (i.e. no resources, no training or minimal coordination). Right now, many players who do it are ridiculed or asked to explain why. If the protest builds, teammates who remain standing will have the gaze turned on them; they will have to answer for why they refuse to participate. The more spectators kneel or raise fists, the more uncomfortable it will get to proceed with business as usual. The symbolic power is massive and the possibilities for escalation are vast.
Kaepernick has reintroduced a brilliant tactic that hits hard and cannot be silenced. He started it (this time around) and thus his name is associated with it, but he does not own it, in the sense that anyone can take it up and make it theirs. The tactic has no specific demands attached to it; it is a raw, unambiguous condemnation of an intolerable status quo. With an action that is replicable in all kinds of arenas and so simple with all of its varieties that anyone can participate, the national anthem protests represent an escalation in the broad movement for black lives into a sacred space of sports, which had previously been a refuge for many from the political realities of this country.
Sitting in white only marked spots is completely different than standing for the national anthem. The national anthem is not a race based thing that symbolizes white vs. black. Seats marked white only are a clear sign of racism and sitting where it tells you not to is a clear protest that makes a direct point. Sitting for the national anthem makes no point. It’s no different than refusing to pee in toilets. You can attribute the action of not peeing in toilets to what ever cause you want. I could decide to not stand for the national anthem because women in the US are prejudice toward short men. It makes no sense to do this just like sitting for the national anthem makes no sense for a movement about black equality. It’s also a myth. It’s your job to change your life. Not the government. The government can’t fix your problems, they don’t make you break the law they just enforce the law when you decide to break it. There aren’t any laws that make it any more difficult for black people than any other person in this country to live. We all live by the same laws. It’s time you accept responsibility for yourself.
Wow, where do I begin? Glad to see the old bootstrap myth is alive and well in your delusional reality, but it’s not necessarily the lack or presence of laws that enforce oppression. Often it’s the selective enforcement that does the job to uphold white supremacy. But in the case of racial discrimination, there is a long history of laws that oppressed Black people and other people of color. Think slavery, Jim Crow, red-lining in the housing market, and the current system of vastly discriminatory policing that has led to our current state of mass incarceration and the New Jim Crow (there’s a book with that title, read it). Your example about choosing not to pee in toilets would be a private protest, unless you frequent kinky public pee places or something. These national anthem protests are public, and that’s the point. The national anthem is race-based, and the point the protests have succeeded in making us that the anthem is a lasting acknowledgement that the bastion of white supremacy continues in this country. Have you ever heard the last verse? Look it up. Here’s a clue: it harkens back to a time when explicit racism was “acceptable” and it isn’t sung today because implicit racism is the name of the game to keep white supremacy alive. I know it’s difficult, but it’s time for you to get educated. Listen to people of color tell their stories about oppression on blogs all over the internet. Stop consuming one-sided media for a change. You can do this. Stand on the side of justice.
Joe you assume that my life as a black person must be a failure if I support the national anthem protest. You are wrong. My life and the lives of my family and friends are successful in that we are educated, own our homes (or rather pay mortgages), go to church and are law-abiding. My brother and father are military veterans and I have friends and family who work in law enforcement. We are contributors to society: We don’t need to change our lives, we need police behavior toward us to be lawful, respectful, and restrained. Moreover, I find it strange that your comment places such emphasis on personal accountability, but none on government accountability. I would hope you can support the need to hold our government and its law enforcement representatives accountable to the people it serves, like me. Family, friends and I have experienced police harassment, and a few have been harmed. So I believe that police abuse of black people happens; what you’re seeing on the news are only the most egregious incidents.
any athlete that does any type of protest while in the employment of the sports in this country, should and must be exiled out of sports. american sports is no place for any type of protest and should not be condoned whatsoever.
Every NFL uniform bears the Nike swoosh. Burning the Jerseys would be a much more informed and meaningful protest.
Great Article – thought provoking. My wife has always gotten pissed over the years when I have refused to stand for the national anthem.
It was not a protest…. Shame for him