{"id":434490,"date":"2020-06-05T07:16:05","date_gmt":"2020-06-05T14:16:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=434490"},"modified":"2020-06-06T03:30:55","modified_gmt":"2020-06-06T10:30:55","slug":"how-the-story-of-jesse-owens-luz-long-shines-yet-as-a-beacon-of-hope-for-an-end-to-discrimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/how-the-story-of-jesse-owens-luz-long-shines-yet-as-a-beacon-of-hope-for-an-end-to-discrimination\/","title":{"rendered":"How The Story Of Jesse Owens & Luz Long Shines Yet As A Beacon Of Hope For An End To Discrimination"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“When I came back to my native country after all the stories about Hitler I couldn’t ride in the front of the bus. I had to go to the back door. I couldn’t live where I wanted. I wasn’t invited to shake hands with Hitler, but I wasn’t invited to the White House to shake hands with the President either” <\/em><\/span><\/strong>– Jesse Owens<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Commentary: <\/strong><\/em>Against a backdrop\u00a0of protest over racial\u00a0discrimination in the United States in the\u00a0wake of George Floyd<\/strong>‘s\u00a0death after he gasped his last words – “I can’t breath” – under the knee of a policeman now charged with his murder,\u00a0we take a look at a story from Olympic history that begs the question ‘how long will this lesson last’.<\/p>\n

\"JESSEheatofthemomentjesseowensLuzLong\"<\/p>\n

The story of the black American four-times Olympic Champion Jesse Owens<\/strong> and Germany’s Luz Long<\/strong> at the 1936 Olympic Games in a Swastika-soaked Berlin stadium offers powerful messages for humanity from the realm of sport. As noted in an extract below from the Olympic book Heat of the Moment<\/em>:<\/p>\n

“It was a question of a master athlete and a worthy competitor humiliating those who believed in a master race.\u00a0The drama that played out in 1936 as Hitler watched is to this day widely cited as the prime example of how sportsmanship can triumph over the ugliest forms of competitiveness. <\/em><\/span>What unfolded between Long and Owens and the\u00a0message it sent to the wider world transcended athletics and stretch to global politics as the storm clouds gathered for one of the darkest periods in human history.”<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In 2020, the story of Owens and Long and what they and their friendship stood for remains a lesson to be learned, learned anew and reinforced. The stirring story of Owens and Long speaks to the healing role that sport can but often does not play.<\/p>\n

From the days of Jesse Owens<\/strong>\u00a0and his four victories under a sea of swastikas at a Games sullied by propaganda, bigotry, hatred and racism on the eve of the Holocaust, elite athletes have been silenced by threats of expulsion and punishment from their guardians and governors.<\/p>\n

Hold the thought. Kate Bush<\/strong> sang: “It’s been such a long week; So much crying; I no longer see a future; I’ve been told when I get older; That I’ll understand it all; But I’m not sure if I want to …”. Think back to your early childhood and if your memory allows, try to recall the sting of being rebuked, rubbished, discouraged, having a drawing or a garment of clothing or a way of being or a physical characteristic made the subject of fun or criticism, of being bullied. Think of the impact that may have had or did have on you. Now imagine that feeling being with you almost every day of your life since, through childhood and into adulthood, year-upon-year, decade-upon-decade. Crushing, convulsing, corrupting of the human spirit.<\/p>\n

That’s the place where understanding can begin if we’re to fathom how #BlackLivesMatter<\/em><\/strong> is to convert protest to lasting change and an end to systemic and societal discrimination. It is the place where we find passionate response that requires our understanding and appreciation – and the kind of response to the battle-fatigue frustration of Simone Manuel<\/strong> that Swimming World<\/a> felt essential not just in this most troubled of weeks but as a permanent shift in awareness and culture.<\/p>\n

Sport is no stranger to the issues. Down the years, athlete agreements and official codes such as the Olympic Charter<\/strong><\/a> have at once contributed to solidarity and understanding among athletes and nations and contributed, regardless of good intent or otherwise – to the gagging of athletes – of all colours, creeds shapes and sizes. Rules clearly restrict the ability of athletes to stage peaceful protests in the face of the unacceptable, be that discrimination, doping or the exclusion of athletes and independent stakeholder representatives from the decision-making structures of sports governance far and wide.<\/p>\n

What has that to do with the brutal death of George Floyd<\/strong> by suffocation under the knee of a police officer who shamed and tainted the status he held and now faces criminal charges along with the three other officers who were present and did nothing to prevent actions that officers are not trained to do and not permitted to do? Plenty, in the was of a tidal wave of protest in the United States and far beyond.<\/p>\n

As with the world in general, the issues are nothing new to sport, nothing new to high achievers in sport who have made their feelings known peacefully and, indeed, been penalised for it.<\/p>\n

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Photo Courtesy: Now This (video below)<\/p><\/div>\n

Colin Kaepernick<\/strong> may well feel that current events represent the worst sort of vindication, that which comes at the cost of another life among many lost to discrimination, bigotry and hatred down decades and centuries, some and some part of economies and the perceptions of what defines the ‘strength’ of nations build on the blood spilled.<\/p>\n

Kaepernik is the black athlete, NFL player, who began the \u201ctake a knee\u201d protest against racial injustice and police brutality in 2016 is now being lauded afresh. Blackballed, labelled “unpatriotic”, “un-American” and much worse, ostracised by the guardians and governors of his sport, and referred to, with others, as a “son of a bitch” by the 45th president of the United States, Kaepernik is now finding now stance gathering significant and widespread support. His right to peaceful protest is being reconsidered, regained, reconnected with the issues he sought to highlight.<\/p>\n

That follows reconsideration of such moments as Muhammed Ali<\/strong>‘s anti-Vietnam stance and the gloved-fists protests at the 1968 Olympic Games of athletes Tommie Smith <\/strong>and John Carlos<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

A Washington Post article under the headline “The message hasn\u2019t changed\u2019: NFL players find echoes of Colin Kaepernick\u2019s protest across the country<\/a>“, starts:<\/p>\n

Anquan Boldin can see history repeating. In 2016 and the years to come, Boldin said, he watched as critics \u201chijacked\u201d Colin Kaepernick<\/strong>\u2019s message after he knelt during the national anthem before NFL games in protest of police killing and brutalizing black people. Rather than police reform, conversation swung to respecting the military and the American flag. Some – including President Trump – called for players to stick to football and for owners to fire those who protested.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose were the people who truly wanted to ignore what players were talking about,\u201d Boldin said. \u201cThe message hasn\u2019t changed from that time to now.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A reminder:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n