"Here were the players doing everything that racist fans claim they want: being peaceful, respectful, not accusing anyone of anything – shutting up and playing football!—and they booed. Because what doesn't matter and has never mattered to those people is how people are protesting, only that they are. What's being said scares them much more than how it's being said."
– Barry Petchesky, Deputy Editor at Defector Media
A measured show of unity by two opposing NFL teams before the league's season opener on September 10 was not a neutral enough gesture to satisfy some football fans in Kansas City. Fans in Arrowhead Stadium loudly booed as players from the Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans linked arms and observed a moment of silence "dedicated to the ongoing fight for equality in our country."
Why the disrespect for unity? A number of people – including President Trump – object to the actions, which they view as disrespectful to the military or the flag or the anthem. After all, Trump has said that any player who doesn’t stand for the anthem should be fired. He has also urged fans to boycott the NFL.
Although a majority of Americans support athletes' right to partake in civil disobedience, according to a Washington Post survey, many of the 16,000 Kansas City Chiefs fans who attended the game appeared not to approve of even a show of unity between the players.
Kansas City Council member Eric Bunch wrote on Twitter that the display by fans in the stands at Arrowhead Stadium was "embarrassing" for the city and revealed the racism inherent in objections to the earlier protests.
The prevalence of booing in the stadium during the moment of silence was evidence that racism in the U.S. is perpetuated by "more than just a few bad apples," wrote Houston Chronicle columnist Matt Young. Young says …
"In the past, folks have claimed to be turned off by the Kaepernick-led protests because they disrespected the flag or the troops or the anthem or the country, or all of the above. That excuse is not applicable for the fans' ugly display Thursday night.
"Others say they don't want their football mussed by politics, yet those same people have no problem with a military fighter jet flying over the stadium before their game starts. Never mind the sobering thought that equality and unity is viewed as some sort of divisive political statement."
(Julia Conley. “As NFL Players Offer Show of Unity, Booing by Fans Shows Objections to Protests 'Was Always About Perpetuating White Supremacy.'” Common Dreams. September 11, 2020.)
The Bottom Line
Despite NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s video apology for ignoring the message behind on-field protests against police brutality, despite the softening of opposition to the NFL kneeling protests in the wake of George Floyd's death, and despite many other professional sports organizations calling attention to the Black Lives Matter movement, many people still oppose a call for unity against racial violence and an end to systemic racism. They hate the message. They continue to ignore and to reject the obvious.
So-called “scholars” have written books convincing us to believe that racism is a thing of the past. Thus, many Whites swallow the theory and deny the existence of widespread bigotry and racial injustice. A system of oppression has created different mindsets in the oppressors and the oppressed. Professor Joe R. Feagin in his book Systemic Racism: A Theory of Oppression discusses what systemic racism is:
“This white-generated and white-maintained oppression is far more than a matter of individual bigotry, for it has been from the beginning a material, social, and ideological reality. For a long period now, white oppression of Americans of color has been systemic – that is, it has been manifested in all major societal institutions.”
(Reggie Jackson. “SYSTEMIC RACISM 101: DEAR AMERICA, I CAN’T BELIEVE WHAT YOU SAY BECAUSE I SEE WHAT YOU DO.” Milwaukee Independent. June 24, 2020.)
Hussein Bulhan in his book Frantz Fanon and the Psychology of Oppression explains the wildly varying degree to which people of color, particularly blacks, differ in their way of seeing the country as opposed to the way Whites see it …
“To the extent that the oppressor gains, to that extent does the oppressed lose. To the degree that the oppressor is jubilant, to that degree is the oppressed mournful. Inasmuch as the former is content, in the same intensity is the latter unhappy and enraged.”
Nearly four years after Colin Kaepernick first took a knee, the broader NFL community has moved to embrace the causes that Kaepernick first championed nearly four years ago – as well as the method he used to raise awareness about them. The movement has come a long way. A Yahoo News/YouGov poll conducted in June 2020 found that 52% of respondents support NFL players who kneel during the national anthem as a means of protesting police brutality – a whopping 24-point jump from 2016.
Still, booing during the player protest at the 2020 NFL season opener is a sign that many people vigorously oppose drawing attention to systemic racism. After all, we have all heard fans denigrate Colin Kaepernick and declare they are “forever finished” with the NFL because of the protests. These claimed they would never again buy a ticket or even watch an NFL game on television.
And yet, these Kansas City fans even bought a ticket to a game in which they knew the players would make a display for unity. And, instead of being silent in respect, these fans chose to show contempt for acknowledging racial injustice. “What's being said” to them definitely “never mattered.”
Reggie Jackson, Head Griot of America's Black Holocaust Museum, says …
“When we debate the existence of systemic racism let’s be mindful that the system which has kept a foot (or knee) on the necks of people of color allowed whites to live free of that type of sustained violence.
“The lived experiences of most whites don’t include being victimized because of their race. They don’t see police brutality by officer Bob because they see him as their neighbor, bowling buddy, softball coach, favorite uncle, proud son, and all-American boy protecting them from the 'bad guys.'”
(Reggie Jackson. “SYSTEMIC RACISM 101: DEAR AMERICA, I CAN’T BELIEVE WHAT YOU SAY BECAUSE I SEE WHAT YOU DO.” Milwaukee Independent. June 24, 2020.)
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