Barack Obama

Jesse Owns won 4 golds in the heart of Nazi Germany.

When this recent nasty little contretemps developed in Moscow, and a number of Americans at DU and elsewhere started to say we should boycott, I thought maybe we should look at the situation a bit differently.

I went looking for a short clip of Jesse Owens running away with the gold, because it was so iconic in my childhood: emblematic of US vs Nazi values, part of our post-WWII progressive optimism, and I do mean progressive. The reality of race in the US was more complicated than that by far, but that clip and its commentary, wherever it has gone, had a part in forming my consciousness and that of many others.

We know we have some gay and lesbian athletes. I would say: Go, compete, win. This is your moment.

Hekate


In 1936 the US sent 18 African-American Olympic athletes to Germany.
10 of those team members won 14 Olympic medals, including 8 gold medals.