Sports and politics are hardly
divorced from each other. Each can be a means to achieve an intended objective.
To Hitler and his Nazis, the 1936 Olympics was an instrument to tell the world
their alleged superiority. There were open voices of racism through that
Olympics. In 1972, Palestinian terrorists killed ten Israeli sportsmen after
kidnapping them from the Olympic village. The treatment of Blacks in South
Africa was not merely confined to sports but in fact sports played a major role
in aggravating and later elimination of racism. The 1986 Commonwealth Games in
Edinburgh were boycotted due to the British policy on South Africa as did the
African countries in the 1976 Olympics due to New Zealand rugby tour to South Africa.
The 1970 ban on South Africa in cricket was caused by their refusal to allow to
Basil D’Olivera, a coloured cricketer in the England cricket team. In 1968
Olympics at Mexico, Tommie Smith and fellow medalist John Carlos raised a black
gloved fist when the US national anthem was being played during the medal
ceremony.
The issue has got fresh traction
owing to the alleged surfacing of racist issues in the United States over the
last year or. The Black Lives Matter (BLM) has politicized the treatment of
Blacks and has encroached into the sports domain. While there is doubt, racism
is inherent in the US, movements like BLM or Antifa are hardly concerned with
the Black welfare and more keen to score political points. Yet their approach
has won audience with many deciding to support for instance by taking the knee.
There is strong tendency to demonstrate woke and the events of the last year in
the US have given fresh opportunities for the same. The protest modes like
taking the knee or painting the ground or one’s clothes through rainbow
colours, the symbol of LGBT movement are often indicators of expression of woke
instincts or tendencies. In fact, someone not doing the same would be hounded
out with their career itself in threat. The opportunity costs of not performing
to woke requirements is perhaps too high that ensures high degree of
compliance. The tendencies of demonstrating woke credentials touched the Euro
2020 which has skilfully negotiated and sidelined the same so far. Yet the same
might not be said of the forthcoming Olympics in Tokyo.
The International Olympic Committee
(IOC) had banned political protests at the Olympics. They wanted to avoid the
repeat of Black Power Salute version of 2021. It is also difficult to visualize
which would be the right protest and the protests which would be illegitimate. There
is no question of a sporting event becoming a tool for politicking of those
vested interests. These vested interests have virtually no desire of
under-privileged welfare but would seek to use them to make political points
and perhaps gain power. Yet, the pressure on the IOC is significantly high. It is
evident from the fact that the IOC is seeking to climb down from its earlier
maximalist position. The IOC is apparently planning t allow protests and
protest messaging at certain places. These include the introduction of athletes
before the commencement of the event, the Olympic village among others. Yet,
the allowing of protests during the medal ceremony continues to remain
prohibited.
The messaging of IOC signifies it is
susceptible to pressure from woke activists. To woke activists anything Western
or anything that is not approved by them is illegitimate. They seek to use
freedom of expression to highlight their demands yet refuse the same to their
opponents. It would be interesting to see what the reactions would be in case
someone refuses to join the protest. It would not be surprising if the athlete
would be ostracized and in fact the pressure on other athletes to disassociate
with him or her would be high. There would be realms of op-eds written and
impute racist motives. It would also be interesting to see if any athlete would
seek to protest against the treatment of minorities in China. It might be
possible that given the Chinese power, this is unlikely to be thought of.
Hardly any athlete for all their grandstanding is likely to miss the next year’s
Winter Olympics in China. The political grandstanding has its uses in a
democracy and Japan being one, it might be open to the expression of dissent.
However, the Olympics or for that
matter any sporting event must remain out of bounds to woke agenda that is
sought to be imposed. It is about political correctness rather than any commitment
to a cause. The racism is evident and there are enough grounds to protest but
the agenda and movers behind the protests have ulterior motives. They can make
the most noise thus a narrative would be seen as something being favored by the
masses. The athletes would perhaps be under pressure to support else risk an extremely
bad PR that might virtually career threatening. This is in fact the real agenda
of woke activists seeking to instigate athletes to protest. The Olympics are
sacred and have built in their own sanctity. They have been powerful tools in
enhancing human rights though they have often fallen prey to the political
agenda. The instances of Olympics 1980 and 1984 come to the mind. There are
many instances when Olympic selection or choice of Olympic flag bearers have
pointed towards political symbolism. An instance would be of US choosing a
Georgian born archer to carry the flag at the closing ceremony in 2008 in a
message to Russian invasion, albeit proxy of Georgia.
There is no doubt that there exists
an individual right to protest and have their freedom of expression. The individuals
or group of individuals have a right to express their views in the manner they
deem to be fit. Yet there exists a larger framework of using a sports platform
to score political points. It is bad of the establishment to use sports for
political motives and it’s equally wrong to use sports platforms to make one’s
points that essentially arose in a political context. The Olympics should be
kept away from these protests that have little to do with injustices perceived or
real but everything do with an agenda of woke liberal community.
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