Fighting Racism in Sports

In the class where we watched the movie Salute about Peter Norman standing up with John Carlos and Tommie Harris on the podium after the race between them. This movie is very inspiring because not only did it show black athletes standing up for their rights and demonstrating to the world that they were living in a society that is holding them back, but it also showed Peter Norman, a white Australian man, stand up with those black athletes and help their cause. It shows that not all white people out there at that time felt the same about African American Athletes. This demonstration also came at a time of great importance because Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot and African Americans at the time needed something to be inspired by and there was no better way to show their pride than the olympic games, which are seen all over the world. Seeing this movie also had me thinking about how athletes that were black found out a way to show the world how they were being treated and show how the can fight discrimination against by using their athletic fame. While Tommie Harris and John Carlos were expelled from the olympics after making this salute to black power and were treated terribly by the white majority, their bravery and courage to stand up for what they belived was right, paved the way for black athletes in and outside of sports for the many years to come. Their demonstration changed the way people started thinking about black people in general.