Salute, 2017

This video features downloaded YouTube videos of people burning the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, Colin Kaepernick’s, jersey. Kaepernick started a peaceful protest against police brutality, while the national anthem was playing during the 2016 NFL season. His protest was met with these YouTube videos of angry fans burning his jersey. While I was mining the videos I watched I started to notice parallels in the performances. They became these ceremonious spectacles that have a tone of patriotism. The gaze of the people who were participating, the children who were excited to participate and the language used by participants as they spoke to the camera reminded me of the rhetoric of lynching postcards.