Posted on 08/21/2016 8:14:59 AM PDT by Ennis85
How realistic is it to expect a global event to be entirely detached from global politics?
"Two disaffected black athletes from the United States put on a public display of petulance that sparked one of the most unpleasant controversies in Olympics history and turned the high drama of the games into theatre of the absurd."
That is how the Time Magazine chose to describe the now iconic scene of Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising black-gloved fists high while standing atop the medal pedestal and refusing to look at the American flag.
The year, of course, was 1968. Months earlier, Martin Luther King Jr had been assassinated, and major riots took place that year and in the years prior.
Nascent Civil Rights legislation was still entering into effect, and in many parts of the country, Jim Crow and segregationist laws continued to exist either on the books or in practice.
Inside Story - Are the Olympics still relevant? Is history repeating itself?
But Smith and Carlos were denounced. Ultimately, they were expelled from the games. How dare they, as an International Olympics Committee spokesperson put it then , "breach the fundamental principles of the Olympic spirit"? How dare they?
History vindicated Smith and Carlos. Today, as we have vibrant movements in the US demanding that black lives must matter, it is easier to see why the outrage directed by the American mainstream towards Smith and Carlos for their protest then should have been directed towards the heinous racism and institutional discrimination upon which their country was built and continues to suffer from instead.
It was easier of course to ridicule the pair, call them petulant, militant and whatever else than to think about their protest and our society's complicity in their grievances.
(Excerpt) Read more at aljazeera.com ...
Gee, Moslem cultures, tell me again all about freedom and fairness?
“History vindicated Smith and Carlos. “
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No it didn’t,just the left wing did..
Those principles are entities in a Platonic ideal realm that the real world can try to live up to. Even though it might fail, it can still keep trying to live up to them.
Typical wishy-washy blurb that begs more questions than it provides answers. Useless.
[Today, as we have vibrant movements in the US demanding that black lives must matter, ]
Then perhaps they need to quit the blame shifting and stop killing each other.
It did no such thing. I remember those two pretentious idiots in Mexico City, and I still despise them to this day. I'm sure millions of other feel the same way.
History may have "vindicated" those two assclowns to their liberal apologists, but they remain sh_tstains on America's underpants.
Jeez, do we really need to enumerate the muslim atrocities towards Israel, to counter this wretched article?
I noticed several black and some white Olympians not putting their hands over their hearts. Is this a trend? In the women’s 4 x 400, only one of the four put her hand over her heart, even though the other three were singing along to the Star Spangled Banner. What gives???
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