Posted on 01/16/2020 1:03:37 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
Imposing neutrality by fiat requires a certain hubris. The International Olympic Committee demonstrated that it has that in abundant supply when it forbade activism by athletes at the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, prohibiting “gestures of a political nature, like a hand gesture or kneeling.” The policy, announced last week, added precision to a longstanding - and controversial - rule in the Olympic Charter stating, “No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.”
The IOC’s guidelines were not only a response to a global zeitgeist of athletes’ political expression, but also a firm rebuke to last summer’soutburst of activism at the Pan American Games, where U.S. hammer thrower Gwen Berry raised her fist and fencer Race Imboden took a knee to raise awareness of racial inequality. In 2016, U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe,took a knee in solidarity with NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick in his fight against racialized oppression and police brutality.
The bottom line is that the IOC is not against politics; it is against a certain type of politics. Banning political protest is itself a blatant political act. And forbidding political dissent at the Olympics often means reinforcing white supremacy, because most recent protests by Olympic athletes were carried out either to raise awareness of racism and its ramifications or by athletes of color who used the Olympics to talk back to power in their home countries, such as Damien Hooper, the Aboriginal boxer from Australia who, after wearing a shirt featuring the Aboriginal flag at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, was chastised for bringing politics to the Games.
Despite the IOC’s inspiring language placing “sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind,” the new policy bends the Olympics toward injustice.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
What total BS this article is....
Sporting events are places for sports, not politics...PERIOD...
It is not injustice for everyone to have to play by the same set of rules or restrictions. It is equally applied.
I’m not always happy with the IOC, but I do not see anything wrong with this sort of restriction.
What injustices may be exhibited by the IOC, it’s no excuse to prevent it from making reasoned restrictions.
Chaos
The idea of representing one’s country at a competition and then using the competition to protest same country is...retarded.
The Olympics most assuredly will not be “Must See TV” in *my* household this summer.
What about lopping off a penis? Is that considered a political gesture?
Dunno where the author has been for the last 60 years but the Olympics were used as a political football for nearly the entirety of the Cold War.
“a global zeitgeist of athletes’ political expression”
Me, me, me. Meeeeeeeeeee!!!!”
Any athlete on the podium who makes a spectacle should have their medal stripped.
It’s like giving campaign speeches at a funeral.
...oh wait.
Disallowing protest does not mean expressing agreement with whatever is being protested.
By the participants?
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