Does the form of protest matter? Examining attitudes toward different forms of athletes’ protests against police brutality and injustice

ABSTRACT

Protests represent strategic communication choices by activists to express particular grievances and they can take a variety of forms. Yet there has been very little research on whether the form of protest matters to the public. In this study we focus on various forms of protests against police brutality and systemic injustice that have been considered or enacted by Colin Kaepernick and other athletes since 2016. We examine whether people perceive these different forms of protest against police brutality and systemic oppression differently. Using data from 326 participants, our findings reveal that participants perceive some forms of protests are more appropriate than others. Implications of the findings are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Protest
• social justice
• activism
• attitudes
• ANOVA

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Latinx is conceptualized as an ethnicity in this study, rather than a racial group. It refers to people of Latin American cultural or ethnic identity in the United States. They are also sometimes referred to as Hispanics. Members of the Latinx community can be of various races (e.g., White, Black, etc.).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yannick Atouba

Yannick C. Atouba Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of organizational communication in the Department of Communication at the University of Texas at El Paso. He studies organizing across a variety of contexts, including business, nonprofit, and social movement. 

Daymon Wilson

Daymon A. Wilson M.A., is an independent scholar who completed his MA in communication at the University of Texas at El Paso.