On Sunday night, performers raised the Sudan and Palestinian flags in sight of the Super Bowl Halftime Show. If he was meticulously controlled, like the Super Bowl, his interruptions were short, handled quickly by security and not shown on live broadcasts. But, at that moment, there was, but it was deeply symbolic.
It reflects the resolve of the Sudan and Palestinian people and their allies to break through and speak out about their narrative censorship imposed by mainstream platforms. It was yet another example of how they discovered cracks in the system to hear their voices when faced with systemic restraint.
In fact, for more than a year, people in Sudan and Palestinians have made every effort to speak out. They protested, organized, risked their lives to risk their lives to focus their attention on their struggles. But the world refused to listen.
This wasn’t the first time that the Super Bowl was the background to erasing their suffering. Last year, millions of Americans were watching the game, but Israel carried out a massacre, killing at least 67 Palestinians in a matter of hours at Rafa. . The timing was no coincidence. Israel knew that the American media was too distracted and too conspired to pay attention.
And many of us as activists knew we had to find ways to counter the distractions. In collaboration with Know Collective, I have released a different kind of Super Bowl commercial. Rather than selling chips or cars, it reminded people of the crimes the government has actively made possible in Gaza. The widely shared ads on social media had simple yet urgent messages. America is distracted. Children are being slaughtered with our taxes, as we are entertained. When we cheer for our teams, our government offers weapons to transform Palestinian homes into mass graves.
The Romans called it “bread and circus.” Feed and entertain the public. The Super Bowl is the largest circus in modern America and is a carefully manufactured distraction from the atrocities of our nation.
But there are moments like Sunday night’s protest, indicating that no one wants to be distracted.
There will also be moments like the protest on January 15th, 2024. For example, more than 400,000 people gather in Washington, D.C., and calls for an end to our accomplice in the act of mass mobilization, a mass genocide of Israeli Palestinians. It was a protest that warped many historic demonstrations in the country’s capital, but the media rarely covered it. If 400,000 people gathered for other causes, it would have led the evening news, dominated social media, filling headlines the next morning. But for Palestine, it was silence.
This was not a surveillance. It was a deliberate effort to curb the calls for the liberation of Palestine.
The Palestinians had to fight for their sight at all times. When their voices were blocked from mainstream platforms, they took them to social media. When their protests were ignored, they organized something bigger. When they were erased, they made it impossible to forget.
Sudan is similar in many ways, but it has its own considerations. If Palestine is intentionally censored, Sudan is almost completely ignored. The people of Sudan are devastated by the war that destroyed their country. Almost every war crime you can imagine is committed against the people of Sudan. The scale of the suffering is incredible. Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed, more than 8 million have been forced to evacuate, the entire village is burning to the ground, and hunger is looming. Still, Sudan is rarely a footnote in Western media.
Sudanese activists responded to the hashtag #eyesonsudan. But their cry comes across deafening silence, like the Palestinians.
The restraint of Sudan’s narrative is the result of a media system that prioritizes conflicts that serve political interests only. Unlike Ukraine and Israel, Sudan does not fit well with the Western foreign policy agenda. There are no coverage incentives. There are no cries from politicians. There is no flood of aid. Millions of people suffered. Sudan’s media blackout is more than just negligence. It is an accomplice in erasing the whole of people.
And for Sudan and Palestine, what happened at the Super Bowl was not just an act of rebellion. It was part of a long tradition of people who had to break through silence when all official channels failed. It reminded us that no matter how much the mainstream attempts to eliminate the suffering of Sudan and Palestinians, the truth will break through.
It breaks through on the street. There, despite arrests, blacklists and violent oppression, hundreds of thousands of people continue to march for Palestine. It breaks through in the Sudan and Palestinian communities. There, activists risk their lives to attract the attention of the world. It breaks through the digital sector where independent journalists and grassroots movements outperform corporate media when it comes to telling real stories.
And last night it broke through one of the world’s most viewed events.
Editor’s Note: The second paragraph of the article has been revised after the protestor’s identity was revealed.
The views expressed in this article are the authors themselves and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
