October 18th: The Day the U.S.A. Suspended Two Black Olympians

In the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, Team U.S.A. told two of their 200 metre sprinters to leave the Olympic Village. African American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos were suspended for supposedly using the victory ceremony of their event to promote Black Power. After being awarded the gold (Smith) and bronze (Carlos) medals for the race, the athletes raised a black-gloved fist in the air during the national anthem, an act that the president of the United States Olympic Committee strongly disapproved of. 
   Later, Tommie Smith conveyed in his autobiography Silent Gesture that the gesture was not a Black Power salute, but rather a Human Rights salute. However, on the podium the two men wore various black clothing to symbolise black poverty and pride - they even received their medals shoeless to expose their black socks. As they left the podium they were booed by the crowd, on which Smith commented: 

'If I win, I am American, not a black American. But if I did something bad, then they would say I am a Negro. We are black and we are proud of being black. Black America will understand what we did tonight.' 

   Taking into account the time period of this circumstance was in the 1960s, the sheer controversy of these political elements surrounding the event is not surprising. Today society generally has a more liberal mind, and of course I cannot speak for all, but what was formerly shocking and worthy of being exiled from the Olympic Village, now just seems like a demonstration of pride and achievement (a feeling that is encouraged and supported today, no?). Do you agree?