The 1968 Olympics, Subversion Of Expression

This day has created a point of personal growth in my own life. Growing up, white, in a middle class family, supported by the military industrial complex, and living in a geographical setting, all contributing to an isolation of sorts, I now understand this background tainted my views about the struggles within the minority groups of society. I grew up in a location where real multicultural relations had little if any impact in what I saw during my everyday routine due to the near homogeneous setting. This allowed me to remain ignorant of the very real struggle of lesser advantaged people in other geographic places within our society. I am referring to the years of my youth. At the age of 13 the year was 1966. The only information I received was sourced in what we then believed to be "the news". That information was then somewhat shared in the small group of my piers at school, if one can call such discussion of youngsters also living in similar isolation actual thoughtful informed conversation. The news source, for me was strictly NBC, due to geological features preventing broadcast TV reception, though I experienced no television for most of my adolescent life, before the age of 13. At the age of 13 when watching the bias of mainstream news, the bias was unknown to me, as it was unknown to my parents, as it is still unknown by a majority of the public today. The latter of this statement, remains both real and a problem in society and to the ignorant believers in what is presented by the mainstream. Now I have found in recent times, the word ignorant holds a false but negative connotation which I have but recently come to understand. I have found its use to cause conflict and defensiveness in those who fail in understanding its meaning, probably because it has been used commonly as an expression which falsely describes a state of mental capacity, and is actually a misuse of the English language. Ignorance has nothing to do with one's intelligence. This is not actually the meaning of the word in its true form.* Though living with the bias of the media in those times, combined with the isolation experienced in my youth, I had no real concept of the suffering of others brought about by prejudice.

This morning watching a news piece with John Carlos on Democracy Now, I was stunned to realize the power of his expression on that day during the that Olympics Metals ceremony, during the Summer Olympics Games in Mexico City, 1968. The interview shown from that day, directly after the awards ceremony was stunning to me. The message he stated at that time seemed (in this moment) to be one of a person beyond his years. I found it hard to believe that a man of that age could hold such a profoundly large and clear message. In pondering that for but a few brief moments, I realized that, unlike myself, he and his counterpart Tommie Smith had struggled in their lives as African Americans living in the USA. Their own struggles were far beyond anything I have experienced in life. I had none of those struggles. I saw none of it personally. Having my own very narrow view and exposure, I had no need to actually consider the struggles of others in that way, at that age. The Media of the day reported it as inappropriate and a gesture, singularly representing Black Power. I personally fell into their trap like a hungry fish taking to the hook. I was ignorant, and I was subject to the racist notions within my surroundings and the times. This picture (from DemocracyNow.org's website)
was shown by the media and stated to be a monument of disgraceful behavior, rather than telling the real story as expressed by John Carlos in an interview later that day. The mainstream corporate media, then as now, show the people what they, the media want them to know, rather than telling an unbiased truth, depicting what is actual and real in our world today.

Tommie Smith and John Carlos both sacrificed their futures in athletics, along with the benefits, there in. Due to their strongly symbolic acts on that day, expressing their view of inequality and injustice, harming no-one nor any actual physical thing, the prejudice reaction in the media took away their message, never allowing it to be heard or even defended. Their act was treated in a scourging manner with utter disdain. They are actually in my mind heroic. Heroes that I had not acknowledged as such, until today, all these years later. I saw John Carlos on the livestream from Liberty Plaza, in New York City I think on Monday this week. He told his story in brief that day, from what I saw of it. That brought my attention to focus briefly on his act though still I didn't understand. I had to cut through my own misunderstandings, my own beliefs and the dissonance within my own memory before I could bust through the image as and expression of Black Power, and my own prejudices, before I could actually understand. Now today I realize that the statement was not that which I learned it to be by the Media and through the biased opinions of my piers in the late 1960's. These biases are slow to dissolve when the personal onion is kept whole. As I peal back the layers of my own learning, to realize some of the falsehoods I have grown into, I can discard those needing removal, for the lack of credibility in some instances.

This is these same types of injustice, the same types of inequality, between all the people, and the economic power system running our planet, that has created the Occupy Wall Street movement that is uniting many peoples as human today. We the 99% want to see a recognition that the better good of all replaces the greed of the few.

Yesterday I saw a protester's sign. I thought the message impressive. I adapted its message to be more fitting to me, yet the essence remains true to the message.

Corruption fears us
While honest folks support us
The heroic people join us.
We are the 99% ____________

* -The following definition is used under the terms of the GNU General Public License

The Webster definition is:

Ignorant

Ignorant Ig"no*rant, a. [F., fr. L. ignorans, -antis, p. pr. of ignorare to be ignorant. See Ignore.]

1. Destitute of knowledge; uninstructed or uninformed; untaught; unenlightened. [1913 Webster]

He that doth not know those things which are of use for him to know, is but an ignorant man, whatever he may know besides. --Tillotson. [1913 Webster]

2. Unacquainted with; unconscious or unaware; -- used with of. [1913 Webster]
Ignorant of guilt, I fear not shame. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]

3. Unknown; undiscovered. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
Ignorant concealment. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
Alas, what ignorant sin have I committed? --Shak. [1913 Webster]

4. Resulting from ignorance; foolish; silly. [1913 Webster]
His shipping, Poor ignorant baubles! -- on our terrible seas, Like eggshells moved. --Shak.

Syn: Uninstructed; untaught; unenlightened; uninformed; unlearned; unlettered; illiterate. -- Ignorant, Illiterate. Ignorant denotes lack of knowledge, either as to single subject or information in general; illiterate refers to an ignorance of letters, or of knowledge acquired by reading and study. In the Middle Ages, a great proportion of the higher classes were illiterate, and yet were far from being ignorant, especially in regard to war and other active pursuits. [1913 Webster]
In such business
Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant More learned than the ears. --Shak. [1913 Webster]

In the first ages of Christianity, not only the learned and the wise, but the ignorant and illiterate, embraced torments and death. --Tillotson. [1913 Webster]

-- From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

adj 1: lacking general education or knowledge; "an ignorant man"; "nescient of contemporary literature"; "an unlearned group incapable of understanding complex issues"; "exhibiting contempt for his unlettered companions" [syn: nescient, unenlightened, unlearned, unlettered]

2: ignorant of the fundamentals of a given art or branch of knowledge; "ignorant of quantum mechanics"; "musically illiterate" [syn: illiterate]

3: lacking basic knowledge; "how can someone that age be so ignorant?"; "inexperienced and new to the real world" [syn: inexperienced]

4: used of things; lacking sense or awareness; "ignorant hope"; "fine innocent weather" [syn: innocent]

5: lacking knowledge or skill; "unversed in the jargon of the social scientist" [syn: unversed] [ant: versed]

6: lacking information or knowledge; "an unknowledgeable assistant" [syn: unknowledgeable, unknowing, unwitting]