Man, they love to protest and chant .. Whats up with raising their fists ? They look like complete clowns.
History Lesson for an Ignorant Racist:
After hearing
racist taunts in the Olympic stadium before going to the podium...
The American athletes raised their fists, the stadium hushed, then burst into racist sneers and angry insults. Smith and Carlos were rushed from the stadium, suspended by the U.S. team, and kicked out of the Olympic Village for turning their medal ceremony into a political statement. They went home to the United States, only to face serious backlash, including death threats.
My parents traveled to watch both the 1964 & 1968 Olympic Games (Tokyo in 1964 and Mexico City in 1968) while she was a freelance photogapher for a newspaper in France. They witness and my mom photographed two completely different treatments towards black athletes that won Olympic medals for their countries in comparison to other athletes.
Later, after the infamous raise of fists by those athletes...the International Olympic Association held Carlos and Smith
guilty of violating the Olympic spirit by making a political statement. Their medals were taken back. Also, other White athletes that did the same for other countries were treated worst. Those White athletes won their qualification events in the following two Olympic games and were not allowed to compete.
The raise of fists at Olympic games was first recorded at
Hitler's 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. It was a group of Jewish athletes that were excluded from trying to qualify for Hitler's 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. They then decided to attend the Olympic games as fans to cheer on their fellow German teammates.
- They held hands in a fist-like grip...raised them high in the air in unity as a way to protest.
Hitler barred them from all sporting events going forward along with building training facilities just for Jewish athletes because they were no longer allowed to train with other German athletes at the more well-funded athletic facilities.
Ironically, the United States and other countries sent letters to Hitler and Germany's Olympic committee...criticizing Germany for discrimination against Jewish athletes. It was only done
after Hitler had offended the United States by not congratulating American athletes that swept a particular event that German athletes were suppose to win.
The German contingency gave the
Nazi salute with the American athletes approaching the podium to receive their medals...
- Offended American athletes then responded with their own taunts and unity...pretending to do a Nazi salute (hands turned differently) to then give an American salute while the American flag was being raised.
Jewish athletes continued being mistreated at the orders of Hitler and the world sat by and watch. In addition, other countries including the United States made it very difficult for Jewish athletes to immigrate from Germany to other countries for fear of upsetting Hitler.
America’s restrictive immigration laws reflected the national climate of isolationism, xenophobia, antisemitism, racism, and economic insecurity after World War I.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/immigration-to-the-united-states-1933-41
- Those Jewish athletes that were denied immigration to the United States then were murdered in the Holocaust...genocide of European Jews.
Fast forward, many Olympic athletes were aware of the hypocrisy of fair treatment of the Olympic athletes during the Olympic games and the treatment of the same athletes when they returned home with medals...
Those black athletes understood the history of protesting with raised fists because they understood discrimination in sporting events that began with Germany's mistreatment & discrimination and then the murder of Jewish athletes.
Eventually, the International Olympic Committee would apologize for the unfair treatment of athletes that represented their country and they made a new commitment to keep government politics out of the Olympic Games...to only break that promise several times after World War II.
As you can see from the image below about
Boycotts, the Olympic Committee regularly now use the Olympic Games to make a political statement by
using Boycotts while strangely frowning on their athletes doing the same in defiance by raising their fists high in the air, taking a knee, turning their backs or speaking out to newspapers that want to hear about what they have to say about injustice in their country.
Here's another interesting piece of history involving our United States Pledge of Allegiance...
After the USA entered World War 2, the protocol associated with the Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag was changed. On June 22, 1942, the
initial military salute which had begun the Pledge of Allegiance salute was changed to placing the hand over the heart.
Next, the USA dropped the extended arm portion of the protocol on December 22, 1942, requiring that the Pledge be recited with the hand over the heart only.
- Today, the original U.S. military salute (minus the extended arm) is still used by our armed forces in saluting officers, military schools, veterans and law enforcement.
My point with the above Olympic stories about
saluting...protesting in sports has shaped our political events regardless of whether it's a lone protester, a group of protesters, or people of different races protesting in unity with their fists raised high in the air...
in unity...regardless of race ever since Hitler's 1936 Berlin Olympic Games of Nazi propaganda.
wrbtrader