Left I on the News

Since the "Deep Throat" revelation has taken us back to 1972, just one slight nudge of the Wayback Machine* takes us back to 1968:

In what I consider to be a truly amazing piece of news, last Friday San Jose State University broke ground on a statue commemorating the famous "Black Power" gesture made by Tommie Smith and John Carlos (both of whom attended SJSU) at the 1968 Olympics; nothing this shocking has happened since the United States Postal Service issued a stamp honoring Malcolm X. In the aftermath of Mexico City, Smith and Carlos were hardly welcomed back with honor:

"Their actions got them expelled from the Olympic village. They were ordered out of Mexico. On their return to the United States, they were labeled racists and communists. No sponsorships or jobs came from their Olympic feats. Instead, they got death threats."

After all these years, there are still things to learn (at least for me). Everyone knows about the salute (and that they only had one pair of gloves, hence the one-gloved, opposite-armed salute). But here's something I didn't know:

"Smith has always lamented how much of their message was lost in the controversy. The world concentrated on the raised fists and saw a singular message of militancy, but it missed the shoeless feet that represented black poverty; the black beads around Carlos' neck signifying lynchings suffered by blacks; the olive sapling under Smith's arm, a gesture of peace."

Most of the pictures, cropped for dramatic effect, missed the shoeless feet, which can be seen in a wider shot here, but it's doubtful if the full message would have gotten through even if that had been the picture seen around the world.

*For non-Americans and others who miss the reference, the "Wayback Machine" was a device employed by Mr. Peabody (a dog), who, along with his human friend Sherman, used it to travel back in history. Peabody and Sherman was a featured cartoon on the "Rocky & His Friends" (also known as "Rocky & Bullwinkle") series, whose reputation has hopefully not been sullied by the absolutely atrocious Robert DeNiro film of the same name.