TRUE DOLLAR JOURNAL

What is persuasion? Persuasion is the art of motivating another to do a desired action of yours. Persuasion is about getting what you desire by leading a persuadee to do something that will better her or his living. To persuade someone is get someone to follow through and do what you would like them to do.

Before deciding to protest, NFL protesting players needed to ask themselves key questions:

• What is our goal? 
• What do we desire those watching games to do? 
• What must NFL fans change us to achieve our goal?

Sure, NFL protesting players have stimulated the emotions of NFL fans, but not in the direction that players have desired. NFL protesting players have failed to sway NFL fans to their side because they have attacked the decorum expected by NFL fans.

This has caused fans to dig in against players. This is why they have failed to get NFL fans inspired to act.

In no way will NFL protesting players get fans to act in the way players would like. To NFL fans, NFL protesting players have proven themselves as untrustworthy, as outsiders who do not share American ethics.

FAILING TO EMBRACE AMERICAN DECORUM

Standing for the anthem is called decorum. Americans stand for the anthem as a show of unity with all Americans over what it means to be an American. Protesting NFL players have shown their lack of decorum in honoring the ideals of Americans and our USA.

Since NFL protesting players have violated decorum from the start, NFL fans see that NFL protesting players do not share American ethics. Trashing decorum has made NFL fans believe that NFL protesting players are biased and lack knowing the right thing to do.

By protesting during the playing of the national anthem, NFL players are protesting against the majority of their fellow Americans.

FAILING TO EMBRACE AMERICAN ETHICS

Before starting their protests, NFL protesting players faced choices. They could have talked of the past and thus blamed Americans. They could have talked of the present and thus dealt with what should be the ethics of Americans or they could have talked of the future and what should be the action of Americans going forward.

Stupidly, NFL protesting players chose to blame Americans. NFL protesting players decided that Americans who believe in the USA, especially white Americans and those who side with white Americans should be punished.  Their wrongheaded argument is this:

All whites are racist. All racists oppress blacks. Therefore, all whites oppress blacks.

The subtext of their protests is this:

The USA is fundamentally flawed. It needs to be overthrown. It is flawed because Protestant Christian white males invented it and their white male descendants still exist. In order for us to be free and live the life all should, we must rid ourselves of white males, their laws, their religion, their family institutions and the system they have made.

Instead, NFL protesting players could have argued these:

1. Should we be tougher on those who oppress blacks? 
2. Should Americans equalize the incomes of blacks and whites to achieve the promises of establishing justice, insuring domestic tranquility, promoting general welfare as written in the preamble of the Constitution of the United States of America.

NFL protesting players failed to present mutual goals for all Americans to achieve, goals that would lead to boon for all.  Nor did NFL protesting players present a chance for Americans to bond under the same ethics.

NFL protesting players failed to start with NFL fans, what NFL fans believe and where NFL fans stand. NFL protesting players needed to make NFL fans believe that accepting the goal of NFL protesting players was only a small step away from where NFL fans stand now.

Preamble of the Constitution for the United States of America

Had only NFL protesting players suggested that it is thoroughly American and fits with the preamble of the Constitution to live in a colorblind society, free from police brutality and prejudice against any American, then NFL protesting players could have swayed NFL fans to being in the same group with the same goal — a colorblind, prosperous society as implied by the preamble to the Constitution.

NFL protesting players lost control of their argument straight away from the first moment, because they failed to secure the widest possible audience and they failed express in the future tense, a specific goal.

FAILURE OF CHARACTER

Persuasion begins with having confidence in the personal character of the persuader. The leader of the NFL protests, Colin Kaepernick revealed his character, which few could like, when he wore a t-shirt favoring a known communist terrorist (Fidel Castro) and racist pro-black radical (Malcolm X).



Colin Kaepernick needed to establish himself as being alike to NFL fans who uphold strong patriotic beliefs about the USA. Instead, Kaepernick chose to agitate NFL fans by siding with those who have stood against the USA.

ATTACKING NFL FANS IS ATTACKING AMERICANS

Kaepernick and the NFL protesting players implied that NFL fans are as bad as anyone ever who has oppressed blacks. Perhaps this is their worst mistake.

The NFL has 1,686 full-time roster players. More than 75% are black. Yet, most NFL fans are white.

It simply defies reason that white fans who shell out hundreds to thousands of dollars a year for tickets, the NFL Sunday Ticket and merchandise, as well as watch up to 15 hours a week of games, which pay for wages of black players, could possibly desire to oppress blacks or be equal to Americans of the centuries-ago past who owned slaves between the late 1600s and 1865.

NFL protesting players simply failed to capture the patriotic nature of NFL fans as Americans. NFL protesting players did not present themselves as fair-minded Americans who are focused upon the truth while presenting a better future for NFL fans and thus all Americans like NFL fans.

NFL protesting players could have spoken in language unique NFL fans, e.g., "score a touchdown for all Americans," "be an MVP and win the Super Bowl for all Americans." Instead, NFL protesting players merely agitated fans with postures and willful disrespect of decorum.

PROTEST BLACKLASH

Since the 2016-17 season and continuing into this season, the 2017-2018 season, perhaps as much as 10% of NFL players have protested during the playing of the national anthem before the start of regular season football games.

Rather than sway Americans to their side, NFL protesting players seem to be socially uncooperative, possessing a black-first mentality rather than an American first one. In effect, NFL protesting players have positioned themselves as both racist pro-blacks and separatists from other Americans.



By blaming their fans, the #TakeAKnee #Fist protest movement seems to be nothing more than the airing of grievances by those stoked with anti-white racism disguised under rhetoric of claims of police brutality and something they call"racial inequality". To most Americans, NFL protesting players have peeled off their masks to show the faces of pro-black racists in America.



To be clear, it is black players who have followed the original protester Kaepernick who said,

"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way."

NFL protesting players mistakenly have used games as their forum to air grievances. They claim oppression exists and they claim to be among those who are oppressed.

Yet, it is hard to get sympathy from NFL fans when fans know the minimum pay for any NFL player $465,000 a season and the minimum pay for a player with nine seasons is $900,000.

They are not oppressed.