Until recently, Jonah Goldberg is not my most reviled conservative columnist as David Brooks, Jeff Jacoby and Kristol Lite all succeeded in annoying me on a regular basis until Goldberg decided to tell us all he knows about sports, which even for him, is not much at all.
Golberg. famous for writing a book that compared liberalism to fascism that was heavy on rhetoric but dubiously absent of facts, basically wrote a book that would have been laughed at by any political science professor. But I digress as Goldberg railed against Olympians Tommy Smith and John Carlos, famous for their black-gloved protest on the medal stand at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.
Goldberg, cherry-picking the facts to cast Smith and Carlos in the worst possible light, called their protest "self-indulgent." Moreover, Goldberg ignores contemporary American history when he wonders why African-Americans might actually be protesting anything after all the fabulous things that whites had done for those ingrates:
...By the late 1960's, the black power vision of an irredeemably "racist Amerikkka" was all but blind to the desegration of the military, the accomplishments of (Jessie) Owens and (jackie) Robinson, the passage of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, 1964 and even 1968."
Goldberg wrote that "the black power salute amounted to an obscene gesture aimed directly at Olympic ideals. " Nevermind that the basis of those ideals was elitist and racist.
Here is what Newsweek said about the then head of the International Olympic Committe Avery Brundage:
Brundage, a Crusty Chicago businessman ran the IOC as his vast personal fiefdom during the middle decades of the 20th century, clung obsessively, if at times naively or hypocritically, to the notion that his movement could be free from professionalism, commercialism and politics.
Goldberg omits the fact that Brundage, a millionaire, refused to permit the American team from boycotting the 1936 Olympics in Berlin where Adolf Hitler intended to showcase the games as propoganda for Nazi Germany.
Brundage believed that women had no place in the Olympics and he clung to an antiquated view of amateurism that was so broad that it would have barred the 1960 decathlon champion Rafer Johnson from competing if he accepted a role in Spartacus.
Brundage refused to bar apartheid practicing Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe) from the Olympics but claimed to abhor oliticizing the Olympics. I suppose it is acceptable to be portrayed as a Nazi sympathizer or enabler of apartheid, but letting "uppity" blacks protest was somehow political.
Yet, Brundage did not find the following to be political because it was directed at the Soviet Union:
In another incident, while standing on the medal podium after the balance beam event final, Czechoslovakian gymnast Věra Čáslavská quietly turned her head down and away during the playing of the Soviet national anthem. The action was Čáslavská's silent protest against the recent Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, and was repeated when she accepted her medal for her floor exercise routine. While Čáslavská's countrymen supported her actions and her outspoken opposition to Communism (she had publicly signed and supported Ludvik Vaculik's "Two Thousand Words" manifesto), the new regime responded by banning her from both sporting events and international travel for many years.
So somehow the silent protest by Smith and Carlos on the medal stand after the 200M Run was hypocritical because Goldberg believes that they should have boycotted the 1968 Olympics because a number of prominent African-American athletes did, such as Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul Jabbar), DID boycott.
I don't know what planet Goldberg is from, but IMO it took more courage for Smith and Carlos to use the Olympics to protest social injustice both in the U.S., in Vietnam, in Czechoslovakia (got that John McCain?) and also in Mexico, where 10 days prior to the Olympics, the Mexican Army shot and killed at least 300 protestors.
At the medal ceremony, Smith and Carlos stood on the platform wearing black socks without shoes, they both wore an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge, and Smith wore a black scarf around his neck. As the American flag was raised and the National Anthem was played, Smith and Carlos bowed their heads and each raised a gloved fist in the black power salute.
Because of their actions, the Olympic Committee barred them from competing in other events. Back in the United States, instead of receiving a celebration of their achievements, they were subjected to death threats.
This what sportscaster and Olympic historian Jeremy Schaap had to say about Smith and Carlo when he endorsed Smith's autobiography, Silent Gesture:
In a season of discontent and tragedy, at a time when there was so little reason for hopefulness, Tommie Smith refused to be cowed. Risking nothing less than their futures, he and John Carlos made a statement that could not be ignored. Finally, Smith tells us his story, a story as significant as any ever told by an athlete. Silent Gesture will be invaluable to anyone who hopes to understand a turbulent time and an act of true courage."
Hey Jonah, it doesn't take any courage to basically make shit up and cherry pick what little facts you include to bash African Americans for having the gaul to ruin your vision of what the Olympics should be. The fact that your views coincide with racist, sexist, Nazi collaborator Avery Brundage is just another coincidence.
Or is it?