Taking a Knee: Neoliberalism, Radical Imaginaries, and the NFL Player Protest

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes the National Football League (NFL) player protests against institutionalized racism as a means of radical democratic discourse. Players elected to sit/kneel during the playing of the national anthem on the sidelines of nationally televised football games precisely because this constitutes a radical democratic practice that runs counter to liberal democratic norms. While this strategy enabled players to move their discontents into the national discourse, the evolution and expansion of neoliberal reason into new domains undermines opportunities for radical democratic imaginaries. The NFL protests demonstrate that individuals are able to utilize radical democratic tactics, but their viability is imperiled as liberal democracy is supplanted by the economization of politics including that the protests themselves have been economized. The expansion of neoliberal reason is manifesting as a new mechanism for policing public discourse and space that works to the detriment of racial and ethnic minorities seeking transformative change.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ Nancy Fraser, “Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy,” Social Text 25/26 (1990), pp. 56–80; Michael Warner, “Publics and Counterpublics,” Public Culture 14:1 (2002), pp. 49–90; Michael Warner, Publics and Counterpublics (New York, NY: Zone Books, 2005).

² Courtenay W. Daum, “Counterpublics and Intersectional Radical Resistance: Agitation as a Mechanism for Transforming the Dominant Discourse,” New Political Science 39:4 (2017), pp. 523–37.

³ Ibid.; Audre Lorde and Cheryl Clarke, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (Berkley, CA: Crossing Press, 2007), p. 110.

⁴ Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution (Cambridge, MA: Zone Books, 2015), p. 17.

⁵ Ibid., 18.

⁶ Ibid., 17.

⁷ Ken Belson, “Questions About Kaepernick Hover Over Jay-Z’s Deal with the NFL,” The New York Times (August 14, 2019), available online at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/sports/football/colin-kaepernick-jay-z.html?searchResultPosition=2.

⁸ See for example, Anne Branigin, “’You Need Me, I Don’t’ Need you’? Jay-Z and the NFL are Doing Business Together,” The Root (August 13, 2019), available online at: https://thegrapevine.theroot.com/you-need-me-i-dont-need-you-jay-z-and-the-nfl-are-now-1837213562?%2Fsetsession; Jay Connor, “Jay-Z Touts His NFL Partnership as the Evolution of Colin Kaepernick’s Protests. But Is It?” The Root (August 14, 2019), available online at: https://www.theroot.com/jay-z-touts-his-nfl-partnership-as-the-evolution-of-col-1837244146; Michael Harriot, “Not Like This: An Open Letter to Jay-Z,” The Root (August 15, 2019), available online at: https://www.theroot.com/not-like-this-an-open-letter-to-jay-z-1837268769; Dara Sharif, “Nah Jigga: Jay-Z Reportedly has no Chance of Getting his Hands on an NFL Team,” The Root (August 21, 2019), available online at: https://www.theroot.com/nah-jigga-jay-z-reportedly-has-no-chance-of-getting-h-1837457597.

⁹ Daum, “Counterpublics and Intersectional Radical Resistance.”

¹⁰ Judith Butler, Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence (New York, NY: Verso, 2004), p. 52.

¹¹ Michel Foucault, Power, James D. Faubion (ed.), (New York, NY: The New Press, 2000), p. 341.

¹² Ibid.

¹³ Butler, Precarious Life, p. 94.

¹⁴ Foucault, Power.

¹⁵ Daum, “Counterpublics and Intersectional Radical Resistance”; Warner, “Publics and Counterpublics,”; Michael, Publics and Counterpublics.

¹⁶ Daum, “Counterpublics and Intersectional Radical Resistance.”

¹⁷ Steve Wyche, “Colin Kaepernick Explains Why He Sat During the National Anthem,” National Football League (NFL), (August 27, 2016), available online at: http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000691077/article/colin-kaepernick-explains-why-he-sat-during-national-anthem.

¹⁸ Ibid.

¹⁹ Ibid.

²⁰ Bryan Flaherty, “From Kaepernick Sitting to Trump’s Fiery Comments: NFL’s Anthem Protests Have Spurred Discussion,” The Washington Post (September 24, 2017), available online at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/sports/colin-kaepernick-national-anthem-protests-and-NFL-activism-in-quotes/?utm_term=.08258bba85ae.

²¹ Ibid.

²² Ibid.

²³ Michael McCann, “The Leaked October Tapes and the Kaepernick Collusion Case,” Sports Illustrated (April 25, 2018), available online at: https://www.si.com/nfl/2018/04/25/leaked-tapes-nfl-owners-players-october-meeting-kaepernick-collusion-case-donald-trump.

²⁴ Courtenay W. Daum, “Counterpublics and Intersectional Radical Resistance,” p. 523–37, at 530.

²⁵ Warner, Publics and Counterpublics, p. 122.

²⁶ Flaherty, “From Kaepernick Sitting to Trump’s Fiery Comments: NFL’s Anthem Protests Have Spurred Discussion.”

²⁷ Ibid.

²⁸ Donald J. Trump, Tweet on September 25, 2017 at 5:39 AM.

²⁹ Flaherty, “From Kaepernick Sitting to Trump’s Fiery Comments: NFL’s Anthem Protests Have Spurred Discussion.”

³⁰ Ibid.

³¹ Ibid.

³² Ibid.

³³ John Branch, “The Awakening of Colin Kaepernick,” The New York Times (September 7, 2017), available online at: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/07/sports/colin-kaepernick-nfl-protests.html?action=click&contentCollection=Sports&module=RelatedCoverage&region=EndOfArticle&pgtype=article&_r=0.

³⁴ Wyche, “Colin Kaepernick Explains Why He Sat During the National Anthem.”

³⁵ Heitner, “Colin Kaepernick Tops Jersey Sales in NFL.”

³⁶ “Know Your Rights Camp,” Kaepernick7.com (2019), available online at: https://kaepernick7.com/pages/know-your-rights-camp .

³⁷ Flaherty, “From Kaepernick Sitting to Trump’s Fiery Comments: NFL’s Anthem Protests Have Spurred Discussion.”

³⁸ Ibid.

³⁹ Brown, Undoing the Demos, p. 10.

⁴⁰ Nick Wagoner, “Eric Reid Says Owners Haven’t Signed Him Because of Protest,” ESPN, (March 16, 2018) available online at: http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/22783800/free-agent-safety-eric-reid-says-protests-nationalanthem-keeping-finding-new-team.

⁴¹ Wyche, “Colin Kaepernick Explains Why He Sat During the National Anthem.”

⁴² H.A. Goodman, “70 Percent of NFL Players are Black Men. Colin Kaepernick Should Be Praised, Not Condemned,” The Huffington Post (October 23, 2017), available online at: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/70-of-nfl-players-are-black-men-colin-kaepernick_us_57c7b12be4b07addc4114047.

⁴³ Dan Cancian, “NFL Anthem Protests: Richard Sherman Hits Out at Jerry Jones’ ‘Old Plantation Mentality,’” Newsweek (July 31, 2018), available online at: https://www.newsweek.com/nfl-anthem-protests-richard-sherman-hits-out-jerry-jones-old-plantation-1050062.

⁴⁴ Brown, Undoing the Demos, p. 22.

⁴⁵ Ibid.

⁴⁶ Ibid.

⁴⁷ Kent Babb, “The Making of Colin Kaepernick,” The Washington Post (September 7, 2017), available online at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/the-making-of-colin-kaepernick/2017/09/07/d4d58e20-9320-11e7-8754-d478688d23b4_story.html?utm_term=.6338ea90ff59.

⁴⁸ Ibid.

⁴⁹ Phil Rosenthal, “Nike, Far From Burned by Colin Kaepernick Ad, Sees Share Price Hit All-Time High,” Chicago Tribune (September 13, 2018), available online at: https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/ct-spt-nike-record-high-colin-kaepernick-20180913-story.html.

⁵⁰ Jay-Z’s decision to partner with the NFL is worthy of its own independent analysis regarding the economization of political discourse and social justice.

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Courtenay W. Daum

Courtenay W. Daum is a Professor of Political Science at Colorado State University, and affiliate faculty with the Center for Women's Studies and Gender Research. Her research interests include critical race theory, LGBTQ politics, and feminist legal theory, and she is the author of a forthcoming book titled The Politics of Right Sex: Transgressive Bodies, Governmentality, and the Limits of Trans Rights (SUNY Press, 2020).