This Alumnus Isn’t Booing the ECU Band Protesters

Everyone has been weighing in on the ECU Band Protest and threatening to withhold their alumni donations so I figured I’d also not donate my two cents on the issue.

The protest makes me uncomfortable — and that’s a good thing.

Every day I stand with my class for the National Anthem and I lead them in the Pledge of Allegiance. I’ve seen the flag burned in person once in my life and I had no idea I could get that angry that quickly. I have devoted my life to public service and am enamored by the promise of my country. When I see the flag I think about those who have sacrificed for us. I think of how hard we had to fight to form this nation of opportunity. I think about those who died on the battlefield defending it. I think about those who have devoted their lives to improving America here at home.

When people visibly refuse to take part in the National Anthem, it distracts us from celebrating those who deserve celebration. It infringes upon their well-earned moment of unified admiration. It hurts my feelings because I’m so emotionally invested in the values the flag exemplifies. It bothers me as well as many people I know. It can easily be seen as disrespectful because it keeps us from coming together to show our respects.

But if a protest doesn’t bother us, what’s the point?

I am a white, heterosexual, cisgender male. As much as I like to think of myself as a person who is aware of the world around him, I will never know what it is like to be anything other than exactly who this country was first built to benefit. I read and I try to make myself aware of the struggles that people go through; but I just do not see explicit racism in my everyday life. I study and I inform myself on institutional biases, and I know they exist, but that doesn’t make it ‘real’ for me.

The ECU Band protest was meant to bring attention to the fact that people of color are treated unfairly in the United States. I say ‘fact’ because it is the truth. According to the Washington Post, African Americans account for 24 percent of those fatally shot and killed by the police despite being just 13 percent of the U.S. population. According to the FBI, nearly half of all hate crimes in America are racially motivated. An ACLU Report revealed that minorities are more likely to be incarcerated than whites who had committed similar crimes and that they also receive longer sentences.

So did the protest do what it was supposed to do? Yes — and in more ways than one.

When the students knelt during the national anthem, it brought attention to the importance of this issue. But it was the reaction of the community that was the most revealing.

In the aftermath of the protest, I was shocked to see how many of our neighbors attacked the students with racial slurs and violent threats. Band members were assaulted in the bathroom, spit on and called n*****-lover. This protest didn’t make people more bigoted; it brought their bigotry out into the open. It showed people like me — who don’t normally see it — just how widespread these attitudes are in our community. The reaction to the protest validated the protest in a way more ‘real’ than statistics could do alone.

This act of protest has shown us that bigotry is more prevalent around us than we would like to admit. For that, I thank every one of the students who took a knee.

Now, I also do believe that most of the people who are upset by this protest are genuinely good people who — like me — see the Anthem as a time for us to come together and thank those who fought for us. Many of the people that I’ve seen expressing their anger are also in favor of mandatory body cameras for police and reforming our justice system.

I don’t begrudge anyone who simply wants to celebrate those who deserve it.

That being said, I have trouble understanding how people can be more upset by the fact that there was a protest than they are about the fact that everything the protesters are saying is true. Which is more infuriating, students taking a knee or black men being needlessly killed? Which is more upsetting, a disturbance during our national anthem or longer prison sentences for people of color? Which is worse, our feelings being hurt momentarily or a family being ripped apart forever?

I keep hearing people say that these kids and these athletes should express their views in a different way; but people have been speaking out about this for longer than I can remember and nothing has changed. Even if it bothers us, it has us talking about it. It has given us definitive proof that our communities aren’t as progressive as we might like to think. Yes, disturbing the National Anthem upsets me. But if the end-result is justice, so be it!

It is unclear whether or not the University supports these students. Our Chancellor released a statement that was generally supportive and claimed that the students had the right to protest. However, after many alumni threatened to withhold their donations, the music department released a statement claiming that future protests would not be tolerated.

“The University embraces and strives to uphold the freedoms of expression and speech guaranteed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and the North Carolina Constitution. The University has the right under appropriate circumstances to regulate the time, place, and manner of exercising these and other constitutionally protected rights.” — Student Code of Conduct Section 1.3

The University can punish students for protesting on the football field if they so choose, but that’s not the right thing to do. I went to ECU and I spent my entire time there working to get students involved in the political process. I tried — usually unsuccessfully — to convince students that they could make a difference and that their voice mattered. ECU has consistently had a reputation as an apathetic campus.

If the administration handles this well, these students could come away from this experience with the knowledge that their voice matters and that they can make a difference in this world. I love Pirate football, but that’s not what school is about. If we can encourage students to take on the issues facing this nation, that’s more important than hurt feelings, that’s more important than a football game and that’s sure-as-heck more important than alumni donations.

Whenever anyone participates in a protest, they do so with the knowledge that there may be consequences for their actions. These band members have experienced many consequences: anger, hatred, verbal abuse, assault and threat against future action from their administration. I hope we can add two more consequences to the list: justice and an increase in student civic engagement.

If the students decide to continue their protest, I will not be booing them. And if any of them end up reading this, I hope they know that they have encouraged me to be a better advocate.