CIVIL REVOLUTION: SERVE WITH LOVE PART 4

The responsibility of healing racial divides is not, of course, primarily that of minorities affected by racism. The onus is on white people to step up for those who are deliberately and systematically silenced. But talking is not enough. We must take action. For example, #BLM is being used as a political statement literally worldwide. I am all for bringing attention to injustice – but where does it go from there? It’s one thing to bring attention to an injustice. It’s another thing to enter the fray – to be a # with teeth, to be willing to take action and risk harm. Some white people today are experiencing this kind of blowback from their involvement, from suffering physical harm at initially peaceful rallies to pushback and rejection from friends and family. 

Peter Norman could have empathized. In the 1968 Olympics, black sprinters John Carlos and Tommie Smith raised their gloved fists in a black power salute at the 200-meter dash medal ceremony. It was a gesture to show defiance against oppression and racism during the height of the civil rights movement in America. Though a huge swath of humanity recognizes the image, with many being able to name Carlos and Smith, few know who the white man is on the podium alongside them. His life became that # with teeth.

Peter Norman was a working-class boy from Melbourne, Australia. His family members were devout members of the evangelical group, Salvation Army. Part of their faith was the belief that all men were equal. After placing second in the race, Peter Norman of Australia decided to stand in solidarity with Carlos and Smith. Besides the raising of their gloved fists, the two Americans wore buttons that promoted their Olympic Project for Human Rights campaign. Its goal was to squash racism. Norman wore the same button as he stood beside them. That simple act caused many others to treat him as an outcast when he returned to Australia. Carlos and Smith were summarily kicked out of the Olympic Village and suspended from competing on the American squad. Not surprisingly, they received numerous death threats – but they had each other, and others rose up to stand by them back in the States. Carlos and Smith were both gradually reaccepted into the Olympic fold and went on to careers in professional football before retiring. 

Peter Norman was not so fortunate. He was punished severely by the Australian sports establishment. Though he qualified for the Olympic team by posting the fastest times by far in Australia, he was snubbed by the team in 1972. Rather than allow Norman to compete, the Australians did not send a sprinter at all. Not only was he left off Australia’s team in the 1972 Olympics, but he was also not allowed to participate in the 2000 Sydney Games in a representative fashion thirty-two years later! John Carlos summed it up like this: “If we were getting beat up, Peter was facing an entire country and suffering alone.” Regardless of how he was treated for decades after 1968, Peter Norman never backed down from his total support of Smith and Carlos. That is a # with teeth. In 2000, Peter Norman summed up 1968 and its after effects this way: “I won a silver medal. But really, I ended up running the fastest race of my life to become part of something that transcended the Games.”

True change comes with a price tag attached. Are we ready to pay that price? To stand resolutely upon our professed convictions in order to help true, lasting change come to those in need, whatever the reason may be?

Video: Third Man on the Podium 

 

Music: I Won't Back Down