As Labor Day was winding down, I noticed an uptick in posts about Nike and Colin Kaepernick. The football player, who was essentially ostracized by the NFL once his kneeling protests during the national anthem drew ire from angry white people, is the new face of Nike’s signature slogan.
Kaepernick signed a multi-year deal with the sportswear company as a part of their 30th anniversary celebration of the “Just Do It” campaign. Not only will he be featured in advertising, but Nike will also sell Kaepernick apparel. The news was announced on Twitter, by the athlete himself.
This choice by Nike to continue to feature a black man who is in the spotlight due to racist backlash is a big deal. Kaepernick’s existing contract with Nike was expiring; the parties negotiated a multiyear renewal. I will admit that I felt a small glimmer of satisfaction at the giant middle finger this must feel like to the NFL, who signed an eight-year deal with Nike for uniforms and apparel earlier this year.
But is this progress?
While there are people out there mutilating their own clothing over this deal (do they even know Nike already has their money?), on the Left, there seem to be two major themes in opinion on the matter (if people have any opinion at all). The first is praise for a corporation to take such an overtly political move. The other theme is that Nike is no real friend to racial justice, considering that the multinational corporation has been a pioneer in exploiting workers in sweatshops for their highly priced apparel.
I won’t personally attack people who are excited by this campaign. There was a time when a major company wouldn’t touch a racial-justice public figure with a ten-foot pole. It is astonishing to see that particular taboo is gone.
What I hope we all can agree on is that it’s messed up that this is one of precious few ways for people who support racial justice to feel like we can get progress. The deal itself is a representation of the concentration of power and wealth inequality in our country, and in the world at large. Nike has exploited workers of color in developing countries for decades, which enables them to pay Kaepernick, a man who is already wealthy and famous, millions of dollars—millions of dollars that Nike has spent in hopes that we “commoners” will spend our money on their products.
Here I lament the paradox that a company that is actively participating in global racial oppression is now profiting from an individual who became a household name because of his protest of racist oppression. This is part of a phenomenon, coined by sociologist and philosopher Herbert Marcuse, called repressive desublimination, which posits that capitalism will commodify art originally used to protest capitalism under the guise of progress in order to encourage the consumption of more products.
Pro-black artists have been making pro-Kaepernick content for years, but now Nike will make more money off of Kaepernick’s message than any of them. And the fact that this is even possible is a sign of how messages like #BlackLivesMatter have become more mainstream. Considering how invisible the pain and injustice black people have always endured remain, it is no surprise that this unprecedented level of visibility is celebrated.
So I am not going to be mad at people buying Nike in response to this campaign. We live in a capitalist society that forces us to constantly make purchasing decisions that put money in the pocket of corporations that contradict our values. There is no perfect or pure existence, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t think critically about what’s at play.
I do hope that, if we look at the bigger picture more often, we can stop with the one-on-one bickering and move on to think about what this news means about where we are today—beyond the warm fuzzies a well-done ad campaign gives.