The Double Standard for Black Athletes Began Long Before Trump. Just Ask Tommie Smith and John Carlos.
President Trump keeps
lashing out at black athletes, trying to change the subject from his inner
circles’ guilty
pleas and verdicts back
to NFL
players protesting the anthem, calling Colin Kaepernick, who wouldn’t kneel
for the anthem, a “son of a bitch” and LeBron James dumb for good measure. The insults seem at
once pointed but almost generic, as if he sees these athletes as
inter-changeable parts, devoid of their own will. He seems easily shocked
when they prove that they aren't.
Tommy Smith (307) (1st place) and John Carlos (259) (3rd place) of the US raise their fists in the "Black Power Salute" during the playing of the national anthem at the Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico; 1968 NCAA PHOTOS/GETTY
Trump is a very new
kind of president, but he’s tapped into a long tradition of black athletes
using their prominent platforms to speak up about American injustice, and
powerful fans then telling them to keep quiet and just play. In 1968, the same year
our future commander in chief’s bone
spurs saved him from serving his country and fighting in Vietnam, two
African American men about his age, U.S. Olympians Tommie Smith and John
Carlos, made a statement at the summer Olympic Games in Mexico city. After
Smith won the gold medal and Carlos the bronze in the 200 meter race, they and
Australian silver medalist Peter Norman all had human rights badges on their
jackets. When the U.S. anthem played and the men turned to face the flag, Smith
and Carlos raised black-gloved hands in the black power salute to protest in
perhaps the most potent political gesture of a tumultuous time.
The
men had prepared for the moment, with both of them in black socks with no
shoes to represent black poverty. Smith wore a black scarf to represent black
pride and Carlos had a necklace of beads “for 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."..
read more:
