Are white NFL team owners like modern slave masters? Do symbolic gestures produce fruitful political conversations? What kind of historical reckoning would be necessary for real social and political change? Williams historian Gretchen Long considers what the NFL protests signify about race in the United States today.

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Music credit: Glasstress by Max Casacci and Daniele Mana/ spoken word audio added to the original

Photo: Oxford, England, September 2017.