The Olympics Are the Time to Take a Stand — Or a Knee
If not now, when?
How can the United States admonish the human rights violations in other countries — lack of religious freedom in China, violence by Israel against Palestine, denying education to women in Saudi Arabia — if we cannot acknowledge the major civil liberty violations happening in our own country? In the United States of American, Black Americans are 2.5 times more likely to be killed in a police interaction. Black women are paid on average 63 percent less than white women. Over 18 percent of Black Americans are living in poverty compared to 7 percent of white Americans.
There is a racial inequity in our country, and it needs to be fixed. On the international stage with the whole world watching, the Olympics are the place for athletes to represent the United States of America, while also fighting to activate change. For two weeks every two and a half years, athletes have global attention. They are given a platform that is unique as both individuals and as representatives of the USA.
The Olympics has a history of protests:
· Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising gloved fists on the podium at the 1968 Olympics to protest against social inequality against and poverty among Black Americans
· Věra Čáslavská turned her head away from the Soviet flag during medal ceremony to protest the Soviet Unions invasion of Czechoslovakia just two months before the Olympic Games, also in 1968.
· Boycott of the 1936 Berlin Olympics due to the rise of the Nazi party in Germany
· 1956 Boycott of the Melbourne games following the Israeli invasion of Sinai Peninsula during the Suez Canal crisis
· United States boycott the 1980 Moscow games after the USSR invaded Afghanistan
National governments have used the Olympic games to make a statement on issues of importance across the globe, so why are individuals vilified when they choose to take a stand? The image of Tommie Smith and John Carlos in 1968 raising a single fist into the air, without shoes on their feet, is widely regarded as one of the most influential photographs of the 20th century. Yet in the years directly following the Mexico City Olympics, all three athletes in the image, including Australia’s Peter Norman’s, careers were ruined following the demonstration.
Today, Tommie Smith and Carlos are largely regarded as defiant revolutionaries willing to risk their professional reputations to make a statement. In the 1960’s, the world was more consumed by the politicization of the Olympic games than it was by racial segregation and public lynchings. Haven’t we changed since 1968? In the last week, the United States Women’s Soccer team, joined by the teams from Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia, Sweden, and Chile, knelt before their matches to show support for marginalized groups facing discrimination and hatred across the world. And yet the focus is still on the act of kneeling, and not the systematic issues they are kneeling for.
USA Women’s Soccer team captain Megan Rapinone said it best when speaking to AP News: “We’re on the global stage,” Rapinoe said, “with the world’s media, and eyeballs and people’s attention, all drawn to one place with a collection of incredible athletes from all over the world, who care a lot about what they’re doing here in Tokyo in terms of their sport, and who care a lot about a lot of other things.”
USA track and field star Raven Saunders won the silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in shot put. While on the podium to receive her medal, and going against the IOC regulations on political statements, Saunders made an ‘X’ with her arms to show solidarity with oppressed people who may not have a platform to speak for themselves.
The Olympics are not isolated events.
Across social media, individuals have said that kneeling before a game (not during the national anthem) or making a hand gesture on the podium is a selfish act. In reality, it is the opposite. Athletes who chose to use their moment of international fame and recognition of their amazing physical feats to bring attention to larger issues impacting thousands if not millions of people are not selfish. They are brave. These athletes face potential repercussions for their actions — even being stripped of their medals they trained years to achieve or being banned from competing in the future — to bring awareness to major human rights violations. That is the opposite of selfishness. That is putting the needs of oppressed persons above one’s own personal gains and achievements.
