Black Power and Pride

Black Power and Pride

It is hockey and basketball playoff time and it made me wonder how so few of our professional athletes have any political balls! It was the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. And two black American sprinters, Tommie Smith (centre) and John Carlos (right) had just won Olympic medals in the 200-metre sprint. Tommie Smith set a world record with a blazing time of 19.83 seconds, while Australia's Peter Norman (left) finished second and John Carlos third.

Yet, what they did shocked Mexico, the United States, and the world. Under the influence of the black sociologist Harry Edwards and the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR), Smith and Carlos picked up their medals in black socks only, to symbolize black poverty. Smith wore a black scarf as a symbol of the new black pride movement. Carlos decided to unzip his jacket to show solidarity with all US blue collar workers. He also wore a necklace of beads in honour of "those individuals that were lynched, or killed and that no-one said a prayer for, that were hung and tarred. It was for those thrown off the side of the boats in the middle passage." Both Smith and Carlos raised their hands defiantly in Black Power and Pride, while Norman sympathized with the two black athletes by wearing an OPHR badge. They bowed their heads, as they raised their clenched fists.

There is a funny moment to the story. Note that the athletes are raising two different hands, with Smith raising the right and Carlos the left. It turns out both athletes were to wear black gloves, but Carlos forgot his in his room. Smith gave him one of his gloves. Norman suggested Carlos wear the glove on his left hand. Traditionally, the Black Power salute was with the right hand. As the US athletes left the podium, they were booed. Smith later said the following about their powerful gestures: "If I win, I am American, not a black American. But if I did something bad, then they would say I am a Negro. We are black and we are proud of being black. Black America will understand what we did tonight."

The two athletes were expelled from the Olympic Games. The mainstream US media treated Smith and Carlos like pariahs. Smith and Carlos ended up being professional football players. Smith took the post of Assistant Professor of Physical Education at Oberlin College in 1995. Carlos became a high school track coach. Norman's story was more tragic. He was derided by the Australian media and Olympic authorities for supporting Smith and Carlos. He was not picked for the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, despite finishing third in his time trials. He kept running, but got gangrene in 1985 after a terrible Achilles tendon injury. His life was never the same, as the leg was nearly amputated. He drank heavily. In 2006, he died of a heart attack. In a wonderful spirit of solidarity, Smith and Carlos were the pallbearers at his funeral.

At the 2008 Olympic Games, British athletes refused to sign a gag letter that would have prevented them from making political statements. Contrary to the stereotypes, athletes are not always mental automatons. Smith and Williams spoke out for the deep pain and anguish of their people, for pride in their blackness, and to make the US the country that it could be in fighting racial inequality and socio-economic marginalization. The Brazilian soccer star of the 1980s, Socrates, began a campaign for democratization in Brazilian soccer that later spread to the country's political realm and undermined military rule. Ajax Amsterdam, the Dutch football club from a multicultural city, defiantly wears the star of David as part of an anti-racist campaign against racist soccer hooligans.

Soccer governing bodies like FIFA or the International Olympic Committee don't like the political involvement of athletes because they threaten business-as-usual. They threaten the money-making goliaths and sponsorship deals of these organizations. It should be all about the circus! Forget about the bread, the butter, the issues that matter in our lives. But athletes are organically part of a larger political milieu. They will speak. They will not be silenced. I just lament that there are not more Smiths and Carlos in athletics today, aside from rare cases like the Canadian basketball star Steve Nash. This speaks to the poverty of our political involvement. This speaks to the poverty of our political imagination. I am not a black man, although for some I might look like one. But I will always salute the courage, heroism, pride, and spirit of defiance of Smith, Carlos, and Norman. I salute their spirit of dissent. If only we had less steriods and more models like them today!

Part Two will be continued in the next post!

Tamir Bar-On