Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-11-2022

Publication Title

Methodological Innovations

DOI

10.1177/20597991221087148

Abstract

One of the more polarizing issues that captivated society in recent years was the controversy surrounding National Football League (NFL) athletes kneeling during the playing of the National Anthem. Initiated by NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick as a display of protest against police brutality, kneeling during the anthem sparked a firestorm of controversy and a national debate. In this study the controversy and the two men behind it will be analyzed through the lens of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics. Specifically, this study will highlight how Colin Kaepernick and Army veteran Nate Boyer experienced a fusion of horizons that produced the kneeling protest. Additionally, the current study seeks to illuminate both the utility of philosophical hermeneutics as an interpretive framework and the potentialities of dialog between polar opposites who earnestly seek to understand the other.

Comments

Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

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