John Carlos Story, by John Carlos and Dave Zirin
Published by Haymarket Books, Chicago, Illinois. 2012.
Book Review
The only reason I bought this book about a now forgotten episode in the American Civil Rights struggle of the 1960s was because I heard the protagonist being interviewed on the small independent radio news channel “Democracy Now!” Two black American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, committed an American sacrilege at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City when they gave the Black Power salute on the victory stand after winning the 200 metre race to highlight racial discrimination in the USA. For this act of treason against White supremacist policies and racial discrimination, they were harassed for about four decades and their careers were destroyed. Though it is now four decades after the event, it is still an important side show to the centuries-long struggle of the Afro-American community to gain equal rights and respect in a country plagued with racism
since its very foundation.
What is revealing in this book is not just a story of one man’s struggle for freedom in a racially besotted society. That by itself is noteworthy because while the US administration takes upon itself the role of the world’s moral guardian and launches human rights crusades against nations unwilling to be subservient to it, it was considered unacceptable for Afro-Americans to highlight their plight till recent years. The campaigns and the sufferings of the NAACP and the Black Muslims in bringing about change are now scarcely remembered. What is more disturbing to those unfamiliar with US society is the tragedy of Afro-American society as a whole as revealed by the autobiography of John Carlos: a demoralized people with few opportunities to improve their lives except through sports or music. Poverty exists throughout the world and poverty in India, for example, is far more acute and pervasive than in the USA. Yet it is not as tragic or demoralising as in the Afro-American neighbourhood. The Afro-American life described here is not directed towards escaping poverty but stagnation in misery: street violence, crime, narcotics, rejection of educational opportunities, breakdown of families, etc.
International sport, including the Olympic Games, is highly politicised with the Americans and Europeans dominating these organisations. Avery Brundage, then head of the Olympic Committee in 1968, had awarded the Games to Nazi Germany in 1936 and balked at expelling Aparthied South Africa till world opinion forced a decision. In 1980 the US and 60 allies boycotted the Moscow Olympic Games (its major West European allies
did not join the boycott) because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in support of its beleaguered government fighting Islamic fundamentalists. No such boycotts followed US invasions of Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan and interventions in numerous smaller nations in Africa and South America. In 2008, the award of the Olympic Games to China caused so much anger in the West that Olympic torch bearers were constantly harassed passing through European capitals. Two obscure black athletes, taking upon themselves to
highlight the sad plight of people of colour in America with a simple act in the 1968 Olympics, were taking on a formidable opposition of White Supremacists around the world.
By 1968, despite the Civil Rights Act (1964) of President Johnson in response to the NAACP Civil Rights campaigns, coloured people in America saw few gains immediately afterwards. By the time, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X had been gunned down by racists and the Black Panthers had been eliminated in FBI raids. In 1967 Mohamed Ali was banned from boxing and his heavyweight championship title was withdrawn due to his
opposition to the Vietnam War and resistance to the draft. There was still a sense of hopelessness in the Black community.
Despite these, there were small groups of White people both in America and elsewhere who were revolted by the treatment of coloured people and lent their support to the struggles. During the brief protest on the Olympic stand in 1968, the two black athletes were supported by the runner up in their 200 metres race, Australian second place winner, Peter Norman, who also suffered for his action in later life.
In 2005 the students at San Jose State University, where Tommie Smith and John Carlos were alumni, raised $380,000 to create memorial statues for this act of defiance on behalf of human rights by these three athletes. In some small way, they had been rehabilitated by mainstream America, while Mohamed Ali, who suffered much more for his actions as a Black Muslim activist, is now internationally celebrated as one of the greatest athletes of all time.
Kenneth Abeywickrama
12 October 2012