Though the NFL and team owners did zilch to stop pregame protests during the national anthem this season, The Undefeated blog's senior writer Lonnae O’Neal insists politicians, business leaders and NFL leadership have reached "peak freak-out about players tackling racism and police brutality during the national anthem."
Those protests -- kneeling and fist raising -- are actually on the wane and the "peak freak-out" has already passed. ESPN reported that just six NFL players took a knee during the Star Spangled Banner last week, significantly down from the high of 200-plus a few weeks earlier.
But peak freak-out or no peak freak-out, former Washington Post writer O'Neal asserts "the white owners and fans are sending players the message that they can dance but they cannot protest. This is happening, she alleges, through a unique type of communication few people were even aware of:
This NFL season, the usual game-day messaging of beer and sneaker ads and uplifting videos about community or military service has been augmented by a special kind of cultural telegraph.
You can Milly Rock, Juju on that Beat or fake play ping pong in the end zone. (STOP) But we can’t abide you kneeling on the sidelines. (STOP) Dance to your heart’s content, but you best not raise a fist in protest. (STOP)
O'Neal conjures up this message as "historically layered" about what’s "allowable, laudable or even tolerable for black men to do with their bodies. It’s an adjudication centered in the white gaze, projected onto black limbs, televised to millions of eyes."
She also claims the NFL's relaxed rules on celebrations this season are tinged with racism. She asks if players can "simply be allowed to celebrate athletic achievement and the joy of expression, like any free people, without the echoes of white supremacy?":
White fear of the black male body is part of the subtext of the rage over the NFL protests (and actually any form of black protest). That fear, stemming from perceptions of black lawlessness and criminality, can also be understood as a projection of white rage.
In the era of relaxed rules on celebrations, hugs, salutes and going to the ground in prayer are A-OK -- "(presumably unless it involved praying for police to stop shooting black people)," O'Neal claims:
In another political moment, dance is safe and entertaining — something white folks have historically enjoyed watching happy blacks do. In turn, that sight line evokes minstrel show dancing and “cooning” for white audiences.
O'Neal started with the argument that whites prefer dance to political protest, but now ugly political celebrations are taking place, too. The New York Giants' wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. scored a touchdown and then got down on all fours and raised his leg as if he was urinating. After the game he said the figurative victim of his spraying was President Donald Trump.
Celebrations or kneeling, disrespectful behavior of any kind is unacceptable to people of any race.
