{"id":2748,"date":"2021-08-18T21:43:41","date_gmt":"2021-08-18T20:43:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/?p=2748"},"modified":"2021-08-18T21:43:42","modified_gmt":"2021-08-18T20:43:42","slug":"the-greatest-olympian-introduction-part-three-race-class-and-the-olympic-games-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/2021\/08\/18\/the-greatest-olympian-introduction-part-three-race-class-and-the-olympic-games-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Greatest Olympian – Introduction (Part Three) – Race, Class and the Olympic Games"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (August 5th<\/sup> 2021)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nazis, Jim Crow and Olympic Greats<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Sixty years before the Centennial Games of 1996 Jesse Owens overcame horrific racism home and abroad to enter Olympic history. His talent and achievements made a mockery of the Third Reich\u2019s claim to be the Master-Race, but he and his black teammates (18 of them) faced appalling racism in the USA too. President Franklin Roosevelt refused to congratulate Owens or other black medal winners despite their great sporting displays, and they discriminated against American Jewish athletes too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And let\u2019s not forget that despite the pressure of the Nazis to win, long jumper, Luz Long showed heroic sportsmanship \u2013 he died young in World War II. Owens was in danger of not qualifying, but noticing a flaw in Owens\u2019 run-up, Long pointed it out and Owens made the adjustment \u2013 one of the great acts of sportsmanship in Olympic history and one that came at great personal risk to Long. But this was far from the first appallingly racist Olympiad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Olympic Disgrace<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Thirty-two years earlier the USA displayed its own Olympian white supremacist clap-trap. Black Boer War veterans \u2013 incredibly they were on the Boers\u2019 side \u2013 were the first Africans to finish an Olympic Marathon. Len Taunyane and Jan Mashiani\u2019s achievement was greeted with despicable racism back in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following year the Cape Colony\u2019s government declared that only white people could represent South Africa. They were outraged that black Africans had competed, removed them from official representatives of South Africa. This white supremacist government was as racist as its successor. The first black Africans to complete an Olympic Marathon were prevented from competing again. The International Olympic Committee did not protest this outrage, which clearly breached Olympic ideals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cape Colony\u2019s disgrace against Olympic ideals happened despite Taunyane and Mashiane being held as prisoners of war on St Helena, the place where Napol\u00e9on Bonaparte[1]<\/a> was incarcerated after his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Protests and Recognition<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Despite the scandal of the Tlatelolco Massacre meaning that M\u00e9xico\u2019s Olympic Games should have been cancelled, 1968 was iconic too. The world remembers Tommie Smith\u2019s and John Carlos\u2019 clenched fist salute, but their protest was not just about racism. Look at the photo and you\u2019ll see they wore just one glove and look at their footwear too. This was a protest against poverty and the treatment of black people in the USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And look at the silver medallist, the late Peter Norman of Australia. He supported Smith and Carlos and paid a high price. He was prevented from competing in the Olympic Games for Australia four years later despite achieving the qualifying standard. Carlos and Smith were among the pall-bearers at Norman\u2019s funeral. Australia\u2019s apology for treating its own sporting great so badly was posthumous. Peter Norman was an Olympic great on and off the track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That Avery Brundage, the US Olympic Committee and Australia\u2019s punished these athletes for standing up to racism and more while ignoring the massacre of M\u00e9xicans protesting for human rights absolutely disgraces the Olympic Games and its supposed ideals. The recognition of Carlos, Norman and Smith belatedly is far too little and far too late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s no shortage of candidates, whose achievements are not confined to sporting prowess alone, so what do African icons think and why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/a> Napol\u00e9on Bonaparte spent his final years imprisoned on St Helena. Followers, like Marshall Michel Ney, were executed. Ney had served Bonaparte bravely, but when the former Emperor was exiled to Elba after defeat in 1814 Ney served the Bourbon Monarchy. After Napol\u00e9on\u2019s escape Ney defected back to him. Defeat at Waterloo led to Ney being convicted of treason and executed. He refused a blindfold and gave the order to fire himself on December 7th<\/sup> 1815.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Bonaparte was dispatched to St Helena. He died there on May 5th<\/sup> 1821. Bonaparte was an opportunist. After a defeat in Egypt, he left for France to seize his chance of power. The former supporter of the Robespierre brothers was fortunate to avoid execution after the fall of the Jacobins. He suffered major defeats. Many credit his 1812 defeat in Russia to Mikhail Kutuzov\u2019s tactic of stretching Napol\u00e9on\u2019s supply lines by scorched earth hit and run until the Russian Winter hit. Kutuzov cut the supply to the Grande Army and let the winter do its worst. Some claim this was the first major reverse in Bonaparte\u2019s career. It was not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost a decade earlier Napol\u00e9on demonstrated his white supremacist credentials. He wanted to take control of Saint-Domingue (Haiti) back from former slaves. Their Revolution 1791-1804 succeeded. It had been the jewel in pre-revolutionary France\u2019s crown. This was why Bonaparte wanted it back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Jacobins \u2013 Napol\u00e9on had been an \u2018enthusiastic\u2019 supporter until their fall from power \u2013 had abolished slavery. Napol\u00e9on not only wanted Saint-Domingue back but slavery too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He arranged a temporary peace with Britain \u2013 then severely weakened by its own fiasco in Haiti \u2013 and informed both Britain and the USA\u2019s slave-owning white supremacist, Thomas Jefferson, of his intention to restore slavery in the French colonies in the Caribbean. Having restored slavery in Guadeloupe and deported the black leader of the former slaves, Toussaint Louverture to prison, neglect and an early death, the leader of the mixed-race contingent of the French invasion, General Andr\u00e9 Rigaud, was also deported to prison in France. This achieved the seemingly impossible task of uniting the former slaves and mixed-race children of the white colonialists in a common cause against the French.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, the Haitian revolutionaries had mastered guerrilla warfare and tactics. They hit and ran and scorched the earth and they utilised their weapon, General Yellow Fever. Napol\u00e9on failed miserably. In November 1803 the Haitian revolutionaries won the decisive Battle of Verti\u00e8res. Napol\u00e9on\u2019s arrogant white supremacy had failed. This was the first significant defeat of Napol\u00e9on\u2019s career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sixty years before the Centennial Games of 1996 Jesse Owens overcame horrific racism home and abroad to enter Olympic history. His talent and achievements made a mockery of the Third Reich\u2019s claim to be the Master-Race, but he and his black teammates (18 of them) faced appalling racism in the USA too. President Franklin Roosevelt refused to congratulate Owens or other black medal winners despite their great sporting displays, and they discriminated against American Jewish athletes too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2749,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748\/revisions\/2749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}