Talking Kaepernick: Where USC Lies in the Activism in Sports Debate
Ellice Ellis ‘20
The first round of College Football Playoff rankings released Tuesday, USC debuted at No. 17. Our nationally recognized team and school spirit, although very popular and high ranking, has yet to see any national anthem protests.
National Anthem protests are a hot-button topic with professional and collegiate athletes kneeling during the song to protest injustice in the country.
The protests were started by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick back in 2016.
Although USC has yet to see a round of these protests; students and factually are still very interested in the subject.
I attended an event in mid-October hosted by USC Annenberg titled Taking A Knee: Sports and Protest where students and faculty heard from a panel of professionals and academics about the issue.
This is not the first event a USC school has hosted about the issue. Since the start of the semester, the Gould School of Law hosted a similar event and Annenberg hosted another event on athlete-based media companies where the issue was discussed.
This particular panel was moderated by Dr. Ben Carrington, Annenberg professor and renowned sociologist who researches sports, politics, and society. Panelists included; Dave Zirin, Sports Editor at the Nation Magazine, Jennifer Doyle, Professor of English at University of California Riverside (UCR), Shana L. Redmond, Associate Professor of Musicology, UCLA, and Courtney Cox, Communications Doctoral Candidate at USC Annenberg.
The event stood to help the audience understand why Kaepernick’s anthem protest blew up and to contextualize race, activism, and sports.
To a packed room of USC students, faculty and guests. Dave Zirin takes the task of explaining the situation.
Zirin the goes to specifically explain why Kaepernick started to protest. He said,“ he was so disgusted about the gap between what we’re told the anthem represents and the experiences of black Americans.”
Darlene Lopez, USC Annenberg graduate student who attended the event, gave her insight on the Kaepernick’s reasoning.
“I think the original protest regarding police brutality is a major issue and players are using their platform to bring awareness and hopefully one day, justice,” says Lopez.
In the panel hosted by Annenberg, Courtney Cox talked more about the increasing trend of players using their activism. The USC doctoral student acknowledged Kaepernick’s protest, but noted how black women who do the same thing are often treated differently.
Speaking of black women in sports activism, she says; “Their work, whether it’s everyday labor or intellectual endeavors are overlooked. Overlooked and trivialized.”
Cox’s comments were an interesting addition to the panel because press and commentary on the topic have mainly revolved around male sports and athletes.
After Cox’s comments, the panel changed topics and continued to discuss women in the sports industry. Cox went on to mention journalist Jemele Hill who was suspended from hosting her ESPN show after speaking on boycotts in the NFL.
Cox noted that the only difference between Hill and other sports journalists, like Bomani Jones, who has spoken out on the issue is the intersection of her race and gender.
One of the most insightful moments of the panel was the breakdown of the meaning of the national anthem in this country by Shana Redmond of UCLA.
The protest against the anthem itself is what seems to have many people up in arms.
USC student Roy Pankey from Alabama says “It does seem a little unpatriotic,”
“To not stand for the anthem…it seems like you are not recognizing the sacrifice people have made to protect this country and our rights.”
His opinions were very different from the insights shared by Redmond during the panel.
“Nothing about the anthem suggests standing at attention,” says Redmond. She explains that this is a practice American citizens have come to see as normal over several decades.
“This song was adopted in 1931, written in the 1800s. Entrenched though its repetition. We hear it at sporting events, rallies because it’s a repeated part of our existence.”
Redmond argued that black Americans, like Kaepernick, have “many anthems which developed in black social movements that represent a complicated citizenship that the star-spangled banner does not represent.”
At the end of the day, whether you love football so you’re tuned into the issue or you agree 100% with Kaepernick’s, you cannot deny the national attention this issue has gotten.
In my many talks with USC students, I have seen a growing interest and I’m glad the school and faculty are taking strides to engage student interest.
If you want to learn more about the intersection of activism in sports; I suggest taking COMM-387: Sports and Social Change or COMM-383m; Sports, Communication, and Culture.
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