What started as one NFL player kneeling during the National Anthem to protest police brutality and racial injustice has turned into several professional and student athletes taking a knee in solidarity. Sports commentators, football fans, and even the President of the United States have voiced their opinions on kneeling during the national anthem as a form a protest. The kneelers and their supporters see their protest as a peaceful gesture, and their critics interpret their protests as disruptive and disrespectful.
But educators can unpack the politics and polarization to discuss a question that has come up again and again – what types of protests are protected by the first amendment?
We can look to the Supreme Court’s past decisions in landmark first amendment cases for precedent. In Tinker v. Des Moines, students protested the Vietnam War by wearing black armbands with peace signs. The Supreme Court sided with the students. In Texas v. Johnson, the Supreme Court said that burning the American flag is protected speech.
Some argue NFL players are there for football, so their main concern should be playing the pigskin pastime. Others argue that players of all ranks have a right to protest when they feel there has been an injustice.
While it is okay to be nervous about how to navigate this crossroads between sports and politics in the classroom, know that this crossroads is not uncharted territory. Toss the question to your students and facilitate engaged, constructive discussion about when constitutional rights meets conflict. Here are a few resources to help:
– Making Civics Real, workshop 7, “Controversial Public Policy Issues” and workshop 8, “Rights and Responsibilities of Students,” follow two 12th grade law teachers in Minnesota and Washington, D.C.
– The Constitution: That Delicate Balance, program 9,”School Prayer, Gun Control, and the Right to Assemble,” for high-school students and adult learners, explores a series of events that deal with First and Second Amendment controversies.
– Democracy in America, unit 2, “The Constitution: Fixed or Flexible?” includes a few pre-video discussion questions about interpreting the Constitution.
This is not the first time protests and free speech have taken the national, and even global, spotlight. Our Essential Lens resource provides great insights from the Civil Rights Era here in the U.S. and the global protests of 1968, also known as the Year of the Barricades.
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