It seems a good number of HA posters have forgotten about the organization these two athletes were a part of. That little ’salute’ of theirs is the sign of the Black Panthers; a black supremacy group/street gang for grown-ups, and their motto was “F*** the pigs!!! (police)”.

These were not part of some noble-hearted civil rights bunch. Among other things the Panthers engaged in shootouts with the police (using automatic weapons), heartily support Islam, and threatened a 64 year old Texas man who shot two of their number trying to burglarize his house. (but brave Texans backed him up: http://tinyurl.com/5atsnr )

Bottom line is that these two screwballs are misusing the Olympics for attention-whoring for an unsavory group.

dedalus on July 29, 2008 at 10:40 PM

I have to thank you again for your work here on this thread.

baldilocks on July 29, 2008 at 10:52 PM

Benaiah on July 30, 2008 at 12:54 AM

originalpechanga on July 30, 2008 at 12:51 PM

+1

No, they stood in silent protest over what was happening in the U.S. and Norman from Australia supported them.

Avery Brundage kept JEWS off the 1936 Olympic 400 relay team so as not to insult Hitler, Marty Glickman being one.
He was pro-Nazi and that means that the Olympic Committees that kept electing him obviously didn’t think “that Nazi thing was so bad” And he let politics speak for him

Courage is standing up in the face of adversity. The KNEW they were going to take heat for what they did and they stood up.

Remember people, this was a time when most of your parents would have left the swimming pool if a NEGRO was going to jump in,too.

Compare this to the award ESPN gave Rush Limbaugh who was then doing football comments on ESPN:

From the ESPN web site about accepting Rush Limbaugh’s resignation

Limbaugh had said of McNab on the Sunday show:

“I think what we’ve had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well,” Limbaugh said. “There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn’t deserve. The defense carried this team.”

Three days later Limbaugh resigned and Wednesday night,

ESPN issued a statement that, in part, read, “We have communicated to Mr. Limbaugh that his comments were insensitive and inappropriate.”

Seems even handed

True equality may not have been reached yet, but it’s certainly a long way from this historic incident, which really shocked and surprised a nation. It did lead to a number of discussions, and was a huge issue to talk about. Too bad we’re beyond talking openly about issues anymore. Well, most of us are, I’m too politically incorrect to worry about what someone might think. I discuss race fairly frequently at work. My black co-workers, and friends, all know that I am way too brutally honest to be racist. They also know I detest the lie of African hyphen American. They know why too. I wrote about it here.

Let’s face it, we’d likely turn militant too in such circumstances.

That doesn’t mean I condone the killing of police officers. I just understand why it happened and it didn’t happen because police were generally treating blacks the same as whites back in those days.

baldilocks on July 29, 2008 at 10:52 PM

Of course, thank you. I enjoyed reading through your blog.

Nobody said jack sh!t. i suppose had I presented pics of my daughter posing with the Klan, that would have been okay too.

nobody said anything because people have learned not to.

dedalus on July 29, 2008 at 10:40 PM

I have to thank you again for your work here on this thread.

dedalus on July 29, 2008 at 10:40 PM

Fair enough.

I object to the phrase “offered something less”. By any standard of human history they are blessed to just reside in 20th late century America even if they did not have the opportunity achieve their highest aspirations.

aengus on July 29, 2008 at 10:17 PM

I’d agree that materially Smith and Carlos grew up far better off than many through out history. I have ancestors who left Ireland in the 1800’s and I’m sure their lives and their ancestors lives were tough, largely due to the cruelty of the Brits.

Materially Smith and Carlos had little to complain about. Yet they had been born at a time when segregatation laws still treated blacks as a lower class citizen. That, and the events of 1968, would seem to cause some black men to see the flag and hear the anthem and feel differently than a white man who had always enjoyed the liberty of a nation where “all men are created equal”. The founders went to war against a king because of taxation without representation. A symbolic gesture in 1968 by two black athletes doesn’t seem disproportionate to the compromises on liberty endured by black people.

Things are much different 40 years later and I agree that hyper sensitivity to racial grievances have become tedious overkill.

dedalus on July 29, 2008 at 9:40 PM

Hi,

I agree Smith and Carlos’ parents and grandparents were not in a position to pursue the American dream.

I object to the phrase “offered something less”. By any standard of human history they are blessed to just reside in 20th late century America even if they did not have the opportunity achieve their highest aspirations.

As for Smith and Carlos themselves they lived the American dream and if while I can understand how they felt emotionally at their alienation I’m not impressed by their continued self-justification against a country which not only created the conditions for their success but has since bent over backwards to address every racial grievance known to (black) man.

I’m especially annoyed at crr6’s implication that they were somehow humiliated by being paraded around on the Olympic podium. The fact is they duly received one of the highest honours of their civillisation and not only did they rebel against it but they view themselves as cultural heroes for their implicit rejection of that honour while licenscing idiots like crr6 to sh** all over our civillisation.

I love it for its purity, and especially today, with their soul-mate Obambi (the cowardly) pretending to carry their spirit forward, it is a wonderful reminder of who these people are who hide under his skirts. Ayers, Wright, Pflegmer, Alinsky – this was their movement.

Eff ‘em all.

They were not being paraded around on a stage. They were being awarded gold and bronze medals, respectively, at the Olympics.

aengus on July 29, 2008 at 9:21 PM

Countries have looked to the games as a way of demonstrating the health of their society, or at least seen them as an opportunity for national pride. There are all sorts of championships in track & field that very few pay attention to, but the Olympics seem to matter because it’s not just the athlete there but his country as well.

I love sports but dislike hearing from athletes (especially today’s high-priced variety). At its best the Olympics should be free of political expression and provide a stage for the human desire to compete and excel. If every athlete expressed an opinion, medals ceremonies would be as tedious as the academy awards. Still, my impression is that what Smith and Carlos did was genuine and resonates today (in part because of the iconic photo) as a symbol of something that was very wrong with our country. It’s a credit to America that we addressed it, but Smith and Carlos and the parent and their grandparents were offered something less than the American dream.

We have allow enemies of our country to seize our major metropolitan centers, and we intellectualize the nuances of their gang signals.

Sorry, but that’s a fact.

jeff_from_mpls on July 29, 2008 at 7:51 PM

Fact, and well said jeff.

Tommy Smith was wrong
The Terrorists that Killed The Israeli Athletes were wrong
Carter was wrong
And everyone who would criticize Bush for his presence there is WRONG!

It turns your stomach?

You have no stomach.

I used to have mixed feelings about the salute, but after long discussions with family members and black friends on the issue I’m beginning to lean more towards “cheered”. There really is something that turns my stomach about these men being paraded around on an international stage while members of their own race are treated egregiously back home.

crr6 on July 29, 2008 at 9:08 PM

They were not being paraded around on a stage. They were being awarded gold and bronze medals, respectively, at the Olympics.

They were being bestowed with the highest centuries-old honours of Western civillisation, a tradition from Greco-Roman times that predates the West.

If they felt that being awarded one of the highest deserved rewards that civillisation could bequeath them was an insult or somehow mocking of their dignity they could have refused the honour.

I wonder how the country and the media would feel about a white power salute.

Maxx on July 29, 2008 at 11:47 AM

The obligatory “replace black with white” comment. Classic. “Why can’t we have a white history month!1!!1!??”

I used to have mixed feelings about the salute, but after long discussions with family members and black friends on the issue I’m beginning to lean more towards “cheered”. There really is something that turns my stomach about these men being paraded around on an international stage while members of their own race are treated egregiously back home.

It’s a shame to see how much the Black Power Movement and other Civil Rights Movements have been manipulated, demonized, and sometimes sanitized by white conservatives.

Nonfactor on July 29, 2008 at 4:51 PM

The Black Power Movement was about equal (power) but separate (community) the Civil Rights Movement was about equal.. period.

Dr. King was about equality. It’s interesting to me that Dr. King’s Dream was about self-empowerment and the Black Power movement and the following creation of the Black Panthers were about power over peoples, not limited to self empowerment and that’s not unlike jihad (to improve one’s self) in Islam being manipulated from being a personal jihad of self empowerment to power over people.

Quite acting like you understand what the Civil Rights Movements were; you’re betraying your own ignorant affectations.

Nonfactor

Your screen name aptly describes the value of your opinion. Don’t resort to ad hominum just because you don’t want to address what I said.

I generally supported the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s. MLK’s genius was framing the movement as quintessentially American, that depriving blacks of civil rights was unAmerican. However, people are people and no movement is perfect. If I can recognize the grandeur of the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s while being honest about its shortcomings, that’s hardly ignorant.