A quick review of the media coverage of the NFL protests demonstrates beyond doubt that the message about social justice has been lost. Understanding why and how this happened might be the most important thing the Social Justice cause can take from the experience. In a broad sense, the NFL Players, Owners, and even the President allowed themselves to be manipulated. Understanding who was manipulated and who was doing the manipulating is key to separating the “good guys” from the “bad guys”.
The original protest, kneeling during the National Anthem at an NFL game was probably done with good intentions, but was doomed to failure. It is always tempting for a person to use their platform in front of a large audience to raise awareness of an issue. Doing so requires that the audience be open to receiving that message and that the communication is precise and appropriate. The original protest had none of these characteristics and thus failed.
Emotional reactions abound during protests. Organizers know this and frequently use this to rally support for their cause. Unfortunately, when people react emotionally, they can be easily manipulated in any number of directions by those who have agendas and are practiced in this skill. NFL players probably don’t understand the fine art of manipulating others.
What Colin Kapernick failed to understand is that his protest placed himself at odds with the very people whose support he was seeking. This initial mistake allowed the media to manipulate the entire process for their own agenda.
FURTHER ANALYSIS
The Flag and National Anthem ceremony at the beginning of a sporting event is a very emotional event. It is used to celebrate all that is good about America and to honor those who have sacrificed to help protect and support those values. This ceremony reminds patriotic fans that America, in spite of our imperfections, is a thing to be honored and celebrated. We do this at sporting events because we know that despite the contest we are about to witness, at the end, we are all on the same team. While this appears to be a political exercise, it is done in a unifying way. It allows us to see ourselves as Americans, not as Republicans or Democrats, not as black or white, nor in any other context that divides us. It wipes away our experiences of the preceding week and allows us to to enjoy the experience together.
A protest that interrupts or detracts from this ceremony rather than being a part of it has the effect of alienating a lot of the people who are participating in it.
Basic protesting has two flavors. You protest against those who are hurting you. You protest with those who are your supporters or whose support you are seeking. Colin Kapernick made the initial mistake of getting this backwards. The media attention given to this event caused the other NFL players to be blind to the actual impact of the protest and allowed them to be manipulated into perpetuating the mistake.
The NFL owners are not responsible for the violence in our inner cities nor for the instances of injustice that occur. Neither are the NFL fans responsible whether in the stands or in any other venue. The unfortunate message that Colin Kapernick communicated was that he sought to make us aware of injustices to other people by treating us unjustly, by punishing us and sending us the message that we are somehow responsible for the injustice. This is not an effective way to garner support for your cause.
This raises the question-who is responsible for the injustice felt by minorities? I would suggest that you focus your attention on the people in power with the most direct connection and influence in each instance. If you feel a person was improperly prosecuted, you might look to the prosecutor who chose a charge that could not be proven. If you feel that minorities are living in unjust circumstances involving poverty, crime and drugs, you should probably look to the elected officials in their community who are failing to do their job.
Perhaps the most significant manipulation of the NFL players occurred when the media decided to focus on President Trump’s comments at a political rally in Alabama. President Trump used a derogatory term to refer to a generic NFL player while expressing the frustration that many patriotic NFL fans feel over the protests as described above. Irrespective of what you feel about the President, the media successfully hijacked the NFL players protest and made it a referendum against the President instead of a statement about social injustice.
For an entire weekend the NFL used their considerable public venue to express unity for each other , entirely abandoning the initial protest.
The result of all of this is that the association American people have with the NFL protest will always be about Republicans versus Democrats instead of about Social Injustice. This is the agenda of the media. They will take every opportunity and every issue to achieve this result with a bias against the conservatives. This behavior should tell you that the main stream media is not sympathetic to the cause of Social Injustice. They will tell you they are, but their actions say something very different. They will tell you that it is the President’s fault that they had to talk about the President instead of Social Injustice. This is simply not true. They have the choice of what they cover each and every day. When they choose one story line over another, it is their choice and an indication of their priorities.
Going forward, we should all recognize that the more emotionally we react to something, the more easily we can be manipulated.
More importantly, I am not your enemy and neither are you my enemy. We make greater progress towards our shared goals of equality and justice for all when we band together against those few people in power who seek to control and perhaps oppress us. Those who seek to divide us by constantly focusing on the divisions, as the media so frequently does, are not on our side.
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