The only real problem with rapper M.I.A. flashing the middle finger during the Halftime Show at the Super Bowl is that profane gestures minus some social context, some political statement, are just juvenile and nacissistic, a person showing off when they’ve got nothing to show. An empty gesture is worse than none at all.

A meaningful gesture–the raised fist–at the 1968 Olympics: You didn’t welcome home Jesse Owens as a hero. We came back from WWII to sit on the back of the bus. We can’t fully embrace our country until it fully embraces us.