{"id":1198,"date":"2019-06-20T14:28:53","date_gmt":"2019-06-20T18:28:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/engagingsports\/?p=1198"},"modified":"2019-06-21T13:17:42","modified_gmt":"2019-06-21T17:17:42","slug":"anything-but-race-nfl-fans-avoidance-of-the-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/engagingsports\/2019\/06\/20\/anything-but-race-nfl-fans-avoidance-of-the-issue\/","title":{"rendered":"Anything but Race: NFL Fans\u2019 Avoidance of the Issue"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Fan<\/a>
Many fans who object to protests by NFL players during the US National Anthem insist their opposition has nothing to do with race (photo from Idaho Statesman<\/a>)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2016, Colin Kaepernick continued a tradition<\/a> in US sports by staging a protest against racial injustice during the playing of the US national anthem. Following his initial protest, Kaepernick said:<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Kaepernick\u2019s comments were in reference to a series of deaths of unarmed Black American men, such as Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice. Reactions to Kaepernick\u2019s protest were split. Within the NFL and beyond, many Black athletes, performers, fans, and even some coaches and officials joined in the protest against state violence in Black communities. At the same time, many others vociferously objected<\/a> while claiming to not be racist. The image above illustrates the color-blind racism<\/a> of the objectors; an anti-black statement of on-going hatred (\u201cWe hated Kaepernick before\u2026\u201d) is modified by a racially neutral phrase (\u201cFor football reasons\u201d). The denial of racism when protesting an anti-racist protest obscures the ongoing operation of racism as a multifaceted construct that disproportionality targets Black Americans<\/a>. Moreover, it prevents understanding of the US\u2019s failure to provide equal protections for all citizens when state violence and poverty disproportionately affects Black communities<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Overlapping<\/a><\/p>\n

As the above figure illustrates, Black and White Americans tend to perceive race and racism differently. To a large extent whites take a more benign view on racialized social problems since they are less impacted by them than Blacks. This may be explained by the fact that ongoing racial segregation keeps them from having many meaningful interactions with Black people<\/a>. This perceptual gap maps onto attitudes about the players\u2019 protests; supporters of the protests tend to be Black and liberal, while opponents tend to be white and conservative<\/a>. In fact, NFL fans (like other professional sports fans) have very little face-to-face interaction with players<\/a>, which contributes to their deep racial misunderstandings and ill-interpretations of Black Americans. It is not coincidental then that the critics\u2019 rhetoric has painted the protests as disrespectful, deviant, anti-patriotic, and anti-American<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To better understand how people interpret the recent protests, we interviewed 32 mostly white university student-athletes who were NFL fans<\/a> and had a strong interest in the players\u2019 protests<\/a>. When we began talking to college athletes about the protests, we were well aware that perceptions of and support for or opposition to the protests were largely split along racial and political lines. What surprised us was that the liberal white supporters of the protests (similar to the critics who opposed them) did not articulate a deep understanding of what drove the players\u2019 to protest state violence. Instead, these fans drew on what Eduardo Bonilla Silva calls \u201ccolor-blind racism\u201d via their ideological appeals to abstract, liberal conceptions of freedom and individualism. Rather than a stated concern with racial justice, support or opposition to the protests turned largely on whether or not the student interpreted the actions as patriotic.<\/p>\n

The white student-athletes\u2019 understandings of the players\u2019 protests reveals much about the contemporary operation of white racial power and privilege in the US. Instead of addressing state violence and the material consequences of ongoing racial inequality, their accounts of the protests were predicated on their personal perceptions and investments in whiteness. In other words, they collectively interpreted the protests through what sociologist Joe Feagin calls a \u201cwhite racial frame<\/a>\u201d that views the US and its social institutions, particularly the police and military, as the authors of prosperity, freedom, justice, and equality for everyone\u2014even when whites enjoy what Ethnic Studies professor Evelyn Nakano Glenn calls \u201cunequal freedoms<\/a>\u201d. As one student-athlete stated, \u201cThe players should be punished\u2026 <\/em>Go protest somewhere else where it isn\u2019t disrespecting the nation. They aren\u2019t gaining respect by kneeling, all that they are gaining is disrespect. They are corrupting our nation by ruining the patriotic fun before a sports game.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, fans\u2019 whiteness functioned in ways that blinded them from considering how or why race could be central to the protests. Additionally, about one fourth of the student-athletes expressed a firm white supremacist ideology<\/a> that perceived players as breaking an unstated, imaginary racial contract<\/a> where the bestowal of their fanship and adoration was predicated on the player protesters acting as extensions of US civic pride, freedom, and equality without reference to enduring US racial violence and oppression. The other group of respondents took an attitude of white privilege by describing the protests in racially neutral language of a civil society where all citizens have equal opportunity to engage in political protest, ignoring how they as white fans benefited from the racial injustice and inequality being protested. So while there was a clear distinction between their two positions, neither position demonstrated awareness of the everyday challenges Black players encounter on and beyond the playing field.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019m guessing that the racist that took the time to paint \u201cBoycott the NFL,\u201d on the back of his pickup, fully decorated with a tree trunk, and a football (as a substitute for a Black man) being lynched, would likely be the first person to say, \u201cI\u2019m not racist! This is about \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8!\u201d pic.twitter.com\/e4aTzBDwGF<\/a><\/p>\n

— L E F T, PhD \u26ab\ufe0f (@LeftSentThis) June 24, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n