Rejected by Rihanna

        It is now football season, and far off in the horizon is the NFL Super Bowl. Recently, the vocal artist, Rihanna, was asked to sing The Star-Spangled Banner to begin the game. She declined due to the ongoing controversy with Colin Kaepernick and the NFL. Two years ago, Colin Kaepernick began kneeling as a form of protest to racial inequality and police brutality. Today, he is a free agent not currently playing in the NFL because no one has or will sign him due to his kneeling protest. Rihanna said that she is in support of Colin and his beliefs, so she will not participate in the singing of The National Anthem at the 2019 Super Bowl. There have been some different policies implemented by the NFL, such as allowing the players to remain in the locker room during the anthem and fining the players who do decide to kneel during the anthem. Rihanna said she was not in favor of the NFL’s views and beliefs, so she did not wish to take part in the biggest event put on by the association.

        Recently, Nike gave Colin Kaepernick a contract with them. It was very controversial because the ad campaign was in regard to Kaepernick’s protest. The ad said, “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything”. A lot of people thought that it was not in Nike’s best interest to be getting involved with this controversy and getting political. Now, Rihanna has followed in Nike’s footsteps and put her foot down about the whole controversy as well. 

        Rihanna is not only a singer. She somewhat recently came out with her own line of makeup and beauty products called Fenty Beauty. She is the face of that brand, as well as her singing brand. One thing that we will start to see and that we already are seeing is that companies and brands are going to begin to speak up about their political beliefs. All it takes is one person or company or organization to start it off, and the rest will begin to follow. In this case specifically, these two brands were in favor of Kaepernick’s views, but some companies could begin to speak up in the opposite manner.

        In the world we are living in today, everyone is becoming more and more open about their beliefs and stances on things. I think it is only going to increase from this point on. This could be either a good thing or bad thing for businesses and companies. I think it will depend on how established they are as a brand and company. A well-established company, such as Nike, won’t have as much of an issue keeping customers and sale up. A small town business owned by a local family might have more trouble keeping customers and regular sales if they voiced an controversial opinion they have over an issue.