Viewing 13 posts - 41 through 53 (of 53 total)
  • The white man in that photo
  • avdave2
    Full Member

    I hadn’t read the footnotes MSP, makes me think even more of the man.

    Merak
    Full Member

    A very inspirational lunchtime read that. Even more impressive his resolution to stand by his principles decades later forfeiting any recognition or financial gain.

    Shame on Australian athletics.

    DezB
    Free Member

    Superb stuff

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    zilog6128
    Full Member

    How fabulous that the learning you’ve taken from that story is to label and generalise about a whole nation like that. Did you spot the bit about Peter Norman being Australian? Yep, he was a total arsehole…

    Jesus. Don’t be such a bed-wetter. The whole point of the article is that, at that point in time, PN was effectively standing on his own and was ostracised by the establishment & pretty much the entire country. In fact the Australian government even apologised to him (posthumously, shamefully) in 2012 for being arseholes.

    So, in summation: jog on.

    edlong
    Free Member

    PN was effectively standing on his own and was ostracised by the establishment & pretty much the entire country.

    At a guess your definition of the “entire country” probably ignores pretty much the entire indigenous population? I’m being silly. That’s a ludicrous assumption to make about an entire population, that would be a ridiculous thing to assert, wouldn’t it?

    If you do even a cursory amount of googling you will find that there actually were, believe it or not, people campaigning for civil rights in Australia in the 1960s.

    The whole point of the article is…

    I took a number of points from the article. Such as not making assumptions about people for superficial reasons. Did you read the bit about how the writer acknowledged the assumptions he’s been making, prior to learning a bit more? This bit:

    I considered him as a random presence, an extra in Carlos and Smith’s moment, or a kind of intruder. Actually, I even thought that that guy – who seemed to be just a simpering Englishman – represented, in his icy immobility, the will to resist the change that Smith and Carlos were invoking in their silent protest. But I was wrong.

    [my bold for emphasis]

    I’m genuinely saddened that you could read the same article I did and come away thinking that the whole point of it was to illustrate that Australians are arseholes.

    Don’t be such a bed-wetter.

    And I’m so glad I posted that anti-bullying week stuff. Really pleased it’s had such a positive impact, and made people think about what they say to people.

    epicyclo
    Full Member

    edlong – Member
    …If you do even a cursory amount of googling you will find that there actually were, believe it or not, people campaigning for civil rights in Australia in the 1960s…

    Yup, don’t tar all Ozzies with the racism brush.

    Those who stood against racism faced vociferous attacks from the nasties, but most were totally ignorant of what was right under their noses.

    peterfile
    Free Member

    I read the link when it popped up on Reddit recently, but felt compelled to read it again 🙂

    Inspirational stuff.

    cheekymonkey888
    Free Member

    it had the same resonance with how the british government treated Alan Turing. I think the Aboriginal people still face issues to this day. I dont think some people fully appreciated the freedom and independence they have in this country.

    Chest_Rockwell
    Free Member

    Surely the thread should have been named ‘the other person’ in that photo?

    I’m sure a thread named the black man in that photo would go down a storm, wouldn’t it. 😕

    MSP
    Full Member

    I dont think some people fully appreciated the freedom and independence they have in this country.

    As a white man in Australia at that time he should have been free, as an Olympic medallist he should have been a hero. He wasn’t not because of laws and prisons but because of attitudes and ignorance, and that is still what we have to make sure doesn’t ruin lives today in the UK. Many facets of bigotry are illegal but the beliefs are widely held and they can still ruin lives, the way his was, while being near impossible to prove legally.

    In my lifetime I think that the UK and most of Europe has made massive strides in creating much more equal societies, but i am always uncomfortable when statements are made like that, yes lets appreciate how far we have come, but also appreciate how much still needs doing. The job isn’t close to being finished yet.

    edlong
    Free Member

    Surely the thread should have been named ‘the other person’ in that photo?

    I’m sure a thread named the black man in that photo would go down a storm, wouldn’t it.

    Depends on context imho – this whole situation was (is) about the politics of race – the other two didn’t give an “ethnically diverse power” salute, the black / white thing is directly relevant and pertinent to the issue(s).

    I’ve used racist terminology on here with impunity before, in the context of a thread discussion about acceptable / unacceptable language, but if I used the same language in another context I’d expect a lengthy or permanent ban.

    In this case, the guy’s whiteness is pretty much central to why he’s being referred to. If it was coincidental then I’d be among the first of the liberal ‘bed wetters’ to question why someone chose to use skin colour as a label..

    hora
    Free Member

    Evening.

    All this happened just 4years after Selma, Alabama.

    The bridge scene in the film Selma really affected me. Amelia Boynton Robinson took a hell of a kicking for what she firmly believed.

    The men on that podium knew there would be recriminations awaiting them.

    Could you/I do the same? Could you honestly say you’d risk life and future livelihood?

    Chapeau to all that stood up to be counted.

    peterfile
    Free Member

    Surely the thread should have been named ‘the other person’ in that photo?

    I’m sure a thread named the black man in that photo would go down a storm, wouldn’t it.

    lol

    woooooooooooooooossh

    (unless of course you were joking and the woosh should actually be mine 🙂 )

Viewing 13 posts - 41 through 53 (of 53 total)

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