Pro Football and the Proliferation of Protest: Anthem Posture in a Divided America

(Hardback)

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Pro Football and the Proliferation of Protest: Anthem Kneeling and Standing in a Divided America examines the take-a-knee NFL protests, a trend that has led to deep political divisiveness in America. The author explores this phenomenon by incorporating analysis of media coverage, impact on attitudes and behaviors, and racial, religious, gendered, and political perspectives. The analysis allows readers to recognize both positive and negative prejudice and to proscribe possible solutions for political divisiveness. Protesting, anthems, ceremonies, and media coverage all demonstrate that this issue is a communication issue. This book examines the voices on both sides of the kneeling controversy in order to uncover the points at which one side is communicating and the other side refuses to listen. The studies in this volume look at the protest through four lenses: historically, through media coverage , through impact on public behaviors and attitudes, and from racial, religious, gendered, and political identification perspectives. The contributors worked in conjunction with one another, incorporating different viewpoints into each chapter as they were completed. All studies were conducted under the guidance of the books editor to separate the work effectively and to end in a set of voices that complement each other and allow for overall conclusions and recommendations. This book is useful for a wide range of scholars including race, religion, political studies, gender studies, and communication studies.

Reviews

This book provides detailed, multidimensional analysis of the anthem protests and their implications, providing theoretical and historical context that helps relate the anthem protests to larger issues confronting public discourse. But the most important contribution of the book is how it serves as an example of the utility of a multimethod approach, applying more than a dozen methodologies to a single phenomenon and creating a level of understanding that goes far beyond simpler approaches. -- August Grant, University of South Carolina
Pro Football and the Proliferation of Protest: Anthem Posture in a Divided America is a very important publication for our times. This book reveals that anthem protesting is a multi-dimensional movement with a historic dimension, not just a monolithic idea attached to a hashtag. It is enlightening, thought-provoking and a very good read. I highly recommend it as both a recreational reading choice as well as a very useful textbook for social media, interpersonal communication and journalism courses. -- Arthur L. Terry, Bethel University

Author Bio

Stephen Perry is director of graduate programs in communication and the interim dean of the Robertson School of Government at Regent University.