You could cut the tension with a knife. Ever since Colin Kaepernick, former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, began protesting (by sitting, then taking a knee) during the “Star-Spangled Banner” in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and the police shootings that sparked it, nothing has really been the same in American football.
Perhaps a quick recap would be helpful: in 2016, against the backdrop of arbitrary police shootings of African-Americans, Kaepernick’s peaceful protest sparked a huge controversy by people who completely missed the point. They argued it was unpatriotic to kneel during the anthem despite the fact that the entire protest was about questioning the idea of national symbols in a country that systematically oppresses its own citizens.
@kaerpernick7 Kaepernick himself explained: “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.” Naturally, Trump weighed in by tweeting that players who knelt ought to be fired, proving that even the least subtle messages are way beyond what he is able to grasp.
The following year, Kaepernick ended his contract with the 49ers and became a free agent, but no team has hired him since. Kaepernick accused the NFL of blackballing him and subsequently sued the NFL for conspiring against him, further polarizing public opinion. But this backlash against Kaepernick and a failure, or rather unwillingness, to acknowledge his point makes one thing clear: the NFL’s owners are racist. How else can you judge an association that stays silent on racial issues in spite of the majority of its players being African-American?
People have unsurprisingly caught on with this, which is why artists like Rihanna, Adele, Jay-Z, Mary J Blige, Andre 3000, and Cardi B have refused to be a part of the halftime show in solidarity with Kaepernick. This boycott domino effect effectively turned a potential halftime appearance into poison for any self-respecting artist. What self-respecting artist or group would stain their career and legacy by staying “neutral”?
Enter Maroon 5. The official NFL announcement in September felt like a huge middle finger to all of us, especially considering that the 2019 game will be played at the majority-black Atlanta, home of artists and bands like Outkast, Ludacris, TLC, and Usher. But, then again, it makes perfect sense that a band not particularly known for its political overtness would say yes in such times of tension. What was truly confusing was the fact that rappers Travis Scott and Big Boi later joined in.
Flash forward to now, two years into the Trump administration, with the President’s approval ratings at their lowest, recently coming out of the longest government shutdown in US history after a failed attempt at outmaneuvering a Democrat-controlled House of Representatives in order to get funding for his wall (he finally caved on January 25th, just in time for the Superbowl LIII). What does this have to do with anything? Everything.
Trump has pretty much set the tone for today’s social, political, and racial tensions. Even The Killers released a single and protest video in favor of Black Lives Matter, and against mass shootings and anti-immigrant sentiment, as well as the infamous Wall. Meanwhile, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady gave us another reason to hate him when he claimed to be friends with Trump, and when a MAGA hat was spotted in his locker during the Trump campaign.
On the other hand, Maroon 5 is trying very hard, very hard indeed, to appear neutral. They cancelled their pre-show press conference days before the game, in spite of being customary for halftime performers to address questions before the big game on Sunday, proving that, at this point, the NFL is doing its best to avoid the sole mention of Kaepernick at all costs.
Keyboardist PJ Morton even gave the most tepid excuse you could ever hear: “I think there are plenty of people—a lot of the players, to be honest—who support Kap and also do their job for the NFL. I think we’re doing the same thing. We can support being against police brutality against black and brown people and be in support of being able to peacefully protest and still do our jobs.” If that isn’t trying too hard, I don’t know what is.
@maroon5
What’s interesting is that voices have been raised urging Maroon 5, Scott, and Big Boi not to be moderate in desperate times. Most notably, tech CEO and political activist Vic Oyendeji created a petition on Charge.org urging Maroon 5 to drop out of the Super Bowl, but he later changed his petition to a far bolder request: take the knee during the halftime show. Maroon 5’s history notwithstanding, I have a hunch that they just might.
In the end, one question remains: Are these artists the worst strikebreakers in recent history, or, considering an average of 100 million viewers around the world, are we in for the biggest surprise protest ever?
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