Still Processing

Kaepernick

Episode Summary

What does it mean for Nike to align itself with Colin Kaepernick?

Episode Notes

Last fall, Nike released a groundbreaking ad featuring the former N.F.L. quarterback Colin Kaepernick. His kneeling protest, which started in 2016 as a response to police brutality, was reinterpreted by social media, celebrities and Nike itself to mean something that doesn’t always match the intention of his original protest. So what does it say that a multinational corporation has aligned itself with a social movement? And are we O.K. with this form of “Kaepitalism”?

Discussed this week:

• "Samson et Dalila" at the Metropolitan Opera
• Jennifer Lee Chan’s tweet showing Colin Kaepernick not standing for the national anthem (Aug. 27, 2016)
• Colin Kaepernick explaining why he won’t stand for the national anthem (Aug. 28, 2016)
• "Colin Kaepernick and the Question of Who Gets to Be Called a 'Patriot'" (Wesley Morris, The New York Times Magazine, Sept. 12, 2016)
• Nike’s ad featuring Colin Kaepernick (September 2018)
• "Nike’s Colin Kaepernick ad sparked a boycott — and earned $6 billion for Nike" (Alex Abad-Santos, Vox, Sept. 24, 2018)
• "This Could Be the Next Step for the New, Socially Conscious Nike" (Sarah Spellings, The Cut, Sept. 6, 2018)
• "Nike Is Facing a New Wave of Anti-Sweatshop Protests" (Marc Bain, Quartz, Aug. 1, 2017)