A useful way to think about how protests work is a cascade model. Before a standing ovation, folks look around to see what others are doing. Signals from media + elites (people further up), neighbors (seated near you) & local norms all shape whether people stand up.
Protests help draw attention to an issue. Media may cover it, amplifying underlying concern in larger public. Individuals & groups watching from sidelines then weigh whether to support, ignore or oppose the cause. So, athletes can play a powerful role.
Research by @EricaChenoweth & Maria Stephan finds a key reason nonviolent protest tends to be more effective than violent resistance is potential local, national & international allies are more likely to align with a movement perceived as largely peaceful. amazon.com/Why-Civil-Resi…
There are three other recent examples of this dynamic playing out with protests and sports. Activists fought for years to bring down Confederate flag in Mississippi. As this superb @Radiolab segment documents, NCAA helped tip the scales toward change. wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radio…
Following years of protests by Native Americans, and following the #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd movement, FedEx joined the push to have Washington’s NFL team change their name. For background, watch this powerful unaired Super Bowl ad from 2014.
”Clarence Page wrote in 1992 the Washington team now constitutes ‘the only big time professional sports team whose name is an unequivocal racial slur.‘” That fight has been won but it took decades to cascade from activists to corporate America. psmag.com/social-justice…
Now, high profile athletes are saying business as usual is unacceptable. That lends considerable legitimacy to the push for #JusticeForJacobBlake & the larger effort to reform policing in America. It also raises the question, who will be next to stand up?
For an overview of my research on civil rights protests in the 1960s, see this thread:
