Colin Kaepernick, Megan Rapinoe and The 1936 Olympics
The amount of media generated over the past few years in regards to political protest at sports events is staggering; from Colin Kaepernick to Megan Rapinoe many have made their stand on politics in the arena, as is their prerogative. Some pundits have attempted to cast these protests such as kneeling during the anthem as some new type of newfound and unmerited anti-Americanism, with many pursuing the matter with McCarthy like energy. Whether they are aware of it or not, by doing so they are returning to one of the darker chapters in sporting history.
Enter the 1968 Olympics, where several athletes either raised the Black power salute or wore a human rights pin. The athletes held the Black Power salute for the duration of the anthem. They wore black socks with no shoes to symbolize black poverty, they wore a necklace of beads symbolizing those lost to lynching, and they unzipped their track suits to show solidarity with the blue collar working class. They were booed by the crowd. Time magazines take? “‘Faster, Higher, Stronger’ is the motto of the Olympic Games. ‘Angrier, nastier, uglier’ better describes the scene in Mexico City last week.” They were referred to as “unimaginative,” “juvenile,” and “imagining the issues.” Sound familiar? The Olympic committee president Avery Brundage, who went as far as to argue during the 1936 Olympics that the Nazi salute was acceptable, ordered the two black athletes to be suspended and banned from the Olympic village, when the United States refused they threatened to ban the entire team. The United States caved to this threat and kicked off the two prominent black athletes that led the protest.
As we face similar protests today, in similar venues, over the same issues, we cannot as a society allow the same arguments made then to be made now. The fact that the same arguments are being made 50 years later only serves to illustrate the point of those that took the knee then. By educating ourselves about the prejudices of the past we can inoculate ourselves against the same prejudicial and dismissive arguments that will be made in the future.
