45th Anniversary of the '68 Olympics Black Power salute

[Michchamp]

link. a lot of misconceptions about this one.

according to the wiki, the IOC was pissed about it even though they had allowed the Nazi Salute in the '36 games. Avery Brundage, the head of the IOC during the '68 games, had been one of the more public nazi sympathizers in the U.S. ... glad our priorities are in order. and even though Carlos and Smith received death threats from their countrymen after the salute, they were still at least allowed to participate in American sports after that. the australian, Peter Norman, was left off his country's next team, and publicly ostracized. Smith and Carlos were pallbearers at his funeral in 2006.

 

[byco42]

The overall grass-roots response to their protest was supportive as I remember and Howard Cosell, a true sports journalist who would be unemployable today, was a leader in that support. Even as a na?ve 11-year-old kid, I kinda got it and did not find it objectionable.

 

[Michchamp]

The overall grass-roots response to their protest was supportive as I remember and Howard Cosell, a true sports journalist who would be unemployable today, was a leader in that support. Even as a na?ve 11-year-old kid, I kinda got it and did not find it objectionable.

that's cool. It's always tough to gauge how most people really feel. I figure the "death threats" came from the sort of morons that wouldn't have watched the games in the first place and only learned about it from their Klan rallies... but whether the avg white American would agree with the ideas they represented is tougher to answer.

I guess, knowing what I know about other countries (even those portrayed as more progressive and educated than the US) I am not surprised by the backlash Peter Norman received in Australia. The U.S. is far from perfect, but has come a lot farther toward reconciling racial conflict than most places, including much of Europe.

 

[Thumb]

I have to admit, I never read anything in depth on it really till now and always thought it was associated with the Black Panther Party.

 

[Michchamp]

I have to admit, I never read anything in depth on it really till now and always thought it was associated with the Black Panther Party.

for a long time, I viewed "The 60's" as that video montage of Kennedy getting shot, MLK marching in Selma, the Vietnam War, peace protests, and some more inflammatory shots... and tended to also dismiss all those participating as drug-addled hippies, trust fund radicals or Black Panthers, but when I actually have taken the time to read more about what those people were saying and doing (not what Time or Life magazine portrayed them as at the time and for posterity), it blew my mind how intelligent and articulate most of them were... especially the ones the FBI went out of their way to kill or ruin.

 

[Thumb]

Yeah, when I used to think of the 60's I used to think of Vietnam, Charles Manson, the Hells Angels beating up people at Altamont, hippies doing LSD in San Fransisco, and the riots in Watts and Detroit.