Transcripts For CSPAN3 Jesse Owens And The 1936 Berlin Olymp

Good evening. Nonetheless original western regional director of United States Holocaust Memorial museum with our offices located in los angeles. First of all, i want to tell you how excited we are to be here tonight and really think our hosts, the california African American museum. Thepartnership between United States Holocaust Memorial museum and the California Africanamerican Museum has been a wonderful, wonderful experience. We have been treated so graciously and we have been very excited about the crowds of people who have come to the museum to see the exhibit. I was talking to dana who was in from washington that this will really serve as a model for the rest of the country in terms of the partnerships between and among institutions in the community. I want to thank again the illustrious board member from the california africanamerican senior staff, and just everyone we have worked with. It has been a wonderful experience. The holocaust museums traveling exhibit, politics, race and propaganda, hopefully you have all seen, nazi olympics in 1936 will be at the museum through february 26. We are so pleased to take the opportunity tonight to cover many issues that have really been uncovered through the development of the exhibit. More than 70 years since the end of world war ii, the holocaust remains one of the most singular events in global history. The united memorial, States Holocaust Memorial Museum continues its efforts to make never again a reality. Through programs and Holocaust Education and genocide prevention, the museum and his supporters on of the victims of the holocaust by working towards solutions in todays complex world. Today we are facing an alarming rise in antisemitism, holocaust denial, and ultimately genocide. Even in the very lands for the holocaust happened. This is occurring just as we approach the time when Holocaust Survivors and other eyewitnesses would no longer be with us. Sadly, 70 years after the liberation of the camps we are losing the eyewitnesses and the Holocaust Survivors. This is why tonights program and other programming we have done throughout the country are very important. When we think about world events, the olympics are commonly viewed as an opportunity for crosscultural appreciation and mutual respect. They are celebrated and embraced around the world. 1936ars ago in august of the world turned its attention to berlin for the summer olympics. The nazi regime exploited the games to dazzle spectators with an image of these full, tolerant peaceful, tolerant germany. The u. S. And other participants were forced to make a difficult decision. Condone a corrupt and prejudiced host or boycott what shouldve been a global moment of friendly competition and cooperation. This historic example exemplifies the complexity of the relationships between sport, International Relations and human rights. While there was an organized boycott, many athletes around the globe opted not to compete to protest. In the years since world war ii and the nazi olympics, there have been many opportunities for protests, both at the olympics and at home surrounding National Sporting events. These expressions of both protests and the victory in the field of controversy offer a poignant reflection of point. Tonights distinguished panel will discuss the actions of individual athletes from 1936 through the present, and the challenges and opportunities that arise when politics and sports intersect. It is my deep pleasure tonight to introduce tonights esteemed panel. Dr. Melinda abdullah, professor and chair of pan african studies, California State University los angeles. She was appointed to the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission in 2014 and is a recognized expert on race relations. She is an organizer at the Los Angeles Branch of black lives matter movement. Historianrack is a and exhibition curator with United States Holocaust Memorial museum. She developed the special exhibit on the 1936 berlin olympics and many others on racial science and medicine, complicity and refugees and rescuers. And derek jackson, essayist for the boston globe and espn, the undefeated, and a fall 2016 sure see fellow at Harvard Universitys Kennedy School of government. It is my pleasure to turn the program over to our moderator, tyree boys page boyd page. Welcome. Appreciate that. We all live in a very special time. Police, athletes are intersecting. Athletesof famous explaining black lives matter, and you also hear National Responses as to whether they do or they dont. This intersection is not new. Politics and race. In sports. This has been going on for much, much longer than that. We have been exhibition circling the 1936 berlin olympics where another individual tried to take a stand. His name is jesse a lens. We have brought some esteemed panelists who will contextualize that intersection between sports, race, and also allow us to engage in a more powerful dialogue about how we all move forward from there. To begin, i want to start a foot derek. Start off with derek. He has covered sports and race and can offer a bit of context for us. In times of turbulent and unrest, do we as americans look to athletes and other public heroes for guidance or inspiration . Thanks a lot. [laughter] everybody. G, me its a complex answer because there is a part of me that certainly wished this did not have to be, as you frame. The africanamericans, because of oppression, have been forced respect,ays to gain acceptance that White Americans have never had to do. Story,s been an unending from jack johnson to jesse kareem abduljabbar, muhammad ali, and even today with lebron james, Colin Kaepernick. So, in a Perfect World, for instance, if there was a Perfect World of opportunity, the nfl would not be two thirds black. The nba would not be 80 black. 13 basketball players, Football Players, and 13 scientists, teachers, computer geeks. You name it. I just needed to say that because on one level africanamericans have an particularly resourceful using sports to seek respect. Also have from really been an unfair playing field. Side in trying to make this brief is, indeed, africanamericans, jesse owens trying to prove to hitler and the nazis are humanity and equality. The bestali giving up years of his boxing career to protest induction into the military during vietnam. We have kind of forgotten many athletes boycotted other olympics. We in america as a general society put sports on a pedestal that also is exaggerated to the point of being ridiculous, i think you allnew about gaining and losses of football teams are the years, with Owners Holding the taxpayers hostage. Building a stadium or else. The whole nature of sports as a business is also political. Within that context it has been athletes tor black speak out when they can. , the only thing they owe you and me is her performance on the field, but because of those other inequalities and mentioned it has been one of this countrys greatest and most important assets when those athletes do speak out. Susan, good evening. I think all your points are well taken. Mind with regard to jewish athletes during the 1936 olympics. And what it meant politically for jewish athletes not only from the u. S. But from some of the European Countries that were going to the games. Could they in good conscience go to those games knowing what was going on and the persecution of jews in germany. That became a real conflict for some of those athletes. A very serious effort to boycott these games. If you get to the exhibit, you can see it failed by just a hair. No one remembers because it failed, but it was the first serious boycott effort for an olympics. That, before that a number of jewish athletes decided they were not going to compete in the trials, even though they were olympic caliber. Their times or whatever indicated they would have qualified. They chose not to. There was a political effort, and organized effort to inform those athletes about what was because maybeway they were not so well informed and they were young and all they cared about was really their sport and winning. But at the same time he still had a group of six Jewish Americans who ended up going, glickman whorty became lat famous later on as a sports announcer. He tells his story in the exhibit. They decided to go. And in california, the Jewish Community here in the newspaper were very upset that sam baldrige, jewish basketball player participated. They did not mince words. It became a very large political issue in a different way. It was complicated for africanamericans, and there was some africanamerican press that was very antinazi. They did not support the athletes going either. Story, complicated especially when athletes they have competed, they have trained, and the moment arrives and is very hard to say im not going to go. Point, how to deal with it even end up in berlin . Berlin was chosen when it was still the democratic republic. As we know the International Olympic committee chooses the host city years before the event because of all the planning. Power in 1933. The decision should we stick with berlin or not . That again is the story we tell. There was a big discussion about that. Interesting. You are sharing that there was a boycott going on during that time in 1936 in germany. In the u. S. It was part of a larger boycott that was organized here of german goods. The olympics and going to the olympics fell into that larger boycott. They came from labor organizations. The trade unions were abolished and the independent trade unions were abolished from jewish groups and also from antinazi groups. Effort of a coalition of groups. Thank you. Melina, what was the picture like for africanamericans and how are they treated at the time in the u. S. . Right. Let me just say thank you for having me on this panel. I dont know why im on it because i have nothing to do with sports. I watch the super bowl for the commercials. [laughter] now that i have read your piece i will be watching so i make sure atlanta wins. That as we talk about lack athletes its important for us i assume a role is not to be a sports expert. I do Study Questions of black power. So i assume my role is the kind of layout what the world looks like for people in 1936 and 1968, but also to kind of have a conversation about sports and politics now. That is why i am wearing my i do know the names of a few athletes. [laughter] i have never seen cap or nick play. I have only seen him not stand up. Or kneel. You might not want to see him play later. [laughter] i think its important we understand that black people, society which is really rooted in White Supremacy often tries to cast athletes and other black folks who occupy public spaces as things. As athletes who were seen for their bodies and who are not to have any minds. Enthusiastic endorsers of their own oppression, right. Trained to see athletes in that way. It is just the black body. Since wea resentment, started to work backwards, thinking about people like Colin Kaepernick. Even people like Marchand Lynch who dont comply, who dont conform, who are not enthusiastic about their oppression. Is a tendency, a structure built to say they are supposed to just be bodies. They are not supposed to have minds and think and not specific connections with anyone beyond themselves. There is a piece that is a holdover from chattel slavery of alienation. This idea that black people should not be connected with each other. 1936, if weabout think about what jesse owens was supposed to do, what black athletes were supposed to do, we have to understand whats happening in 1936. The harlem renaissance is dying down. But there are real questions about black people and our role as laborers, as workers with civil rights what did civil rights for black in this country. There is the assumption of black people should be prioritizing the liberation of other people ahead of our own liberation. Someone else is kind of determining what freedom struggle is supposed to look like. There is this complicated narrative around black athletes at the time. Should jesse owens stand in solidarity with the jewish athlete . Should he stay home . Should he boycott . There is a whole black community that doesnt have the answers. Black organizations saying, boycott or dont forgot . Family members saying we need you to be your best self. A kind of tension between individual and familial advancement, and what is your obligation to community. I think we can think about it and begin it historically by talking about 1936, but we can go forward back in history and also move forward in history. I know we will be talking about 1968, the contemporary period as well. I want to frame it in that way as black athletes as representing or experiencing this desire by White Supremacy to separate the black body for the black mind. Let me follow up with something. Here we go, guys. Reaction, Thee National reaction when Colin Kaepernicks piece will protest of kneeling before the National Anthem. He did not hurt nobody, he did not shoot nobody. It was a National Firestorm to tell him to get up and salute the flag. Go to another country. When jim brown retired at the height, the prime of his career because he had independent mind people said are you crazy . Retiring . Whenw up in milwaukee luella center changed his name to kareem abduljabbar. Blowback fromjor white fans in a lucky at the time. The natureid about of this national beast to get black people to not think independently for themselves, and you contrast that with i wrote a column today in the boston globe about the fact that the new England Patriots top three figures, bill belichick, the coach, the owner robert kraft and the quarterback tom als of donald p trump, and how so far they have been able to not have been notto own up to any offered a word of blowback or perspective any of trumps behavior during these two years he has been running for president. Thejust contrast that with andage from many sectors the firestorm that Colin Kaepernicks simple kneeling did. That tells you a lot about what this country is still at. You can argue this is why i say the requirement is enthusiastic endorsement of our oppression. Colin kaepernick, people called it a protest. That is not really a protest. For ause to stand National Anthem that is rooted in the oppression of your people , that is claiming humanity. That is just the refusal to endorse your oppression. That is not really protesting in my view. He has gone further and really kind of talked about why he has done that, but i think that kind of requirement is something we really need to think about. And i love your piece. Everybody should read it. Everybody will be rooting for the atlanta falcons. Yes, you will. If you want to have a response to that, i have a question. Im a diehard beaming with patriots fan. [laughter] born and bred new england girl. But it is putting a little color on things. No pun intended. [laughter] , imhat you are saying getting some strange associations because i usually dont share the stage with such thoughtful people political people. It is wonderful. The gesture, the symbolic gesture is interesting because i had a lot of conversations with friends around the time of the Colin Kaepernick thing because people always come to me to get the nazi angle on these things. [laughter] interesting. You had to start thinking and thee hilter salute pressures to conform that were set up enormous. A lawgiver there was supports to do that, the norm established this. There is a great, famous to some of us in the field that is a huge crowd of germans giving the salute. There is one year and that crowd one figure in that crowd that is not. That is his protest by not giving the salute. Hink the larger issue with beyond the one you are talking about has to do with conformity and certain situations and how the National Anthem has become used in the pressures are so. Reat for people even if you are not having some particular political thought at the moment, and we are supposed to be an utterly free society where freedom of expression is permitted. I think that should always be in my mind. The standard. Lets talk a little bit more about conformity and the pressures that it has on athletes during that time. Recognizing the pressure that jesse owens was under, why did the United States decide to send him and other athletes to prevent despite the controversy and the conformity that the period of time was inflicting on many . There was one very important figure involved whose name has really become identified with the Olympic Movement in the 20th century. Brundage. As he was a lifelong supporter of the olympics, starting with his participation as an athlete in the 1912 games in stockholm. He thought their recent cearley sincerely that sports and politics could somehow exists and coexist and they were separate things. That is a question we often ask when we talk about the subject with students. Separate from politics . Can hardly separate from politics . The big existential questions. Organized and works very hard to make sure the eventual vote by the imag