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February 12, 2025

Sudan and Gaza at the Super Bowl: A new chapter in sports' legacy of resistance.

“This is a lot bigger than all of us, bigger than me, bigger than the Super Bowl, bigger than Kendrick Lamar and Drake’s beef, because humanity is involved.”

In an interview with The Intercept, Zül-Qarnain Nantambu, a New Orleans-based artist and performer, shared he was worried about being shot. But he did it anyway, unfurling a joint flag for Sudan and Gaza during Kendrick Lamar’s halftime performance at the Super Bowl Sunday night, giving the dual terrors that have worsened in each region over the past year a national platform. And Google Trends data suggests it worked – searches for Sudan increased eightfold immediately after the moment, and there was a slight increase on searches for Gaza (although all the recent news re: Trump’s stupid comments, hostage releases and the tenuous ceasefire is likely contributing to that). His decision highlights a history of protest during sporting events and their power.

Consider the 1968 Olympics, when two Black athletes – Tommie Smith and John Carlos – used their medal ceremony after winning gold and bronze, respectively, in the 200-meter running event. With their heads bowed and black gloved fists raised above their heads in a Black Power salute, they brought the Civil Rights movement to the global stage, not allowing the world to forget the struggles of Black people in the states and abroad. While celebrated today as a historic act of courage, this action was widely condemned in its time. The attending crowd booed the athletes, and celebrated journalist Brent Musburger called them "black-skinned stormtroopers."

Nearly five decades after Smith and Carlos' protest, Colin Kaepernick would reignite the conversation about racial justice in sports. In 2016, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback began kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial inequality. What started as a solitary act – Kaepernick initially sat alone on the bench during preseason games – evolved into a movement that spread across the NFL and beyond. After consulting with Nate Boyer, a former Green Beret and NFL player, Kaepernick chose to kneel rather than sit, a gesture that would honor the flag while still protesting injustice. The response was swift and polarizing: while many athletes joined his protest, others condemned it. Then-presidential candidate Donald Trump called for protesting players to be fired, and Kaepernick himself was effectively blackballed from the NFL, sacrificing his career at its peak for his principles.

Moments like these are becoming more common, led by athletes and fans alike. The U.S. Women's National Soccer Team wore their warm-up jerseys inside out to protest pay inequality. NBA players stopped playoff games following the shooting of Jacob Blake. The WNBA is supporting causes so consistently I watch each game excited to see who they’re rallying for this time. But Nantambu’s choice to demonstrate solidarity with Sudan and Gaza during Lamar’s performance, the most watched halftime performance yet, took these musings on capitalism, labor, respectability and solidarity and gave them a deeper meaning. And to do so just days after Trump shared his plans to permanently remove Palestinians from their homes and make Gaza the “Riviera of the Middle East,” while Trump himself was in the audience, was brave.

Critics consistently accused these figures of "politicizing" sports. But politics often use sports as its playing field to shift public sentiment and influence culture at large. Consider that the NFL, who reluctantly embraced calls for racial equity in 2020, are now reversing some of their initiatives, including removing “End Racism” from the end zone just before this year’s Super Bowl. Trump used his first days in office to sign an executive order barring trans women from women’s sports. And organizers of the Nolympics campaign, who wish to prevent the 2028 Olympics from being hosted in Los Angeles, CA, are fearful of how this platform could be wielded by Trump to foster more hate and divisiveness.

In an interview with NBC News, Nantambu named that he was inspired to take action because of Lamar’s message for the performance. "He had the people formulate the American flag; he had two big black flags with his record label," Nantambu said. "And he talked about 'the revolution being televised,' and he talked about consciousness."

For Islamify, he expanded, sharing how his faith influenced his decision: “If you see a wrongdoing, you must stop it with your hands, if you can't stop it with your hands, stop it with your tongue, if you can't stop it with your tongue, stop it with your heart, and we know that’s the weakest of faith.”

Sports have never existed in a vacuum. They reflect our inequities but also our aspirations for justice. Whether through raised fists, hidden banners, or kneeling in silence, protesters have consistently shown that sports' platforms can serve a greater purpose than entertainment alone. They invite us to join a larger, global team, one with no mascot or jersey, just an unwavering commitment to dismantling inequities both on and off the field.