Zone1 The law of unintended consequences.

[Woodznutz]

I just watched a 2-hour PBS documentary on Tommy Smith and John Carlos, the two black Olympic runners whose raised fists during the medal ceremony at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City set off a firestorm of racial controversy. Though initially ostracized his act was finally celebrated late in his life.

What struck me was that he seemingly ignored the passing of the civil rights legislation that occurred four years earlier, the landmark Civil Rights Act, which addressed most of the issues he hoped to champion through his symbolic pose. Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect possibly setting those newly gain rights back, perhaps by decades. There was no acknowledgement of this in the presentation.

 

[DGS49]

Why was it celebrated later in his life? What, exactly, was the point?

If there is an instance when a POC is the victim of discrimination based on their demographic traits - and it surely happens - then it should be publicized and the oppressor punished in some fashion.

To protest that life is unfair to POC's? Fuck you. It is unfair to a lot of people, but we don't get to publicly whine about it and claim entitlement. In 1968 through to current day, there are mountains of opportunities for POC's to succeed, and thousands of institutions who would celebrate that success. But you have to play by the rules, and those rules are well-known now: Take advantage of as much free education as you can get, stay out of trouble, don't reproduce until you have the resources to nurture your offspring, and get a fucking job. Any job.

Welcome to the middle class.

Those guys were worthless tools. One hopes that they were ultimately embarrassed for their display of self-hate.