Land of the Free (to Disagree)

If you're reading this, you're probably aware of the #TakeAKnee movement. Started by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick last year, the campaign involves kneeling during the national anthem at sporting events as a protest to police brutality and other racial injustices plaguing this country's people of color. Over the weekend the movement gained increased attention after criticism from the White House and other elected officials.

During their Sunday games, most NFL teams participated in the protest in one way or another - players kneeled, sat, or stood together with arms linked in unity. Some teams elected to stay off the field during the anthem in an attempt to avoid the controversy altogether. Interestingly, the Pittsburgh Steelers decided on this course of action so that offensive tackle Alejandro Villanueva, the sole player on the team who wanted to stand for the anthem as usual, would not be visibly singled out. Nonetheless, he could be seen standing at the entrance to the field, with other players and coaches behind him in the tunnel (some of them with their hands on their hearts in salute to the flag as well).

These events have been reported on and scrutinized from a variety of angles, so what follows are a few less popular observations.

1) NFL teams and players are private actors. 

There's something to be said about the unfortunate pressure faced by professional athletes as public figures in this situation.  If they come down on the wrong side of such a controversy, they risk alienating fans or creating discord amongst their teammates and/or team ownership... all of which puts at risk the success of the team on the field and, as a result, its financial success. Kaepernick, a free agent at the end of last season, remains unsigned as the current season enters its fourth week; some speculate that his acts of protest amount to a liability that no NFL team wants to take on.

It's an ominous reminder to current players that despite their right to free public expression, their employers are private actors who hold influence over their lives, since the First Amendment merely proscribes the government from taking action that infringes on speech. NFL employment is governed by league-wide collective bargaining protections as well as the terms of each individual contract. At least one reporter has concluded that a team could probably "fire" a player for protesting the national anthem, due to vague provisions about "personal conduct" and "public respect" for the game. Regardless, most of the official statements released by the teams expressed unwavering support for the players' desire to peacefully influence social justice, so it's not likely that participation in #TakeAKnee will result in any player dismissals.

2) Both sides of the argument are diminished by ignorance.

As with most politically-charged disagreements, this issue has been improperly reduced to an either/or, "us-versus-them" choice. The impetus to "pick a side" is particularly ripe in the powder keg of social media. Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms are alight with posts that proclaim support for #TakeAKnee in the name of free expression, while others deride the demonstrations as unpatriotic.

Opponents of #TakeAKnee diminish their own argument by misunderstanding key components of the movement - namely, jumping to the conclusion that anyone protesting the anthem is inherently unpatriotic. Patriotism is defined as "vigorous support for one's country".  This doesn't necessarily imply support for the flag or the military at the expense of other societal causes. There's a popular meme circulating which states that "Thinking NFL players are 'protesting the flag' is like thinking Rosa Parks was protesting transportation."

Another bit of nuance missing from the discussion is that critics of #TakeAKnee are fully entitled to their feelings. The same First Amendment that allows protest also permits vocal opposition to the movement. Nonetheless, the most legitimate criticisms of the protest are those which recognize the true basis of the campaign. Villanueva articulated an understanding of the issues Kaepernick seeks to call attention to, despite his opinion that doing so during the national anthem is inappropriate.

Conversely, it delegitimizes the campaign when its supporters call out certain public figures by name, imploring them to #TakeAKnee. A protest such as this should stand on its own merits, attracting support from those who genuinely believe in the cause without pressure to cater to a certain fanbase. It is human nature for there to be disagreements in society, and the change the movement seeks to effectuate will not come to fruition immediately.

If and when circumstances do improve, it stands to reason that there will still be opponents to the cause. I'm reminded of the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, namely the proliferation of American flags and other pro-U.S. displays. After a time, a chorus of critics emerged decrying this era of so-called "bandwagon patriotism"; that is to say, they dismissed an objectively positive movement as a mere fad instead of a genuine display of national pride.

3) Avoiding the controversy may not be possible... nor necessary. 

For the aforementioned reasons involving possible fan alienation and its effect on their bottom line, it's understandable that NFL teams sought to avoid controversial optics involving the national anthem. But staying off the field as a team seems like a compromise where everyone loses, since it deprives players the opportunity to protest OR to participate in the traditional anthem ritual. Linking arms, too, smacks of a half-measure, though it amounts to an act of protest insofar as defying the "normal" ritual of standing with a hand on one's heart for the anthem.

The teams' statements, though, told a different story. Many of these explicitly pushed back against Trump's remarks that the NFL should quash the protests. One owner went so far as to thoughtfully enunciate the dichotomy between respecting our country's symbols of freedom, "including the right to have differences of opinion". All of the remarks emphasized the role of sport as both a unifier in society and an appropriate avenue for influencing social justice.

Hence, despite some calls that professional athletes "stick to sports," the NFL has afforded some latitude to the #TakeAKnee campaign. Before it's over, there is likely to be further discussion, conflict, and controversy. As I said before, it is both our nature and our right to disagree.

Balancing act

Today is Labor Day, a federal holiday that commemorates the contributions of the American labor movement and sacrifices of workers. While I'd thoroughly enjoy discussing the legal and political history of industrial labor relations, this post concerns an issue more salient to many adults in this country: maintaining a balance between work and family responsibilities. 

Because of my own experience striving for "work-life balance", I'm quite curious (perhaps even nosy) about other families' work and child-care arrangements. I've known brave and capable women who return to work soon after giving birth, often sacrificing personal time to manage a household and earn a paycheck. Some of my friends - men and women alike - are selfless stay-at-home parents who meet their children's needs from sunrise until sundown while their partner works long hours. Others have managed a mixed schedule consisting of part-time work and part-time caregiving.  Still others have arranged to work from home certain days, allowing them to maintain a full-time workload while fulfilling familial obligations such as carpools and bus stop drop-offs and pickups. In addition to day care and/or school, most parents I know also rely on help from extended family members and/or babysitters to enable them to work (or do errands and chores kid-free). 

Social media is ripe with accounts of the struggle to balance work and family - specifically care of young children. In one such article, Why I Opted In To ‘The Motherhood Penalty’ At My Job, Jordan Jayson describes her decision to reduce her work-week to four days, and accept a proportional (20 percent) salary reduction in exchange. She discusses the satisfaction achieved by having one day per week to spend with her son when she'd otherwise be working, as well as the concerns about how her flexible work arrangement will affect her long-term earning prospects and professional reputation. The "mix of doubt, guilt, and self-criticism isn’t unfamiliar to working mothers. It comes with the territory," she writes. Furthermore, she talks about policy challenges involving parental leave policies, the perception of working moms as somehow "gaming the system," and the reality that in fact they work longer overall hours, toggling between childcare tasks and after-hours work once kids are asleep. Most significantly, Jayson criticizes the treatment of women as a "one-size-fits-all" constituency when it comes to desired career trajectory and the policies offered to help mothers in the workplace. 

Perhaps because the author's child is still young, one pertinent factor that the article doesn't address is the likelihood that over the course of her career one woman may need several different variations of a flexible-work schedule before returning to a "regular" full-time arrangement. As time passes, most children grow more self-sufficient with respect to both day-to-day self-care and entertaining themselves. They eventually spend most of their waking hours in school and other structured activities. Thus, if someone such as Jayson opts for a reduced workload after the birth of a child, she will eventually be able to return to full-time, therefore allaying her fears that she has forever harmed her wage-earning prospects. Still, the zeitgeist around working moms in particular seems to cast aspersions on any departure from a full-time work schedule in which the aim is to score every possible professional achievement. A working mom who returns to a regular full-time schedule will likely feel pressure to throw herself into work and handle emergencies or other last-minute developments with the same aplomb as her previous childless self. 

Of course, as Jayson also conveys, arranging atypical work schedules depends on the willingness of employers to accommodate workers' needs. In some industries this may simply not be possible; in others, flexibility may be easier to achieve. Another factor, of course, involves the practicalities of sharing childrearing responsibilities between partnered parents. Whether or not one has children, the way in which families handle the balance between wage-earning and childcare effects us all, insofar as it impacts how the next generation of humans is raised.  In my further posts, I plan to explore policies concerning parental leave and childcare, as well as the practices and attitudes surrounding which partner handles which household tasks. As always, I'd love to hear any reader reactions (including tales of flexible work arrangements) in the comments.