You Like That New Nike Ad With Colin Kaepernick? Me Too!
This post will not be an official "Notice of Protest" against Nike, Inc and its new video advertisement entitled "Dream Crazy." The ad features many Nike marketers including; Lebron James, the face of the NBA, Serena Williams, the face of Tennis and former athlete and new face of activism, Colin Kaepernick. I'm not going to protest Nike or any of the other companies Nike owns.
But...
If I were to protest Nike, Inc and its subsidiaries I would not join the #burnyournikes movement, a social media movement of posts by people announcing their "Notice of Protest" against Nike. Shredded socks and burned Air Max's signify the dissent of people who associate those who kneel during the National Anthem of the United States of America with Nathan Bedford Forrest, Bloody Bill Anderson (great name!), and Richard Ewell. Kaep is a treasonous man who only wants the ultimate obliteration of the United States of America! Therefore, anyone or any business that supports Kaepernick wants the ultimate destruction of the United States of America... and everyone in the military... and mayonnaise... and Oxycodone; the wonderful American way of life.
If I were to protest Nike (as futile as it would be) and its subsidiaries I would do so because this advertisement signals that activism is officially mainstream. Karl Marx wrote in Capital, Volume One "A commodity, therefore, is a mysterious thing simply because in it the social character of men’s labour appears to them as an objective character stamped upon the product of that labour; because the relation of the producers to the sum total of their own labour is presented to them as a social relation, existing not between themselves, but between the products of their labour. This is the reason why the products of labour become commodities." With this advertisement Nike is announcing that Activism is officially a commodity being prepared to be traded on Wall Street and other markets all over the world.
We're obviously being sold activism. If you wear Nikes you are automatically associated with liberalism, revolution, and protest. Nike becomes this blanket that covers all immoral human characteristics, it's another mask for bigotry, prejudice, and white supremacy. For you if support Nike you support Kaepernick and if you don't support Kaepernick you would have barbequed your Jordans instead of protesting in them.
I would protest Nike because these major corporations are way too comfortable insulting the intelligence of the masses. I believe that I'm dumb and I believe that the masses are dumb but we cannot be this dumb. Buy Nikes and market that you are against police brutality, for LGBTQ community rights, for gender equality, for prison reform, for all liberal politician talking points. And just like those liberal politicians Nike will not use its platform or its money, its political muscle to help with any solutions to these problems. Nike has taken advantage of a social movement for profit. Colin Kaepernick as a spokesperson for an advertisement essentially about "dreaming big" is being used as the symbol for activism. Symbolism just like sloganeering are the greatest tools of propaganda because of association and repetition. Once something or someone becomes a symbol and it is attached to a slogan or propaganda it takes some drastic measures to break the associations created.
Nike and the athletes in the advertisement aren't taking any political stance. They are comparing the accomplishments of Lebron James, Serena Williams and other athletes in their respective sports with activism dreaming about accomplishing any activist's goals. Nike only wants marketers who have accomplished their dreams. Colin Kaepernick's dream or want, is to end police brutality, it has not been accomplished, he has not won. Commodifying activism means that their cannot be any solutions to the problems activism proclaims. The commodity must always be sold until obsolete.
All Americans should be against police brutality. Kaepernick's protest should be summarized as "unarmed American citizens are being murdered by authority figures and the authority figures aren't being punished." All Americans, all citizens of this earth, if you truly care for the well-being, health, and persisting quality of humanity, if you love this nation, should be against that true statement. That is why our country exists (so I'm told) because of resistance to that type of authoritative tyranny. But politics informed by the dichotomy created by the two major American political parties necessitates that politics must cloud every aspect in society for votes. Prejudices must be made political, and despite my feelings, American is our least prejudicial political distinction. Other more polarizing political terms must be interjected into every instance of police corruption so instead of noticing the pattern of police brutality, egregious injustice is suborned. And that's what I feel Nike is doing. They are subborning what necessitates activism because they are now depending on the spirit of activism for profit margins.
That's why I would protest the Nike advertisement. But I'm not. In fact, I'm happy that Nike is paying Colin Kaepernick because he sacrificed his career, his livelihood, and all that comes with being a winner in professional sports, for Black people. In this capitalistic society he risked it all. I also don't believe in boycotting. I don't think I fully understand the heart of corporate interests. Maybe this is a good thing. Maybe Nike will usher activists into a glorious and permanent retirement. Finally, I know that white supremacy likes to use capitalism to disguise white supremacy, white supremacy is the most imminent problem but capitalism is the ultimate problem.
But again, this post isn't about some "Notice of Protest."
That advertisement made me think about Kaepernick's protest and what he truly was protesting, the American criminal justice system. It made me think about how the criminal justice system is unwilling to serve Black people. The criminal justice system is not only unwilling to serve Black people, us being its most profitable commodity; its perpetual victim, it is unwilling to serve women as well. The #metoo movement is also protesting the American criminal justice system.
I surmise that the #metoo movement is a protest against the criminal justice system because women are finding more absolution for crimes against their bodies in social media posts than in arrests and punishment. Women are not going to the criminal justice system (or are trapped in the criminal justice system) because it has proven to not get them any justice when their bodies are ravaged by the white patriarchal society. Every woman in the #metoo movement should be protesting right alongside Colin Kaepernick; boycotting the NFL and taking that boycott further by demanding that the American criminal justice system be a safe and productive place for women to take their grievances. That would be true intersectionality.
But the #metoo movement does not want to be about any progress against the pillaging of the bodies of women. It wants to be social media catharsis, it wants to distract, it wants to be boisterous and loud and hide behind russian troll bots and purposely unfounded claims of sexual assault. It does not want to punish because the #metoo movement is a white feminist movement and white women in general do not want to see their fathers, uncles, male cousins, and nephews in a jail cell. White females are willing to deal with incredible degradation from white males because their comfort is dependent on the white male and his degradation. That is why white women, as the leaders of all types of ethnic feminism, promote sexuality as a woman's main empowerment source. They don't empower women to create institutions that rival those created by their corrupt family members. They sell them that the vagina is where you must find power because the largest skyscraper in the city looks like a giant penis with a bank logo on the top of it and you must do whatever you can to work in that building. All women must imitate the white male. Not just his path but what is taught about his path to control of the world, think how he thinks about all women and all other men.
The politics in that phallic structure are not to be criticized or overhauled, they are to be white women controlled. It isn't about revolution or destroying the patriarchal structure created, it's about white supremacy and white women being allowed to control the system that their men created for them. If you were to judge sex crimes in this country by the #metoo hashtag there are literally millions of unpunished sexual deviants running around the country molesting every woman they come into contact with and women are too scared and scarred to go to the American justice system. So sexual deviants are allowed to molest and rape whomever they want because of the fear that debilitates their victims. White women aren't protesting the criminal justice system because they do not want their family members to get in trouble. White feminists sell "women of color" that womanhood is a uniting principal whilst they're on the side of white supremacy, united with their men no matter what crimes their men have committed against them or anyone else.
The American justice system was not created to punish white people for anything. If you add the revelations of the #metoo movement with the drug epidemic in the white community, jail cells in the United States should be overflowing with white males. You would think that there were at least ten million white men in jail and more on their way there if justice had a blind eye, if white men were judged as black men. There should be a revolving door of white men entering and exiting prison. There isn't... punishment and the cloak of criminality only covers the Black man...
And now we're back to Colin Kaepernick's original protest, lost in advertising.
But again, this post isn't about some "Notice of Protest."
That advertisement made me think about Kaepernick's protest and what he truly was protesting, the American criminal justice system. It made me think about how the criminal justice system is unwilling to serve Black people. The criminal justice system is not only unwilling to serve Black people, us being its most profitable commodity; its perpetual victim, it is unwilling to serve women as well. The #metoo movement is also protesting the American criminal justice system.
I surmise that the #metoo movement is a protest against the criminal justice system because women are finding more absolution for crimes against their bodies in social media posts than in arrests and punishment. Women are not going to the criminal justice system (or are trapped in the criminal justice system) because it has proven to not get them any justice when their bodies are ravaged by the white patriarchal society. Every woman in the #metoo movement should be protesting right alongside Colin Kaepernick; boycotting the NFL and taking that boycott further by demanding that the American criminal justice system be a safe and productive place for women to take their grievances. That would be true intersectionality.
But the #metoo movement does not want to be about any progress against the pillaging of the bodies of women. It wants to be social media catharsis, it wants to distract, it wants to be boisterous and loud and hide behind russian troll bots and purposely unfounded claims of sexual assault. It does not want to punish because the #metoo movement is a white feminist movement and white women in general do not want to see their fathers, uncles, male cousins, and nephews in a jail cell. White females are willing to deal with incredible degradation from white males because their comfort is dependent on the white male and his degradation. That is why white women, as the leaders of all types of ethnic feminism, promote sexuality as a woman's main empowerment source. They don't empower women to create institutions that rival those created by their corrupt family members. They sell them that the vagina is where you must find power because the largest skyscraper in the city looks like a giant penis with a bank logo on the top of it and you must do whatever you can to work in that building. All women must imitate the white male. Not just his path but what is taught about his path to control of the world, think how he thinks about all women and all other men.
The politics in that phallic structure are not to be criticized or overhauled, they are to be white women controlled. It isn't about revolution or destroying the patriarchal structure created, it's about white supremacy and white women being allowed to control the system that their men created for them. If you were to judge sex crimes in this country by the #metoo hashtag there are literally millions of unpunished sexual deviants running around the country molesting every woman they come into contact with and women are too scared and scarred to go to the American justice system. So sexual deviants are allowed to molest and rape whomever they want because of the fear that debilitates their victims. White women aren't protesting the criminal justice system because they do not want their family members to get in trouble. White feminists sell "women of color" that womanhood is a uniting principal whilst they're on the side of white supremacy, united with their men no matter what crimes their men have committed against them or anyone else.
The American justice system was not created to punish white people for anything. If you add the revelations of the #metoo movement with the drug epidemic in the white community, jail cells in the United States should be overflowing with white males. You would think that there were at least ten million white men in jail and more on their way there if justice had a blind eye, if white men were judged as black men. There should be a revolving door of white men entering and exiting prison. There isn't... punishment and the cloak of criminality only covers the Black man...
And now we're back to Colin Kaepernick's original protest, lost in advertising.
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