HANDS UP

By: Leda Turpen Throughout this week, my group is examining how politics have grown with the introduction of modern popular and celebrity culture in our society. While this is our main focus, I would like to shed light on an activism from the perspective of minority professional athletes, specifically the consequences they face when exercising their constitutional right to voice and demonstrate their political stances. I argue that minority celebrity athletes face a social identity threat when protesting for or against current political events, thus, are hesitant to speak up about them. Undoubtedly, our society is no stranger to the kind of reactions and responses celebrity activism can create. One prominent example being the case of Michael Brown, an African American who was shot in killed by a white police officer (Sanderson, Frederick, and Stocz, 2016). Shortly after the incident, the officer was not prosecuted, causing tension immediately (2016, p. 302). After the verdict, five NFL African American St. Louis Rams players locked hands and displayed a “hands-up” gesture during player introductions in reaction to the high-stake racial tensions (p. 301).

The Ram’s players actions exploded on social media, Twitter and Facebook, which allowed for users to create an array of offensive hashtags and attack the player’s actions. On both Twitter and Facebook, there was anything from an immense amount of racist remarks, referring to the players as “Thugs standing up for other thugs” (Sanderson, et al., 2016, p. 312), to users threatening the St. Louis Rams. The authors of this article conducted a study on these particular athletes’ activism, and the chaos on social media; both of which lead to two major protruding themes.
                                   

Primarily, Pelak’s work (as cited in Sanderson, et al., 2016) describes professional athletes as social role models that can become involved in social movements through their esoteric power of becoming “agents of social change” (pg. 303). Although the authors point out that when minority athletes speak out on social issues, it often creates controversy (p. 303). First we must ask, why is this the case? The authors examine how individuals have personal and social identities, and that one’s social identity is linked to their demographic classification (Sanderson, et al., 2016, p. 306). Essentially, minority athletes are less likely to speak up because their opinion is negatively attached to their social identity, consequently, this leads society to undermine the individual’s value and further perpetuate stereotypes.

We see this today with Colin Kaepernick, former football quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers. When Nike chose him to represent their brand after the huge uproar over his decision to take a knee during the national anthem. Due to the fact that this was such a controversial decision, the attention surrounding Kaepernick was heightened. His social identity was already at stake when he began kneeling during the national anthem, but Nike’s identity is now at stake because it is perceived that they support Kaepernick’s actions. This attests to the pushback minority professional athletes get for peacefully protesting a political and social issue that specifically pertains to racism.

The consequences that arise from minority athlete activism minimize the social issues they initially advocate for. Accordingly, activism can come from anyone, although it may be interpreted differently. In particular, it is evident why minority athletes are reluctant to advocate for political issues when they are criticized for speaking up, yet also condemned when they do not. References

Sanderson, J., Frederick, E., & Stocz, M. (2016). When athlete activism clashes with group values: Social identity threat management via social media. Mass Communication & Society, 19(3), 301–322. https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2015.1128549 Word Count: 561