During the 1968 Mexico City, Mexico Olympic award ceremony, two U.S. African American winners used some symbolic references to Black Power which steered up a lot of controversy. During the singing of the National Anthem, the two gentlemen Tommie Smith and Carlos held up their fist to symbolize Black Power, and went to the blocks without their shoes on, but instead with Black socks on to symbolize Black poverty. Carlos wore a necklace to symbolize, those who were lynched and never prayed for, and those who were thrown off boats and never found, this was worn for the suffering of Black people. He also wore his suit unzipped which represented the Blue Collar workers. Tommie Smith wore a Black scarf representing Black pride. After the singing was over, they were booed and were no longer seen as Americans, but were seen as Negros. When they were medalist holders they were expected to keep their beliefs to themselves, but all they were doing was giving thanks to those who came before them and allowing them this opportunity to be where they were on that day. I find it amusing how Black people are expected to keep their mouths shut and stay in line, while White people are allowed to give thanks to whoever and they are given free range to do whatever. These two gentlemen were not bashing on anyone or their beliefs, they did not even say anything, their actions did the speaking, and too many people took offense to this. They are proud to be Black and no matter what happened to them, they would never forget where they came from and where they are going.
I believe Sport and Nationalism is one of the five political uses sport, because they used Track as their way to bring unity between Blacks and Whites. When the medals were awarded to these two gentlemen, Smith stated "If I won, I am American, not a Black American, But if I did something bad, then they would say I am a Negro." They had to respect of America as long as they abide by the rules that were given and did nothing to empower Blacks, to give them hope that anything is possible. During this time period there was a lot of racism going on, and this was their way of saying Black Pride no matter what you say.
As far as the statement "Sport is pure and devoid of political interference," I strongly disagree with this, especially after reading about this Olympic event and how even if no words are being said, people still take offense to things. Even in today's society we see a lot of Military references and support of the Military. In class we discussed the similarities between football and the Military. These are very similar, you are going into war to fight a battle and leaving everything on the field. Even when a player gets injured, they have that mentality no man is left behind. When a player gets injured, everyone takes a knee and stands by their fallen soldiers side, praying and hoping for the best. They wait for this to be taken out of harms way and then the battle continues. Whether we want to believe this statement or not, I strongly believe subliminally politics will always have some kind of influence.
I agree with your last paragraph. No man left behind applies in the military and other aspects of life. When you're apart of a team (military or sport) everyone fights for each other.
ReplyDelete-Conner Morris
Since I did my blog about the 1936 Olympics, I really enjoyed reading your blog and learning about an entirely different event.
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting how you talk about how Black men in these Olympics were supposed to keep their mouths shut and stay in line with the ideals of American society, while white men could go off thanking whoever they wanted and basically act in any way they chose. Almost 50 years later we still face these issues.Racism is still alive and heavily manifests itself in the Olympic Games.
The picture you used is also very powerful.
-Taylor Murray