John Carlos
John Carlos, 1968 Olympic U.S. Medalist, on the Revolutionary Sports Moment that Changed the World
Almost half a century after his famous raised-fist salute at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, John Carlos has authored a new memoir with sportswriter Dave Zirin, “The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment that Changed the World.” Olympic medal winners in the 200 meter race, John Carlos and Tommie Smith raised their fists in the Black Power salute during the national anthem at the Olympic prize ceremony as a protest against racism in the United States. Seen around the world, the Black Power salute on the Olympic medal stand sparked controversy and an eventual career fallout. “I wasn’t there for the race. I was there to actually make a statement,” Carlos says. “I was ashamed of America for America’s deeds, what they were doing in history, as well as what they were doing at that particular time.” [includes rush transcript]
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: We turn now to a new memoir by the international civil rights icon John Carlos. In 1968, Olympic medal winner John Carlos and Tommie Smith raised their fists in the Black Power salute during the national anthem at the Olympic prize ceremony as a protest against racism in the United States. The moment is documented in the film Not Just a Game, narrated by sportswriter Dave Zirin.
ANNOUNCER: There’s Questad. It’s a good start. And Carlos, as usual, has burst out of the blocks. Tommie Smith, running pretty well so far. And in lane two, Bambuck is strong. On the outside is Edwin Roberts. It’s John Carlos right now. It’s Carlos and Smith. And here comes Tommie Smith! Smith has done it! And his hands in the air!
DAVE ZIRIN: They won a gold and a bronze medal at the ’68 Olympics. And what they did next couldn’t stand in starker contrast to today’s depoliticized, sanitized and hyper-commercialized sports world. They didn’t pull a Jordan at the 1968 Olympics and use our platform on the global stage to protect an endorsement deal. No, these guys had a point to make. As they walked to the platform, they took off their shoes and carried them to protest poverty in America. They wore beads to protest lynching. And John Carlos even unzipped his jacket, a violation of Olympic protocol, to represent, as he told me, his working buddies, black and white, back home in New York City. And in perhaps the most famous gesture in Olympic history, they raised their fists during the national anthem to show solidarity with the civil rights movement.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Seen around the world, the Black Power salute on the Olympic medal stand sparked controversy and career fallout. David Zirin’s documentary film Not Just a Gamealso features an interview that John Carlos and Tommie Smith gave shortly after the Olympic incident.
BBC INTERVIEWER: At the same time, cynics might say that you’ve got it all: you’ve got publicity, you’ve got medals, you’ve obviously got martyrdom, as well. What do you say to that?
JOHN CARLOS: I can’t eat that, and the kids around my block that grew up with me, they can’t eat it, and the kids that’s going to grow up after them. They can’t eat publicity. They can’t gold medals, as Tommie Smith said. All we ask for is equal chance to be a human being. And, as far as I see now, we’re five steps below the ladder, and every time we try and touch the ladder, they put their foot on our hands and don’t want us to climb up.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Olympic medalist John Carlos just a few weeks after he won the Olympic bronze medal in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.
Well, more than half a century after his Olympic salute, John Carlos has published a memoir in collaboration with sportswriter Dave Zirin. It’s called The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment that Changed the World. SHOW FULL TRANSCRIPT.
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/10/12/john_carlos_1968_olympic_us_medalist
