Why He Fears the Fist: A Response to Jonah Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg’s regular column in the LA Times is usually an awkward grab bag of right wing talking points backed by knowledge of history that would shame a poodle, although a poodle would never be so pompous. Goldberg stepped on to my beat this past week with a column about the 1968 Olympic protestors, Tommie Smith and John Carlos. His piece was such a cheap, dishonest scribble, I feel compelled to respond. The column's starting point was the Arthur Ashe Courage Award, given to Smith and Carlos at the recent 2008 ESPY Awards. Lest you had any doubt about Goldberg's take, the headline blares, "'68 Olympics salute deserves no honor: ESPN ignored the violent extremism behind the black power salute given by two medalists at the Mexico City Games."
One could tell right away that Goldberg didn’t read a book, an article, even a fortune cookie, about the 1968 Olympics before whipping out his laptop. I know, research is hard … and who needs facts when you have dogma? -- but Smith and Carlos never advocated any kind of violence. Furthermore, they saw their symbol as a sign of resistance that would connect broadly across ethnicities, not a narrow expression of "black power”.
But the title turns out to be the intellectual summit of the piece.
Goldberg writes, "The stench of self-congratulation surrounding ESPN's decision [to honor Smith and Carlos] is thicker than the air in a locker room after double overtime. The argument that Smith's and Carlos' critics must dine on their denunciations rests on an inch-deep nostalgia and the triumph of celebrity culture."
Note that Goldberg doesn't mention a word about why Smith and Carlos made their
stand and why his intellectual forbearers "must dine on their denunciations." Smith and Carlos wanted South Africa and Rhodesia banned from the 1968 Games because of their apartheid politics. They demanded more black coaches in sports. They sought to hold Avery Brundage, president of the International Olympic Committee, accountable for what many black athletes thought to be a barely concealed racism. They wanted Muhammad Ali to have his heavyweight boxing title restored after it was stripped because of Ali's refusal to fight in Vietnam. Goldberg never makes clear if he even knows this history. I’m guessing no.
And yet he continues:
"In today's culture, is it even worth trying to remind people that the black power salute was, for those who brandished it most seriously, a symbol of violence -- rhetorical, political and literal -- against the United States? It was the high-sign for a racist militia, the Black Panthers, which orchestrated the murder of innocents and allied itself with America's enemies."
This is little more than an ugly screed against the Black Panthers. They were popular in their day not because they were a "racist militia" but because they were seen as standing up to racism. They armed themselves to challenge police brutality. They set up breakfast programs and health clinics in neighborhoods dying of neglect. They were popular enough that J. Edgar Hoover called them "public enemy number 1" and set out a plan to kill their leaders and destroy their organization. There are many reasons to raise criticisms of the Panthers but not by someone who seems to have done little more than read the David Horowitz Cliff Notes on the subject. And I have to ask, what the hell is a "high sign"? Is that Goldberg trying to be "down"? I'd love to see a reality show where he is dropped in South East DC and has to find his way home. I think he'd starve to death
Jonah continues:
"But even a more benign view of the salute shouldn't obscure the intense contradictions of ESPN's decision to honor Carlos and Smith. Both men were members of the Olympic Committee for Human Rights, which wanted a complete black boycott of the '68 Olympics. The committee considered an entire generation of heroic black athletes – including Jesse Owens and Jackie Robinson -- to be Uncle Toms."
Here we have an error followed by a lie. Their organization was called the Olympic PROJECT for Human Rights, not the “committee.” (A Google search would have cleared that up. Once again, research is hard.) And it is a lie is that they called out Jackie Robinson as an Uncle Tom. The truth is that Robinson supported OPHR.
As Robinson said, "I do support the individuals who decided to make the sacrifice by
giving up the chance to win an Olympic medal. I respect their courage. We need to understand the reason and frustration behind these protests… it was different in my day perhaps we lacked courage."
As for Jesse Owens, the 1968 Olympians were angry with him because he worked with Avery Brundage to undermine their protest both publicly and privately. Owens came to regret his actions this, writing an entire book in 1972 called "I Have Changed."
But let’s turn back to Jonah. It gets “better.”
"Another important distinction that should matter is that this was 1968, not 1938. By the end of the 1960s, the United States had seen two decades of steady -- if too slow -- racial progress. The black power vision of an irredeemably "racist Amerikkka" was all but blind
to the desegregation of the military, the accomplishments of Owens and Robinson, and the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, 1964 and even 1968. One hopes ESPN disagrees with those views as well."
It’s as if Dan Quayle learned how to type. Does Goldberg have even a basic knowledge of American history? Does he really think black people were feeling good about the USA in 1968? Did he hear about that guy who got shot in Memphis that year? Dr. Martin Luther Somebody? And when he was shot how there were riots in every major city in the country? Did he know that Smith and Carlos were profoundly affected by this, wondering how they could represent a country that could breed such hate? Where did Goldberg grow up? Mayberry?
Jonah concludes,
"But the question is not, and never has been, whether the Olympic ideal can be achieved but whether it should be pursued. By embracing those who spat on that idea, it seems ESPN thinks the answer is no.”
Sigh. Smith and Carlos weren't spitting on anything. They were challenging the hypocritical ideals of an Olympics that welcomed apartheid nations, employed a paucity of African American coaches, and had an open white supremacist, Avery Brundage, at its helm. Once again, Goldberg simply makes no effort to engage with the actuality of that moment. He never mentions the flood of hatred and death threats Smith and Carlos brought upon themselves. He could care less about the toll it took on their families, their friends, and their pocket books. Jonah Goldberg, like some kind of dull-witted, dime store propagandist, can only unleash a one-dimensional hateful diatribe on a period and moment that he simply doesn’t understand.
But I have to admit there is a small part of me that took great satisfaction in seeing this column. It demonstrates that after 40 years, the audacious gesture of Tommie Smith and John Carlos still holds the power to upset the bullies, the dullards, and the scoundrels. It still holds the power to upset all the right people.
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I think this column just goes to show that people removed from history tend to whitewash the actual circumstances in which people lived. He calls the Black Panthers a racist militia because they took up arms to protect themselves and their communities from racial violence often at the hands of the police. I hope Goldberg is active in denouncing the Jewish Defense League which was founded in 1968 .
His article amazed me, but then again everything he writes does. You just expect some people would refuse to cross certain line and then you realize how naive you are.
I like how right-wingers hate the fact that the Black Panthers used their 2nd Amendment right, the one that right wingers are so obsessed about.
Its ok if rednecks or members of the NRA or any white person has guns, as many as possible and as powerful as possible but as soon as a group of black people have them then its scary and you just cannot allow it. So you murder them, then blame murders on them.
It's unfortunate that people with little knowledge of and respect for truth have an outlet to spew forth misinformation and hatred. This guy sounds like the typical talk radio host. Thanks Dave for combating that trash with facts and truth.
I recently came across this post by Ann Bartow about an amazing connection between Tommie Smith and a current Olympic athlete. Here's an excerpt:
"My seat mate was wearing a tee shirt that said "Power To The People" and bore a graphic depiction of the winners platform at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, when Tommie Smith (US gold medalist in the 200 meter race) and his teammate John Carlos famously raised their gloved fists in the Black Power salute. And sitting to my left, just across the aisle, also returning from a series of international track meets (as it turns out, many of the people on the plane were) was ... Tommie Smith. I kid you not."
http://www.sivacracy.net/2008/07/true_and_amazing_travel_story.html
I enjoyed this thorough beatdown of a column just as much as I am dumbfounded by Goldberg's column.
Mike Jones
Goldberg is not Jewish by any stretch of the imagination. Neither is Whoopi Goldberg. Don't judge people by their last names.
SMILE
Danny Bloom [BLOOM?]
btw,
The Taipei Times www.taipeitimes.com sports reporter "John Hancock" in Beijing has been
doing a very good job covering the pre-Olympics hoopla in China, and
his recent note that the upcoming Summer Games could be dubbed"
patriot Games" was a brilliant piece of reporting. The entire world
will be watching as these patriot Games take place this month, and
while communist China hopes the 2008 Olympics will be party's "coming
out party", this entire event might turn out to be a PR fiasco for the
PRC rulers and their "patriotic" subjects. We shall see what this kind
of patrotism turns out to be, for better or for worse.
I didn't say he was Jewish the point was it is a self defense organization founded in 1968. That actually engaged in terrorist activity on U.S. soil.
come on mike, that's exactly what you were inferring. Don't be worse than goldberg here. I am jewish and I also assumed he was jewish if that makes you feel better. Nice article Dave.
Easy target, but right on as usual. Good work confronting America's ignorance of the 1960s. I only disagree with your contention that the "right" person was upset -- Goldberg is, or by right ought to be, a nobody.
Goldberg's article is one of those that makes your head want to explode. It's not so much the libelous disservice that it does to Smith and Carlos individually, or even the hateful distortion of the movement as a whole that is angering. It's the size and scope that Goldberg's pulpit wields over people even less knowledgeable than himself. Just another achievement in social justice flushed down the corporate memory hole.
It's a shame that the 3rd man in the photo, Australian Peter Norman, supported the protest, paid with his career, but has largely been forgotten from history.
See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KehurGWpYBU
made about the 200-meters race, the protest, and the times surrounding the 1968 Olympics titled "Salute - The Movie", directed by Peter Norman's nephew Matt Norman.
For further information and to watch the movie trailers, visit www.salutethemovie.com
OR
YouTube at
http://www.youtube.com/user/salutethemovie
Really well done response Dave.
I was reminded of the words of famous words of Michael Bolton while reading Goldberg's spew, "no talent ass-clown"
Anyone know if Goldberg had a response to Dave's article?
Dave you forgot to rip apart this little piece of Goldberg's column:
"In 1972, Palestinian terrorists - grateful for 1968's lesson in the propaganda value of Olympics media attention - slaughtered Israeli athletes."
To insuate that the actions of Smith and Carlos are in any way to connected to the murdering of Israeli athletes in '72 is not just dishonest innuendo, it's kind of insane. I suppose then that Smith and Carlos are responsible for every act or threat of violence in the Olympics since '68.
But I guess it's the same kind of logic that Goldberg used to write stupid books like Liberal Fascism.
I just podcasted Dave's I/V on Democracy Now and had a read of this & the berger man's column. Sheesh, as an aussie (Peter Norman - unsung hero) I am dumbstruck at the idiocy & ideology of what he wrote. such revisionist garbage with no idea or understanding of the facts. I'm the same age as that drongo and cringe till my head disappears down my shirtfront to know that 'my generation' produces such neo-con right wing boofheads like this. Good on you Dave for your column, website and pointing out that sport and politics should not be separated. cheers mate
Dear Dave,
Thank you again for taking that offensive article on! Reading stuff like that is really upsetting, and it's important to take a stand against it. The LA Times should be ashamed of itself for publishing something so ill-informed - worse, racist & inflamatory. I know that responding to something like that can also take a lot out of a writer - sitting with such stupid, and racist crap is not easy. So, again, thank you.
Yours,
Jennifer Doyle
http://fromaleftwing.blogspot.com
You're fierce!
Below is a link to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's feature piece on Tommie Smith. It aired in Canada during CBC's Olympic coverage in primetime on August 19th.
http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/ondemand/?playlistId=8b4ea2103dec176ba21e44b01f69754e748a8fa8&videoId=827546305
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