Whether it’s helping to bring down a manager, voicing their disapproval of a team owner or boycotting a game to protest ticket prices, fans have a long history of using their passion for a story as a tool for civic action. These fan protest stories remind us that pop culture is no longer a passive, top-down hierarchy where audiences sit passively to absorb whatever the studios and writers decide to throw at them. Fandom is a powerful force for social change, and its civic imagination knows no bounds.
During the Civil Rights Movement, Black fans used their fandom as more than just a hobby or an interest in a sport—they turned it into a nonviolent weapon of resistance. Black sports fans boycotted pro teams in cities across the South and compelled their leaders to stop treating them as second-class citizens. This boycott helped to transform professional sports as we know it, making it harder for southern cities to lure professional sports franchises.
Most football fans have probably been convinced at one point or another that every referee in the world has it in for them and is deliberately deciding to award goals against their team. That feeling helped inspire the fans of Serie A club Fiorentina to escort the team coach on scooters to their home game earlier this season and then stay in the stands for the first 10 minutes of the match to protest what they saw as poor officiating.