It's Sunday afternoon. I have made breakfast and lunch today. I have done a load of laundry and two loads of dishes. I have made coconut flour tortillas for the week and a few loaves of chocolate zucchini bread. It's been productive and blissfully headache free. My head is still awash with activity though. I've been pondering the nature and efficacy of protest today.
commons.wikimedia.org
Whoa! Goat protest inaction!
I think like many things in life protesting lives on a spectrum. Some is passive and some is active. I protest businesses by not purchasing items from them. For example, I stopped ordering Domino's Pizza years ago. Of course, now I don't eat it because it's awful by comparison, but at the time they donated money to right to life organizations. I didn't want any part of that. Now, I protest things like Chik Fil A, which is easy since there isn't one within driving distance. I protest Hobby Lobby because of their religious stance and anti-female autonomy. I simply do not patronize their businesses. These are small personal protests on my part. Other folks take their protest to another more visible level.
ifc
Mmmm. Tacos...
In my town, every year there are Right to Life protesters outside of Planned Parenthood. They are visible, they are protected by free speech, and they are obnoxious. Their posters are disgusting. I would no more hold up a severed and gangrenous limb than hold up a picture of an aborted fetus simply because my right to protest does not include forcing other people including minors to witness gore. Their signs remove the right of the public to choose whether or not to witness maimed and bloody tissues. They yell and shame people who go in for appointments even though our clinic doesn't provide abortions. They are loud and visible.
Nikelodean
Yeah, that's how I feel when I see them on the street.
Then there are those who take their visibility to a higher level. This could include the Neo-Nazis who would really like us to believe that it's ok for them to protest in public because of free speech. I do not believe this. I feel it is incumbent on all of us who believe in a free society to shut down activity like Neo-Nazis. However, they apparently can be granted permits to wave their tiki torches and Confederate flags. Because of this, opposition also appears and pushes back. These protests receive national coverage and are truly a vital part of our society determining which direction it believes best represents our values. If you believe the Neo-Nazi, racist Confederate sympathizers represent our values, then you are on the wrong side of this argument and of history.
jezebel.com/k-mart-wants...
You tell 'em, Jed!
Of course, then there is Colin Kaepernick. He kneeled in silent protest to draw the nation into a conversation on racial injustice. He has since then donated his money over and over again. He has been quiet as the national discussion he started unfolded and mutated into some sort of discussion about disrespecting the flag and the nation. WTF, dude? Ok, so he has stood by his position that his kneeling was due to racial issues especially the killing of black men by cops, but then white people shifted the conversation to be about them instead. They say that he's paid to do a job, so he should just do it and not get political. Hmm, well after kneeling, he got up and did his contracted job of playing a game for everyone's entertainment. He had a national platform and he used a short time before the game to make a statement and get the attention of (white) Americans in the most effective way he knew how. And oh! how effective it was. So effective that the conversation continues, although it seems more about the white reaction than the racial injustices now. Then there's Nike.
Nike
It's ok for a man of color to spin like he just doesn't care.
Here we are now. Just entertain us dammit!
Ha! I do so love this development. Nike has long held up athletes of many races in its advertisements. However, they chose Kaepernick for their anniversary Just Do It campaign. I think this is brilliant. It gives the slogan a whole new dimension. Of course, there was backlash. People started protesting by burning Nike gear. My first thought when I heard about the burning of stuff was why are you burning it? People can use that shirt or those shoes. Just get rid of it and don't buy any more. This position has of course occurred to many and been plastered around social media. Bear in mind that they are burning gear over Kaepernick's advertisement, but did they burn a damn thing decades ago when Nike was making use of sweatshops? I was in college then and I don't recall that being an issue on the front page. Boycotts and picketing yes. Passions so high that they burned stuff? I don't recall that. Of course, the public is fickle. The outrage waned. I wonder if it will again. The increase in profits for the company would indicate that perhaps Nike has gotten this topic right in the public view.
Testing 1, 2, 3
Because it's all about the money, right Tony?
But people like my in-laws and my uncles will continue to be outraged with the original kneeling and now the Nike ad. My uncles didn't watch the NFL at all last season, so I wonder if they will this season now that there's a stipulation that if a player wants to protest, he stay in the locker room. Take away their platform ya know. Shift the controversy to nationalism instead so you don't have to acknowledge systemic racism in America. Gods forbid that it interrupt your life in anyway to acknowledge that racial injustice exists. The very presence of Neo-Nazis feeling emboldened to walk the streets openly should be a sign that perhaps things are out of joint. Yet, don't you dare make me think about race when I want to watch a bunch of largely people of color bash each others' heads in for millions of dollars on a Sunday afternoon. It's time to relax and you're insistence about racial issues is harshing my beer buzz.
www.ign.com
Oh right. It's all about money and beer.
I can't help thinking of the idea that the most effective protest is that which interrupts the status quo. My personal protest over Hobby Lobby does not matter in the long run. The Right to Lifers interrupt for a time, but Planned Parenthood still serves women nationwide. The ugly and loud protests here and elsewhere don't stop the Planned Parenthood mission. Neo-nazis are getting shut down by people who do things like have dogs poop on the grounds where Neo-Nazi rallies are planned. Hopefully they will continue to get shut down. And just like those anti-abortion folks, burning shoes doesn't do much except to make the protesters feel like they're doing something.
reddit.com
That's what I see. Just because it has no value to you
doesn't mean it would be valuable to someone who doesn't have it.
Someone whose need is worth more than your protest.
Kaepernick though, his protest is different. His issue is a matter for the nation at large to recognize that race relations are not equal and not over. Not yet. His protest did interrupt the status quo. His quiet and decent and dignified manner since then has given more credence to his cause than the people who try to ignore him and his message. I'm not an athlete so I have no real need of Nike gear in the first place, but I applaud their ad campaign. (My runners are Nike come to think of it.) Nike seems to be moving in a direction of honor and respect. I hope it's not just capitalizing on the controversy and that they've also made all the changes in their exploitative practices that they said they would all those years ago.
www.quick-break.net
I sense your skepticism, Roo.
For now I will wear my runners, which are black and white mind you. I'll wear them without yelling through a megaphone about it. I will wear them without drawing focus to them. I will wear them because they are comfortable, not because they are a political statement or a statement on race relations. I have the luxury of this choice. I have the privilege of this choice. May I remember the cause and protest that started it all. I will wear my runners with a difference.
National Park Service
Keep the conversation going my moosely friends.
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