White America, What Type of Protest Do You Approve Of?

[Shiranu]

What kind of protest does this white American approve of?  Virtually any that's non-violent.

[GSOgymrat]

Author David Niose echoes my thought.

Why 'Instilling Patriotism' Is So Ludicrous

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/our-humanity-naturally/201609/why-instilling-patriotism-is-so-ludicrous

... Despite all of our talk of freedom and democratic values, we as Americans are raised in an environment filled with nationalistic propaganda. Schoolchildren begin each day with a pledge of national loyalty, and even ordinary sporting events are injected with nationalistic elementsâ€"and not just the national anthem and "God Bless America," but military color guards, fighter jet fly-overs and similar pageantry. Americans are inundated from early childhood with messages of national greatness, much more so than citizens of most other countries, and it’s time we consider the repercussions.

If fondness for one’s homeland comes naturally to most of us, additional conditioning is only likely to jack up that national loyalty to unsafe and irrational levels. This is why a critically thinking population is so essential to healthy democracy, and why anti-intellectualism is so dangerous. With so many institutions standing to gain from excessive patriotismâ€"politicians, the media, the military and, perhaps most significantly, enormous corporations that reap massive profits from unquestioned military spending and adventurismâ€"only an intelligent and engaged citizenry can stand up to the such forces.

And bear in mind that selling patriotism to a population, particularly a society that isn’t thinking critically, is incredibly easy. The notion that we must affirmatively work to “instill” patriotism in ourselves is as ludicrous as the idea that we must work to “instill” loyalty to our mothers. If you would chuckle at the suggestion that we should recite a pledge of loyalty to mom when we awaken each day, you should ask why we insist that America's schoolchildren should take a loyalty pledge to their country each day.

And don't suggest that such nationalistic rituals are benign. At a minimum, the hyper-patriotism they produce ensures that many will demand conformity and exhibit hostility toward dissent as we saw in the Kaepernick scenario. In an anti-intellectual society, those who question authority or longstanding cultural flaws are quickly branded subversive. Thus, many well-conditioned citizens will rush to the defense of the Establishment if someone raises objections to the nation’s out-of-control military spending, ill-advised military misadventures around the globe, or even mistreatment of minorities at home or other grievances. With one side seeing themselves as the “real Americans” and opponents as something less, polarization is assured. Welcome to twenty-first century America.

It’s also noteworthy that governmental efforts to promote patriotism tend to increase at times when patriotism is already heightened. Laws requiring recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools, for example, spread rapidly after the attacks of September 11, 2001, when in fact national loyalty had rarely been higher. Politicians, having relatively few useful ideas to offer in response to the attacks, used such measures as an easy way of appearing responsive and proactive. Again, critical thinking would have exposed the emptiness of such proposals, but it was sadly lacking.

[widdershins]

This is a toughie for me. I think the protest itself was a fairly good one. As soon as he did it everyone knew what he was doing. Simplicity and effectiveness in a single movement.

HOWEVER

The guy is essentially at work. I don't know about you but when they're paying me for my time I leave my personal and political opinions at the door. I AGREE to do that, as a condition of my employment.

He used the platform provided by his employer for purposes not related to his job. In any company that's grounds for termination. This is the same thing as if I had gotten on my company's twitter and tweeted support for black lives matter. I would be fired so fucking fast, not because my company hates BLM but because you don't fucking do that. You don't impose your own political positions on the company you work for, and you DEFINITELY don't do it using their own media outlets.

If he had protested on his own time as his own person rather than as a team member of the 49'ers then I would be behind him all the way. But he didn't do that.

I agree with a lot of that.  I personally hate the "not my job" mentality.  When an employer is paying you they are expecting to get the work done which needs doing.  In this case, however, standing for the anthem is certainly not a "job requirement".  And while you may leave your political opinions at the door no employer can require you to leave your religious beliefs and convictions at the door.  In fact, employers must make every reasonable accommodation for religious beliefs.  One would be hard pressed to show that being allowed to remain seated during the anthem is in any way "unreasonable".  And even if it were not strictly "religious" reasons I think most of us here would agree that deeply held beliefs not based in magic are equally as important as those which are.

It seems in today's society the harder a person waves the flag, the less they understand what it stands for.  The more a person mentions the Constitution, the less they know about it.  And when someone talks angrily about their "rights", they generally have no concept of what rights actually are and which ones they, and others, might have.  He, of course, has a right, to not stand.  Contrary to the beliefs of people on the right, that is EXACTLY what men and women have fought for in this country, his right to freely express himself or to withhold an expression.

As for the original question of what types of protests I approve of, any peaceful protest where normal operations in an area are not impeded and people don't feel threatened, regardless whether I agree with the speech or not.  I approve of the right of neo-Nazis to march, even though I wish they would all die slow and horrible deaths.  When it comes to legality, that's a bit of a sticky issue.  There are some protests which are legal which should not be.  There are some protests which should be legal but are not.  Protestors are at the whims of local governments to issue permits, though doing so is an egg shell walk if they try to interject personal beliefs over the law.  Sometimes they get it wrong, sometimes on purpose.  So the legality of the protest really doesn't have as much bearing on whether I agree with it or not as it should.  In a perfect system I would add "legal" to the list of things I agree with.  As for this case, it is certainly peaceful and not disruptive.  It's all people who don't understand what it means to be an American causing the disruption.  That's on those idiots, not the guy acting within his rights.