Opinion
The Importance of Athlete Activists
Despite the verdict being overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, Ali lost 4 years of boxing bouts—and millions of dollars. Ali’s sacrifice inspired me to boycott the 1968 Olympic basketball team to call attention to the rampant racial injustice of the time, which resulted in people calling me “un-American.” (Ironically, in 1980, athletes who complained about the Olympic boycott were also called un-American.)
Some black athletes who participated in the 1968 Summer Olympics chose to use it as a platform to make the same statement I did. Gold medalist Tommie Smith and bronze medalist John Carlos, both African Americans, raised black-gloved fists in the air during their 200-meter race medal ceremony in a Black Power salute. “We were not Antichrists,” Smith said. “We were just human beings who saw a need to bring attention to the inequality in our country.”
Forty-seven years later, that is what these athletes are doing. Adding their voices to the national conversation on racial disparity. If sometimes they need to flex their power a little to be heard, well, they are just following in the same tradition as their government. Democracy is not a solo concert; it is a choir of voices blending to create a beautiful sound. Sure, there is a discordant note now and then, someone gets aggressively pitchy, but even those sounds help the rest of us harmonize. We are hearing the voices of these brave athletes and it is beautiful.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a six-time NBA champion and league Most Valuable Player. He is also a celebrated author, filmmaker and education ambassador whose life and career are the subject of Minority of One, a new documentary on HBO Sports. The original version of this article was published in Time Magazine.
