IF THE NFL WANTS RACIAL HARMONY, IT SHOULD SING ONE ANTHEM

The National Football League’s decision to play a “Black National Anthem” before its first regular season game is a mistake that will worsen the racial tensions it seeks to relieve. Playing two anthems reinforces the idea that people with darker skin are different from “the rest of us.” So different, in fact, that “they” need “their own” anthem. Will the NFL introduce separate drinking fountains next?
The league’s plan resurrects Jim Crow, a racial caste system that civil rights leaders fought and died to end and which the Supreme Court finally corrected with the reminder that “annoyances, some petty and some substantial, almost inevitably accompany segregation.”
Worse yet, an unintended consequence of a “Black National Anthem” is that it hands a convenient argument to racists. If race justifies accommodation, then it can be used to justify discrimination as well.
YOU CAN'T UNITE BY DIVIDING
In 1968, the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, a third-grade teacher named Jane Elliott in Riceville, Iowa taught her students a lesson the NFL needs to learn.
She divided her class by the color of their eyes, separating the blue-eyed children from the brown-eyed kids. Then she informed them that blue-eyed children were superior. They were smarter, cleaner, and more capable—better in every way. Their superiority entitled them to special privileges, like a second helping at lunch and five more minutes at recess.
The effects were swift and startling. Blue-eyed students ridiculed their brown-eyed classmates—calling them stupid, shunning them on the playground, and treating them with contempt. Neighbors grew distant. Friends became enemies.
The next day, Ms. Elliott informed her class she had made a mistake. It was the brown-eyed children who were superior. Emboldened by their newfound status, brown-eyed kids subjected their blue-eyed classmates to the same abuse they themselves had endured the day before.
Ms. Elliott’s students were exhibiting a psychological phenomenon called ingroup favoritism. First identified by social psychologist Henri Tajfel, ingroup favoritism describes the tendency to favor members of one’s own group over those in other groups. “We should expect ingroup bias to occur,” wrote Tajfel, “whenever the social world of an individual is clearly dichotomized into ‘us’ and ‘them.’” This is precisely what happens when we divide classmates by eye color and give them five more minutes at recess, or teammates by skin color and give them their own anthem.
Importantly, Tajfel also found that people with objective differences do not exhibit discriminatory intergroup behavior if they don’t have a clear-cut classification superimposed on them. This means our differences don’t divide us but focusing on them as defining characteristics does. The students’ eyes, for example, had always been blue or brown. It wasn’t until Ms. Elliott drew their attention to eye color and its supposed influence that it mattered.
Even seemingly benign phrases like the “black community” are a form of semantic segregation, creating and reinforcing an “us and them” dichotomy that perpetuates racial distinctions and rivalries. The NFL should know this. Its business model is based on ingroups known as teams and the allegiances and rivalries they naturally create.
WILL SPORTS UNITE OR DIVIDE?
Historically, sports have provided examples of racial integration. Legendary NFL coach Vince Lombardi focused on the humanity of his players, uniting them within a group defined by the team. “If you’re black or white,” he said, “you’re part of the family.”
The 1963 NCAA men’s basketball tournament game between Loyola of Chicago and Mississippi State, known as “The Game of Change,” helped desegregate basketball after the Mississippi State Maroons snuck out of the state to play the predominantly black Loyola Ramblers despite threats and attempts to stop them.
When Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball, it helped change the perspective of fans and society in general.
But now, after decades of progress eliminating racial segregation, the NFL’s two anthem idea is about to encourage it. If Jackie Robinson’s legacy is integrating baseball, the decision to play a black national anthem will be remembered for segregating football.
UNITY LIES BEYOND OURSELVES, BUT WITHIN OUR REACH
The tendency of people to favor their ingroup has been found in cultures around the world and develops from an early age. Any characteristic can become a wedge if it’s used to define us as an individual. Because skin color is so salient, it is a convenient quality for categorization. Blood type is also a defining characteristic, but we don’t organize around it--or fight over it-- because we can’t easily distinguish people with type A blood from those with type O. We don’t struggle with blood type discrimination, because we ignore it. We should never ignore racism and racial inequality, but we should also avoid fixating on race to the point we cannot see how much we are alike; how much we seek the same things for our families and communities. As long as skin color defines us, skin color will divide us.
To avoid this, the NFL must look beyond race--beyond any individual characteristic--to find organizing criteria with the power to unite. Effective candidates abound. The NFL could emphasize the team (“We are Green Bay Packers.”), the league (“We are all NFL players and alumni.”), our country (“We are all Americans.”), or our shared humanity (“We are all children of God.”). Any one of those could reduce racial division by emphasizing a higher organizing principle. Players would still be black, white or Hispanic, but those differences would be overwhelmed by the unity of team, country, or our shared humanity.
What group will the NFL promote? Will it encourage one big inclusive group based on our shared humanity where ingroup bias brings everyone together? Or, separate smaller groups based on skin color that allow group favoritism to be a wedge that drives us apart?
Bringing us together could begin with a single anthem. But if even anthems are black or white, we will all be singing the blues.

--Greg Stielstra is a behavioral science consultant and Packers fan.