Bad journalism or scary as hell: Article says Tommie Smith "fully expected" to be shot when he did his 1968 Olympic protest

runnerboy70 wrote:

Politics doesn't belong in sports...

Take your grandstanding elsewhere...

No.

In the 1950's the Ku Klux Klan became mainstream with jobs in police departments and military units. Lynchings of minorities increased. Today police and military lynchings of blacks are at a all time high in the US.

rojo wrote:

People are misunderstanding what I'm saying.

TrackJusticeWarrior wrote:

Why are y'all surprised? .

I'm surprised because it was in Mexico City. Yes, if he did this in the US, I could totally understand why he'd fear he'd be shot. I totally get him fearing death once he returned home.

Just like Feyisa Lelisa. He didn't fear death in Rio, he feared what would happen to him when he returned home.

What's clear is I need to watch "The Stand" documentary. Fearing the possibility of being shot and fully expecting to be shot are also quite different. I'm fearful of what happens if I get Covid but I don't fully expect to die if I get it.

https://www.amazon.com/Stand-How-Gesture-Shook-World/dp/B08CBKJJYV

Well stated!

Smith has stated it different ways over the years. I don't think he thought he was actually going to be shot, he feared the possibility. The FBI(?) and the Mexican cops expressed prior to the Olympics that there would be zero tolerance for protest. As you stated, it is unlikely a Mexican cop would shoot Smith, but he perhaps did not know that. Blacks at that time felt White literally had the ability to do whatever they wanted to do. They literally had snippers positioned in and around the stadium. Btw, "The Stand" documentary is a good start, but it does not give a complete picture.

It seems crazy to think that Mexican security officials would take out Americans on the medal stand. That seems highly unlikely. What seems more likely is that some American in the stands with a handgun would take it upon themselves to take action out of anger. We know there were a lot of Americans in the stands because there have been many reports of fans angrily yelling the words to the national anthem when Smith and Carlos protested. Mexicans wouldn't do that - only Americans.

Also, the protest was planned weeks in advance and if that plan was leaked someone could have been prepared to try and kill the protesters. Here is what we do know for sure:

Carlos WAS concerned about being shot and he expressed his fear to Smith right before the ceremony.

Smith has stated in different interviews that he was praying the entire time. People usually pray when they are fearful for their lives or at least fear that something bad might happen.

Did Smith think that he actually would get shot or just that he might get shot? That just seems like splitting hairs to me. It's a distinction without a meaningful difference.

Frank Murphy has written a great book, The Last Protest, on Lee Evans. You may recall that he won the 400 at Mexico City and set a WR that stood for ages, then protested much like Smith and Carlos.

All if these men were on the same team at San Jose State prior to the Olympics, and all of them had spent months together at Lake Tahoe. They were right in the middle of national debates over racism and none of them were afraid to say what they thought. Consequently they all had many death threats in the year leading up to Mexico city.

Speaking of sloppy (or just lazy) journalism, all of this is pretty well known. A journalist could find it.

sc42 wrote:

Speaking of sloppy (or just lazy) journalism, all of this is pretty well known. A journalist could find it.

Rojo are you listening?

Rojo goes home devastated.

Jon Gault resigns in a desperate attempt to disassociate himself with the LRC standards of "journalism."

Emily Swatches for the win–– well done.

also the gloves came from the white runner on the podium. between the three of them they only had one pair of black gloves. they used the white guys single pair of gloves. one hand each.

What say you to the education that you have received on this thread, rojo? The posters have deconstructed your original missive, have provided a legion of evidence that strongly suggests that Smith had good reason to fear being shot on the medal stand, and have proven to be much better researchers than you could ever dream of being.

You should simply say "thank you," but I'm guessing you'll either ignore it, or deflect by writing some unintelligible, ungrammatical sentences that nobody can make heads or tails of.

Californian Superiority wrote:

What say you to the education that you have received on this thread, rojo? The posters have deconstructed your original missive, have provided a legion of evidence that strongly suggests that Smith had good reason to fear being shot on the medal stand, and have proven to be much better researchers than you could ever dream of being.

You should simply say "thank you," but I'm guessing you'll either ignore it, or deflect by writing some unintelligible, ungrammatical sentences that nobody can make heads or tails of.

That would be nice if he did that.

But we will all continue to be highly disappointed if he responds with some version of “My god! I don’t know what your talking about. Everyone misunderstood what I wrote. This is the problem with the so called tolerant Left”

Given the political climate of the time I wouldn't doubt the headline at all.

Martin Luther King was murdered on 4 April and Robert F Kennedy was murdered on 6 June both in 1968. Now, just a few months later, in Mexico City on 16 October you have this occurring during the Olympics he has every reason to believe that he too would be harmed.

Big difference. MLK was killed by the FBI to stop Civil Rights. RFK was killed by a Palestinian victim of the invasion of his country.

Tuckiy Ykiya wrote:Big difference. MLK was killed by the FBI to stop Civil Rights. RFK was killed by a Palestinian victim of the invasion of his country.

The Civil Rights Acts were passed in 1968 and 1964. Other than your tin foil hat, do you have some peer reviewed documentation to back up your claim that the FBI killed MLK?

MLK was killed by a cabal of St. Louis businessmen and criminals. If the coast was cleared for them at the federal level is unclear.

https://www.itemonline.com/news/who-killed-martin-luther-king-jr-his-family-believes-james-earl-ray-was-framed/article_6c7fd192-3833-11e8-98f0-8781dd0c907f.html

https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/select-committee-report/part-2b.html

Nigel_Bikes wrote:

Tuckiy Ykiya wrote:Big difference. MLK was killed by the FBI to stop Civil Rights. RFK was killed by a Palestinian victim of the invasion of his country.

The Civil Rights Acts were passed in 1968 and 1964. Other than your tin foil hat, do you have some peer reviewed documentation to back up your claim that the FBI killed MLK?

RFK was killed by the same people who killed his JFK. Sirhan Sirhan was somehow drugged/duped into being involved, or has been putting up that front for the last 53 years, but he didn’t act alone. If he’d been elected president RFK would have reopened the JFK assassination investigation and there were a lot of people in powerful positions who didn’t want the truth to get out.

J Edgar Hoover was a Homosexual Ku Klux Klan hoodie who had JFK killed by Lee Harvey Oswald who learned to shoot accurately in the Marines. J Edgar Hoover wanted to preserve the failed White Supremacy Mythology of the 60s. That's different from the failed Trump White Supremacy Sickneww which is Tartar-centric i.e. half White, half Mongol.

FBI did it wrote:

J Edgar Hoover was a Homosexual Ku Klux Klan hoodie who had JFK killed by Lee Harvey Oswald who learned to shoot accurately in the Marines. J Edgar Hoover wanted to preserve the failed White Supremacy Mythology of the 60s. That's different from the failed Trump White Supremacy Sickneww which is Tartar-centric i.e. half White, half Mongol.

Lee Harvey Oswald most likely didn’t fire a shot at Kennedy or J.D. Tippit. He was likely involved in some sort of plot without knowing what he was getting himself into. He was a true patsy and was likely supposed to be killed well before he got arrested. Jack Ruby was somehow extorted into killing Oswald at Dallas jail in order to keep Oswald from spilling the beans.

C'mon Rojo––

I simply cannot fathom how you can bow out of this conversation without a proper response.

TrackCoach wrote:

ROJO

I assume you are too young to understand the mood in country at that time, it is very much possible he expected to be shot. The Mexican police/para military said protesters would be shot on site and the U.S. carried a contingence of federal cops to the Olympics as well. There where snipers stationed throughout the stadium. Btw, the statement by Smith has been reported on and discussed many times over the years.

Thank you. Yes,I underestimated how precarious it all was. Thanks for the post. I don't get why some people get mad about me trying to get more educated on this topic. This is why I love forums. You can learn by posting questions. For some reason in 2021, some people think you are supposed to spend hours researching every topic yourself. I asked a question about a historical event that I didn't know everything about. And now people have answered it. Thank you.

I totally get why he'd fear deathin the US but didn't realize he also actually feared it in Mexico for valid reasons as well. Now I do.