Athletes in color

I'm reading a book for another class called Souled out? How Blacks are Winning and Losing in Sports. There are so many great black athletes our there with multiple endorsements. (I'm going to use the reference "black" because my book does). Lets go back in time to the 90's during the Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen era. During a specific demonstration at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the basketball team illustrated a point on the medal stand. MJ draped an American flag over his shoulder to cover up the Reebok logo on his "Dream-team" warm-up. The rest of the team followed this demonstration. You may be wondering why this is such a big deal? Well, when Tommie Smith and John Carlos, two black sprinters at the 1968 summer Olympics took a stand for eqality and justice but got labeled as radicals or trouble-makers, they were standing up purely for what they believed in; equal "human" rights. This was the first original protest...meaning, they didn't march or riot and shout out for justice, they made a stand for equality. Back to MJ and the Olympic team, the main point of endorsements is that in the past they have silenced many black athletes from speaking out about sensitive and important issues. MJ knew not to commit financial suicide like Ali did, he had a plan to build as much capital for himself as possible and in order not to be attempted to attack the establishmemt (which he was appart of knowingly) he just kept his mouth shut. This made Jordan's silent act on the stage so important and more accepted and acknowledged in the 90's than it was when Smith and Carlos tried to take a stand in the 60's. My question is does this still happen today, have we completetly overcome it, or are there still limitations with certain black athletes?


M. Lisnock Kin 339