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ESPN's Black Power & SigR Idiocy

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Boom_70, Jul 30, 2008.

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  1. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    Interesting column from Jonah Goldberg on the ESPY award for John Carlos and Tommie Smith

    "The stench of self-congratulation surrounding ESPN's decision is thicker than the air in a locker room after double overtime."

    "Comments by ESPN sportscaster Stuart Scott typify the inanity of ESPN's award. Scott, who was 3 years old in 1968, nonetheless told the Desert Sun newspaper that he remembers how "tense" the times were and how he remembers thinking, "Oh, that was cool for a black man to do that."



    http://www.nypost.com/seven/07302008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/a_sick_salute_122190.htm
     
    Boom_70, Jul 30, 2008
    #1
  2. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    Re: ESPN's Black Power Idiocy

    Boom, that was a memorable and tremendous moment in American sports. Jeez, I thought you'd be happy Stuart Scott could think about anything that happened before 2002.
    I respect your opinions one hell of a lot more than I do Jonah Goldberg's. I happened to watch that moment with members of my college's track team. White and black, they loved it.
    PS: If there was a draft today, Goldberg would be a pacifist.
     
    Michael_ Gee, Jul 30, 2008
    #2
  3. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    Re: ESPN's Black Power Idiocy

    The Stuart Scott nonsense is a side issue that shouldn't detract from the fact that Smith and Carlos made a powerful political statement at an important time in our racial history, and it caught a lot of people's attention and made them think. What they did was not idiocy. It was a political statement, with symbolic gestures meant to represent black poverty in the U.S., a growing black pride movement, a symbol to honor blacks lynched and hung, and a general statement about how fed up with their plight many blacks were at the time. I was less than three months old, but knowing what I know about our racial history, I certainly can't call what they did idiocy or try to detract from it with a smoke screen like Goldberg's. From what I understand, Carlos was something of a follower, but Smith is a bright, very socially aware person. He later said, "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." How can anyone looking back on the mid and late 60s blame him for seeing things that way?
     
    The Big Ragu, Jul 30, 2008
    #3
  4. black dude with pompano

    black dude with pompano Member

    Re: ESPN's Black Power Idiocy

    The late 1960s were a time of massive political upheaval and change. I can certainly understand their feelings of disenfranchisement and I don't begrudge their protest.

    But let's not confuse 1968 with 1948.
     
    black dude with pompano, Jul 30, 2008
    #4
  5. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    Re: ESPN's Black Power Idiocy

    I wasn't. I didn't comment on 1948. I thought that was clear I was talking about something that happened in 1968. In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. There were race riots nationwide that year, including significant ones in Baltimore, Chicago and Washington D.C. The prior year had seen race riots in dozens of cities, including notable ones in Newark and Detroit. A highly symbolic and effective political protest that used a high-profile stage to get people to pay attention to the racial frustrations that was clearly bubbling in the country in 1968 is not nonsense. And as I said, I can't blame Tommy Smith for viewing his country the way he did in 1968.
     
    The Big Ragu, Jul 30, 2008
    #5
  6. king cranium maximus IV

    king cranium maximus IV Active Member

    Re: ESPN's Black Power Idiocy

    Jonah "Doughy Pantload" Goldberg is a wingnut welfare-receiving semi-literate moron.

    Carry on.
     
    king cranium maximus IV, Jul 30, 2008
    #6
  7. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    Re: ESPN's Black Power Idiocy

    My head was spinning after reading SI's "Where are they now", where Carlos and Smith were worlds apart from being friends, then seeing the ESPYs and them saying all those stories were concoctions or something.
     
    playthrough, Jul 30, 2008
    #7
  8. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    Re: ESPN's Black Power Idiocy

    Agree with Michael that it was one of the more memorable and courageous moments in American sports.

    I guess that is why I was saddened to see Smith and Carlos accepting a trumped up made for tv award.

    It just felt like a bit of a sell out on the part of Carlos and Smith. Also if you believe the SI story it added a touch of phoniness to the event.
     
    Boom_70, Jul 30, 2008
    #8
  9. hondo

    hondo Well-Known Member

    Re: ESPN's Black Power Idiocy

    I am in total agreement with the Ragu man. And unlike Stuey the poser, I was 12 years old and it was mesmerizing. Until then, the only black athlete I had seen in person who bucked the system was Ali (obviously there was Jackie Robinson before him, but I wasn't alive and I wouldn't pretend to talk first-hand of how powerful that was. I'll leave that to Stuart Scott).

    Goldberg also assumes too much when he writes that Smith and Carlos and other perceived "militants" of the time thought Robinson and other ground-breaking black athletes were Uncle Toms. Smith and Carlos were educated men. They also were alive when Robinson began playing baseball and it had to have had an affect on them.
     
    hondo, Jul 30, 2008
    #9
  10. SigR

    SigR Member

    Re: ESPN's Black Power Idiocy

    Black Power is to Black Americans what White Supremacy is to White Americans. It's racism--blatant, in your face, my-race-is-better-than-your-race racism. Had Smith and Carlos turned away from the flag, heads bowed, and made some other gesture to show their contempt for the way things were in America, then yes, I'd say they were heroic. But to adopt the hate-filled, separatist rhetoric of the Black Power movement by using its symbol deserves little praise. The civil rights movement was marching without the Black Power movement just fine.

    Among other things, it is the glorification of moments like this one that has perpetuated the division between races in this country.
     
    SigR, Jul 30, 2008
    #10
  11. NoOneLikesUs

    NoOneLikesUs Active Member

    Re: ESPN's Black Power Idiocy

    Big asshole too.
     
    NoOneLikesUs, Jul 30, 2008
    #11
  12. beardpuller

    beardpuller Active Member

    Re: ESPN's Black Power Idiocy

    That's a quite a leap, that Smith and Carlos were saying their race is better than other races. I must have missed the part where they explained that. Please point it out to me.
    Or let me have some of the great drugs you must be taking.
     
    beardpuller, Jul 30, 2008
    #12
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