Courtenay W. Daum

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes the National Football League (NFL) player protests against institutionalized racism as a means of radical democratic discourse. Players elected to sit/kneel during the playing of the national anthem on the sidelines of nationally televised football games precisely because this constitutes a radical democratic practice that runs counter to liberal democratic norms. While this strategy enabled players to move their discontents into the national discourse, the evolution and expansion of neoliberal reason into new domains undermines opportunities for radical democratic imaginaries. The NFL protests demonstrate that individuals are able to utilize radical democratic tactics, but their viability is imperiled as liberal democracy is supplanted by the economization of politics including that the protests themselves have been economized. The expansion of neoliberal reason is manifesting as a new mechanism for policing public discourse and space that works to the detriment of racial and ethnic minorities seeking transformative change.

From: New Political Science 2019 41 (4)

Editor: Wang Yi