Sport And Activism Have Always Gone Hand-in-Hand

In my opinion, ever since the beginning of the 20th century in the United States, professional athletes were seen as role models, what they say simply matters, people looked up to them as a model citizen in society. Although, it should be a given for professional athletes to speak upon anything they want, recently in this country, a specific group of people think athletes should be voiceless, and in LeBron James’s case, “just shut up and dribble”. Many believe this is one of the first times athletes were encouraged to just shut up, not speak for what you believe in, and don’t act like you’re an important in influencing the public opinion.

Jesse Owens

In 1936, Jesse Owens was the most polarizing and popular Olympic athlete of his time. African American sprinter Jesse Owens amazed the world by breaking Olympic records and winning four gold medals in Berlin, the headquarters of Hitler’s Nazi regime. Not only was being an African American dangerous in these times, but being a person of color and being as famous as Owens, was simply difficult, so many people hated him just because of his skin color. Leading up to the 1936 Olympics, Owens after winning 4 Olympic gold medals, while on the podium held up his arm to symbolize support of the Black Panthers, while he was on the biggest stage in the world. This was to bring awareness to the racial inequality between blacks and the rest of the world, doing this in Nazi Germany, was even more important, Owens was in one of the most dangerous places as a black man, yet knew in his heart, this was the right thing to do, to bring awareness to racial inequality on the world’s biggest stage.

Media Reaction/Importance

After this brave act by Owens to bring awareness to racial equality, the media was so quick to write him off, even in the United States. The day after Owens won these awards, the Baltimore newspaper read, that “Owens world-record was tossed out, due to wind”, and in Germany they simply completely lied and said the German sprinter won. It is obvious that a black man dominating his sport and bringing awareness to racism made people very uncomfortable. In my eyes, Owens was a trendsetter and pioneer for athletes and activism because of how dominant he was, and refused to be held silent, he knew what was more important. Jesse Owens was a sports and activism legend.