October 16, 2018 This day in history
4 responses | 0 likes
Started by metmike - Oct. 16, 2018, 3:08 p.m.

Was this a boring day in history?


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_16

Comments
By carlberky - Oct. 16, 2018, 4:02 p.m.
Like Reply

1968 – United States athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos are kicked off the US team for participating in the 1968 Olympics Black Power salute.

They should have just taken a knee.

By metmike - Oct. 16, 2018, 6:34 p.m.
Like Reply

1968 Olympics Black Power salute

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Olympics_Black_Power_salute

International Olympic Committee response

International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Avery Brundage deemed it to be a domestic political statement unfit for the apolitical, international forum the Olympic Games were intended to be. In response to their actions, he ordered Smith and Carlos suspended from the US team and banned from the Olympic Village. When the US Olympic Committee refused, Brundage threatened to ban the entire US track team. This threat led to the expulsion of the two athletes from the Games.[11]

A spokesman for the IOC said Smith and Carlos's actions were "a deliberate and violent breach of the fundamental principles of the Olympic spirit."[3] Brundage, who was president of the United States Olympic Committee in 1936, had made no objections against Nazi salutes during the Berlin Olympics. He argued that the Nazi salute, being a national salute at the time, was acceptable in a competition of nations, while the athletes' salute was not of a nation and therefore unacceptable.]

By metmike - Oct. 16, 2018, 6:50 p.m.
Like Reply

Aftermath

"Smith and Carlos were largely ostracized by the US sporting establishment and they were subject to criticism. Time magazine on October 25, 1968, wrote: "'Faster, Higher, Stronger' is the motto of the Olympic Games. 'Angrier, nastier, uglier' better describes the scene in Mexico City last week."[17][18] Back home, both Smith and Carlos were subject to abuse and they and their families received death threats."


Here it is, 50 years later. Race relations after decades of tremendous progress have unfortunately gone backwards in some realms over the last decade. Minorities have not lost gains but politics over the last decade have hijacked racial dynamics and race relations to use for agenda that is, in my opinion, counterproductive to advance authentic minority/racial causes. 

By carlberky - Oct. 16, 2018, 9:15 p.m.
Like Reply

" Brundage is remembered as a zealous advocate of amateurism."

He might have created a cyclone, spinning in his grave when the US choose the "Dream Team" of professional Basketball players to compete.

He was a track star and competed in the 1912 Olympics. He lost to his team mate, Jim Thorp … who later was stripped of his gold medals.