This article examines how 32 mostly white university students understand the NFL players’ protests. We argue students processed the protests (and protesters) through a racialized lens of whiteness that led to two modes of interpreting the protests: the protests are unpatriotic and the protests are patriotic. These categories are primarily based on how students account for African-American NFL players’ resistance to white supremacy and their own whiteness. We propose these student’s responses demonstrate a denial and avoidance of race, which many understand as a personal experience with racism, even when discussing a racially charged protest movement. Further, competing discourses of patriotism animate their positions on the protests, but also limit their understandings of the protests and the operation of white supremacy.

中文翻译：

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避免问题：大学生对 NFL 球员国歌抗议的回应

本文考察了 32 名主要是白人大学生如何理解 NFL 球员的抗议。我们认为学生通过种族化的白人镜头处理抗议活动（和抗议者），这导致了两种解释抗议活动的模式：抗议活动是不爱国的，而抗议活动是爱国的。这些类别主要基于学生如何解释非裔美国 NFL 球员对白人至上的抵制和他们自己的白人。我们建议这些学生的回答表明对种族的否认和回避，许多人将其理解为种族主义的个人经历，即使在讨论种族歧视的抗议运动时也是如此。此外，相互竞争的爱国主义话语激发了他们对抗议活动的立场，但也限制了他们对抗议活动和白人至上主义运作的理解。