 |
| LtoR Norman, Smith, Carlos |
This is an article we published four year ago. I was alive in 1968 when these two brave brothers took the stand they did at the medal podium. As the article explains, they suffered for it. But I remember as an 18 year old feeling sorry for Peter Norman the white guy standing up there alone, not part of anything or so I thought. Surely he must feel odd up there. I would have still considered black power to have been an assault on all white people in one way or another at that time although it didn't last long.
But if you didn't know it and read on, Peter Norman was in on it with them and they never forgot him traveling to Australia to carry his coffin. Norman too was destroyed by the racist state of Australia. These three figures, historical giants compared to the Trumps of this world and all the overpaid film stars and athletes who keep their mouths shut in the face of injustice, whether racism or rape.
They were punished by their respective capitalist states because of the influence they may have on people, because they were showing racial unity. All this nonsense we are hearing today about anthems and flags and disrespecting veterans is an insult to our intelligence. The ruling class doesn't care about veterans. All those football fans and other white folks who buy the ridiculous argument that those protesting are unpatriotic and shouldn't use sports to raise political and social issue should be ashamed of themselves. The 1% uses sports to sell beer, to encourage young workers to join their military, to convince us if we drink the right beer we'll get the right girl They have jets fly over the stadiums, sing nationalistic songs and use athletes to sell junk food and apparel made by super exploited workers who can't buy the clothes and shoes they make.
It is not an accident I was not aware of Peter Norman's act of solidarity with two black Americans, it is a conscious shutting out of history. Racial unity is a threat to the capitalist class, especially when people like those above, respected by so many working people, have the potential to influence so many of us. For white workers here is a heroic white athlete, a normal human being who did the right thing and it cost him. it cost all three of them. The capitalist class are responsible along with the head of workers organizations, unions and parties. But so are we all. We were silent enough in 1968 we should follow Kaepernick's lead and make sure a united working class chorus of support should resonate now in words and actions. Don't sign these nasty petitions at football games, more often than not begun by racists using the flag and veterans as cover, and that condemns the athletes who are doing the right thing. We should be proud of them.
by Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired
August 2013
I am so lucky to have grown up during the 60’s. What an incredible decade. The colonial revolutions were driving out direct occupation anyway. Ten million French workers struck and occupied factories. The music and art scene was flourishing. The Women’s rights movement was in full swing as was the civil rights movement and the Black Panthers in the US, influencing the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland.
But if you didn't know it and read on, Peter Norman was in on it with them and they never forgot him traveling to Australia to carry his coffin. Norman too was destroyed by the racist state of Australia. These three figures, historical giants compared to the Trumps of this world and all the overpaid film stars and athletes who keep their mouths shut in the face of injustice, whether racism or rape.
They were punished by their respective capitalist states because of the influence they may have on people, because they were showing racial unity. All this nonsense we are hearing today about anthems and flags and disrespecting veterans is an insult to our intelligence. The ruling class doesn't care about veterans. All those football fans and other white folks who buy the ridiculous argument that those protesting are unpatriotic and shouldn't use sports to raise political and social issue should be ashamed of themselves. The 1% uses sports to sell beer, to encourage young workers to join their military, to convince us if we drink the right beer we'll get the right girl They have jets fly over the stadiums, sing nationalistic songs and use athletes to sell junk food and apparel made by super exploited workers who can't buy the clothes and shoes they make.
It is not an accident I was not aware of Peter Norman's act of solidarity with two black Americans, it is a conscious shutting out of history. Racial unity is a threat to the capitalist class, especially when people like those above, respected by so many working people, have the potential to influence so many of us. For white workers here is a heroic white athlete, a normal human being who did the right thing and it cost him. it cost all three of them. The capitalist class are responsible along with the head of workers organizations, unions and parties. But so are we all. We were silent enough in 1968 we should follow Kaepernick's lead and make sure a united working class chorus of support should resonate now in words and actions. Don't sign these nasty petitions at football games, more often than not begun by racists using the flag and veterans as cover, and that condemns the athletes who are doing the right thing. We should be proud of them.
by Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired
August 2013
I am so lucky to have grown up during the 60’s. What an incredible decade. The colonial revolutions were driving out direct occupation anyway. Ten million French workers struck and occupied factories. The music and art scene was flourishing. The Women’s rights movement was in full swing as was the civil rights movement and the Black Panthers in the US, influencing the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland.
I wouldn’t say I was consciously political but even the
blues that I listened to was political as while Big Bill Broonzy or T Bone
Walker weren’t known as political figures, if you were black and from the US
and sang about life, you sang about politics, racism, injustice, lynchings (Strange Fruit). On of my favorite singers, Nina Simone, didn’t
pull too many punches. I was just a bit juvenile that’s all, but it did sink
in.
Like many young working class guys at the time though, I was
a bit afraid of the likes of Malcolm X and some aspects of the Panthers, mostly
because the media demonized them but I also didn’t understand the whole
situation and hadn’t yet been introduced to the political ideas that would have
helped me understand more. Malcolm X
didn’t help with some of his comments about white people, putting us all in the
same boat. And we should not fail to recognize that Malcolm X was killed when he was moving towards working class unity and socialist ideas, not when he was attacking white people as whites---all the same.
In 1968 at the Mexico Olympics, the two hundred meters gold
medal was won by the American Tommie Smith and another American John Carlos won
the bronze. Smith and Carlos were both
black. On the podium with them was the
silver medal winner, the Australian Peter Norman. Smith and Carlos had decided to make a
statement at the medal ceremony. They
raised their fists in the air, wore no shoes to protest poverty and beads to
protest lynchings. Smith and Carlos paid for their actions with a suspension
and removal from the Olympic village. They were vilified by many who said that
their actions brought disgrace on the US and they received death threats as
well.
I came to recognize them for the heroic figures they
were. But I remember back then seeing
the white guy Norman standing there and I wondered what it must be like for
him. After all, wasn’t this black power
salute an attack on all white people? I was sure that the black guys would
never have included him in their plans. But they did. It was only recently I
found out that Smith and Carlos had discussed their plan with Norman after the
race. Norman suggested they wear the black gloves which is why Smith is raising
his right fist and Carlos his left.
They asked Norman if he believed in human rights and if he believed in god. He told them he would stand with them and wore an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge on his chest in solidarity. It is one of the most powerful scenes of the 20th century, these two guys standing there, fists in the air, heads down and Norman with them. Norman said afterwards, "I believe every man is born equal."
They asked Norman if he believed in human rights and if he believed in god. He told them he would stand with them and wore an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge on his chest in solidarity. It is one of the most powerful scenes of the 20th century, these two guys standing there, fists in the air, heads down and Norman with them. Norman said afterwards, "I believe every man is born equal."
Smith and Carlos were demonized in the media and suffered
racial abuse and name calling on top of their suspension for what they did.
Norman’s solidarity cost him his athletic career. He was excluded from the
Australian team at the 1972 Olympics despite running qualifying times. The
Australian media airbrushed him from history despite being one of
 |
| Smith and Carlos lead pallbearers at Norman's funeral |
“I couldn’t see why a black man wasn’t allowed to drink out of the same water fountain or sit in the same bus or go to the same schools as a white guy. That was just social injustice that I couldn’t do anything about from where I was, but I certainly abhorred it.
Avery Brundage, the IOC chairman attacked these men because
he didn’t agree that political statements belonged in the Olympics. This is the man who was at the 1936 Olympics
as the president of the US Olympic Committee and raised no objection to the
Nazi salute.
Peter Norman died in 2006 from a heart attack. He had suffered with depression and alcoholism. Tommie Smith and John Carlos were pallbearers and spoke at the funeral, Carlos told Australian television:
"Peter Norman let
me know that regardless of what your ethnic background is it has nothing to do
with your principles".
And on his treatment he said:
"I think the
pressures that the nation put on him and the disrespect that they showed him, I
think it wounded him. "I think he was hurting and I don't think he ever
recovered from the hurt that they put upon him. Unnecessarily hurt."
In August 2012, the Australian government which had racial
exclusionary laws similar to South Africa’s at the time of the famous salute,
finally issued an official apology to Norman and his family who were harassed
and persecuted for his actions.
I am sure there are many people that know this already but I
didn’t so I felt a need to comment on it.
I have to say as I write about this I feel very emotional about these
three people. What courage they had to
do what they did. The civil rights movement and actions like the protest in
Mexico halted the most openly brutal racist practices in the US including blatantly
racist laws, but the institutionalized racism of the system is still very much
with us.
For Norman, it would have been easy to step aside, to avoid
the confrontation but he didn't, and there’s no way any of them would not have understood the
response that would follow the protest.
As I think about it, all those who are not directly victims of the cause they stand up to
defend but know it has to be done no matter the cost, are heroic figures. The state and its minions have dragged an
apology from Manning after years of physical and mental torture, maybe his
lawyer said it might knock a few years from his sentence, I don’t know. But he has nothing to apologize for; neither
do Smith, Carlos and Norman.
There’s some good people out there.
No comments:
Post a Comment