Sports and politics are an uneasy mix, but ESPN's "The Truth" columnist Howard Bryant sees no conflict from his end-zone perch at the back of ESPN's biweekly magazine. His column for the December 7 edition tackled a mini-scandal about the Pentagon paying for patriotic displays at professional ball games: "Are You Ready for Some Patriotism?" It was the latest in a line of clunky pieces from Bryant taking on the the military and police culture.
The influence of the military represents the most significant and uncomfortable change in sports in post-9/11 America. Significant because the game, on TV and at the stadium, has been awash in military overtones since the destruction of the World Trade Center, and uncomfortable because the root of the change has been an unstable metastasizing of fear, nationalism, patriotism -- and especially commerce.
Bryant went beyond genuine concerns over the sub-rosa marketing by the Pentagon to criticize any such respectful acts as pandering to police. Going fully politically correct, Bryant even argued that Veterans Day was a slap in the face to American Indians:
There is not just deceit in these practices but also an insulting distortion of history and images. The Chicago Blackhawks ostensibly honored Veterans Day with a camouflage jersey containing the Blackhawks' logo in the center, clearly uninterested in the colliding imagery -- the systematic removal of native tribes occurred at the hands of the U.S. Army. Since 9/11, America has conflated the armed forces with first responders, creating a mishmash of anthem-singing cops and surprise homecomings in a time of Ferguson and militarized police. Tensions continue to mount in aggrieved communities, yet the LA Dodgers pandered to police by holding Law Enforcement Appreciation Night in September.
But Bryant was against such displays even before the current revelations allowed him to use the word "deceit," as in this July 2013 column, "Sports and Patriotism."
....The ballpark, in the time of two murky wars and a constant threat of international and domestic terrorism, has been for the last dozen years a place for patriotism. The industry that once avoided the complex world now embraces it, serving as the chief staging ground for expressions of patriotism, and has codified it into game-day identity.
A dynamic that was supposed to be temporary has become permanent. The atmospheres of the games are no longer politically neutral but decidedly, often uncomfortably, nationalistic. The military flyovers, the pre-game inclusion of the armed forces, and the addition of "God Bless America" to "The Star-Spangled Banner" are no longer spontaneous or reactions to a specific event, but fixtures.
....
Sports and patriotism have permanently merged, not only as part of the event but also financially. In a time of fear, nationalism and patriotism sells....
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If the permanent inclusion of the military into sporting events is at best perilous, the addition of the police as heroes is even worse. The role of police, especially in minority communities, is hardly universally agreed upon. Yet at the ballpark teams force paying customers to approve. The nationalistic overtones, as well as the forced alignment with law enforcement and authority figures in a time of deepening concern over increased government surveillance and control domestically is more than ironic and more than a little chilling. It underscores a certain truth: Americans seem to have separated armed authority figures -- military and police -- from government when the two are always connected. It also is reminder of just how scary the world is.
For someone aggrieved at the mixing of sports and military, Bryant had no concerns about the mixing of sports and racial politics.
Bryant's Twitter feed is full of anti-cop messaging.
No, no, no...Do not hit the cops. They are just waiting for an opportunity to cut loose. Cannot win that way.
Watch that video. Think Garner, Tamir Rice, Bland, then sports teams, rosters full of black players, honor cops. Very difficult, mixed, msg
