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| (left) Muhammed Ali addressing a rally, (right) The Black Power Salute by Tommie Smith and John Carlos |
When Muhammed Ali passed away this June, his death was mourned throughout the world. Posters of “the greatest” with quotations from him about life, achievements, hard work and especially about politics and the Vietnam War were all over the internet.
“I got nothing against no Viet Cong. No Vietnamese ever called me a nigger.”
“Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality.… If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years.”
Everyone admitted to him being the best heavyweight of all time. He was endeared even more as he stood for things beyond his sport and did that when it mattered the most.
He himself admitted that he had “never been accused of political correctness.”
But, all this, did come at a price which Mohammed Ali gracefully paid—by being arrested, being found guilty of draft evasion charges and being stripped of his boxing titles in 1966. It was only when he appealed against this in the Supreme Court that his conviction was overturned in 1971. During this period, he did not fight for four years, losing a substantial time in the period of his peak performance.
It was a choice that he made despite being exceptional in the sport, and knowing he was among the best in the world. But did not think twice before jeopardizing his career to come out and call a spade a spade.
Then we have one of the most controversial events that changed Olympics forever. It was during the 1968 Mexico Olympics when USA’s Tommy Smith and John Carlos raised the Black Power Salute. Tommie Smith was the 200 m gold medalist with a world record timing of 19.83. Second to him was the Australia’s Peter Norman and following him was John Carlos.
What they did on the podium while their national anthem played shocked the whole world. They stepped on the podium without shoes, wearing black socks, Tommie a black scarf around his neck, Carlos a beaded chain, and both a black glove in either hand. The absence of shoes symbolized black poverty, the black scarf representing black pride, the beaded chain, according to Carlos, “were for those individuals that were lynched, or killed and that no-one said a prayer for, that were hung and tarred. It was for those thrown off the side of the boats in the middle passage”.
They both kept their fists raised and heads bowed while the US national anthem played, and were booed by the crowd as they left the podium. Tommie Smith’s later reaction was,
“If I win, I am American, not a black American. But if I did something bad, then they would say I am a Negro. We are black and we are proud of being black. Black America will understand what we did tonight”.
The aftermath was that Tommie and Carlos were suspended from the U.S. team and banned from the Olympic Village.
Thinking of these events retrospectively we see how they are an epitome of resistance and defiance, but it does not really paint a picture of how courageous these sportspersons were to risk everything that they could ever achieve. Remember, they were not locals in the field; one was a world heavyweight at the peak of his performance and the other two, medalists in the Olympics.
Still, they put everything at the altar to not just stand for what is right, not just for themselves, but for their whole community. They did not reduce themselves to world-class athletes who are above everything plebian and but to a part of a community that made them world class. They went and stood by them, disrupting international platforms to make their voices heard.
Carlos was of the view that"In life, there's the beginning and the end." He says. "The beginning don't matter. The end don't matter. All that matters is what you do in between – whether you're prepared to do what it takes to make change. There has to be physical and material sacrifice. When all the dust settles and we're getting ready to play down for the ninth inning, the greatest reward is to know that you did your job when you were here on the planet."
It is probably this reward – of being greater than life, of adding some value to the community – that inspired these sportspersons to do the unthinkable. They did not bow down to any pressure from any authority. They did not accept mediocrity in their life nor for their society.
But is it possible for us to find people of such grit and mettle today? In this age where sports are nothing but a commercial venture that can dazzle your eyes with its shine and luster. The commercial gains and rewards you get will be enough to sustain you a lifetime of luxury and fame, provided you keep parroting your sponsors, doing what you do best and keeping your opinion away from where it really matters. Taking political stands for sportspersons is a far cry these days. They will either find themselves cornered by the all-powerful administrations themselves consisting of politicians, or will be subject to a public and media trial. Taking such risks can virtually end their careers before they start.
All these problems will definitely confront the sportsperson of today who will not in his wildest dreams think of putting everything at risk to stand for what he thinks is right. But, let me remind you, problems equivalent to or even bigger have always threatened celebrities and sportsperson. In the world where apartheid was crippling the nation, where brown men were considered fit only as slaves, Ali, Smith and Carlos not only proved their worth as an individual but also stood by their community to tell the world that all things are not hunky dory.
It was a social responsibility that they took to try and change the bad in the society, which is what is lacking in today’s sportsmen, and that is the reason we won’t see any sportsmen as ‘heroes’.
Talking of Ali, Carlos said,
The current scenario fulfills his prediction with tragic precision while we wait, indefinitely, for another Ali, Jordan, Smith or Carlos.
- Sunday, June 19, 2016
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