I don’t remember ever hearing about Zirin prior to the event, but immediately after I saw him, I recognized him. I saw a clip of him on the Tucker Carlson show. So it was cool to see him in person. I am really glad that I went to the David Zirin event. Even though I disagreed with most of what he said, I did get a lot out of it. Much of what he talked about was Colin Kaepernick and the NFL protests.
I personally disagree with the NFL anthem kneeling protests. I think the players have every right to kneel and should be allowed to play if they kneel. I also disagree with the way in which President Trump approached the issue. So while I support their right to kneel, I disagree with their decision to do so. To me, it’s like naked protests. I support people’s right to do that sort of thing, but I usually don’t agree with the decision to do so and would never join in with them.
This is my position on the issue for several reasons. The first is that I think our country is very divided. A lot of groups in this country feel marginalized and have very valid grievances with their experiences here. While we are a very imperfect country, I wish that we could all rally around the symbols like the flag and anthem that represent what we are striving towards as a nation. While some of us are white, black, asian, latino, indian, conservative, liberal, male, female, gay, straight, transgender, etc. we are all Americans. The flag and the anthem represents the ideal that we as Americans are constantly striving towards. We have our flaws now and our history is filled with even more flaws, but we are the country that is always working towards bettering ourselves. These symbols also represent American greatness and unity that we all are a part of regardless of our individual identities. I think overindulging in the many valid grievances that we may have is not productive. It just brings out our anger and frustrations with the system. It makes us scapegoat other groups and give ourselves excuses to fail. The feeling of unity and solidarity we could have as a country is something that gives me chills. It’s a great feeling. The feeling that I am an American. It reminds of pep rallies in high school and middle school. There was always a group of naysayers – people that were quick to point out everything that was wrong with school and how stupid is was that we would have these school pride days. On that issue, I was always a glass half-full kind of guy. I loved expressing my pride in the school just as I love expressing my pride in my country.
The second point I want to make is that I don’t believe the protests have been successful in accomplishing its goal. As I understand it, the goal of the anthem protests was to raise awareness about police brutality towards African Americans. It’s a very valid issue, but unfortunately, I don’t think the protests have accomplished their stated goal. All they have really done is get a segment of the population – mostly conservatives – to hate the NFL and ignore their messaging. The dialogue about this issue is mostly semantics. In all my journalism classes, people are blaming this on the media’s framing of the issue. Trump does this a lot when the media focuses on his controversial remarks instead of his accomplishments in office. Whenever someone does something outlandish to raise awareness for an issue, it’s simply human nature to focus on the crazy thing they are doing instead of the goal behind their action. I think the anthem protests would have been a lot more effective at accomplishing its initial goal if the players knelt for the anthem on occasion instead of doing it all the time.
Throughout the event, I think Zirin expressed a a different perspective of why Trump came out against the protests and why Trump has been successful in politics in general. He kept calling Trump a fascist and suggesting that Trump was the villain making the situation worse. But it’s important to understand that while African Americans like Colin Kaepernick feel marginalized, so do conservatives. Everywhere conservatives go, they see politics - liberal politics. Liberals own the culture, they own Hollywood, the media, academia, sports, etc. Everywhere conservatives look, they see actors and actresses making speeches in condemnation of them. All these liberal elite social justice warriors are running around waiting for them to make a mistake, so they can call them out as racist, sexist, etc. These liberal elites use this terminology to put down conservatives and others making honest makes, in order to build themselves up as champions of justice. It’s very self-serving and makes conservatives furious. This is also why conservatives love it when the left does it to themselves. They are loving the Harvey Weinstein scandal, because for once the left is getting a taste of their own medicine. Trump came out against the protest because he knows his supporters are infuriated by them. He knows that if he becomes their defender – the one to move conservatism from defense to offense – he will likely get their support.
Conservatives are always and defense and Trump was trying to push them to offense. Unfortunately (and this is true with many of the things Trump does), he did it the wrong way. Obama’s response was much better. He went way over the top when he called from the NFL protesters to get fired. Trump has the right to say that, but just because he has the right to say it, doesn’t mean he should. Especially as president, he should never have suggested that they get fired. I hate it when people get fired or punished in any way for doing something controversial. As long as they are not breaking the law or harming people in any way, I think their employer should stand up for them – unfortunately, that rarely seems to happen these day. Whenever there’s outrage, employers distance themselves as quickly as possible.
Ultimately, I think that the Zirin talk was beneficial. I disagreed with most of what he said, but still appreciated the event. He was extremely knowledgeable and provided a lot of great insights and contexts to the politics of sports. As someone who knows nothing about sports, I learned a lot from that event.
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