I have had the pleasure of watching the World Championship Athletics and can’t wait for the Olympics next year in Athens.

That said I was thinking about when Two Black John Carlos and Tommie Smith in 1968 raised their fist in a symbol of Black Power it was scorned but to many Black Americans it was a potent gesture.



They had been influenced by a Harry Edwards whom was a sociologist that wanted more concessions from the government on civil rights, which this protest would highlight…it did.

That act at that time took courage since then we have seen no athlete take similar stance.



I had hoped that Cathy Freeman the Aboriginal 400 meter runner would take a stance.

Alas I was like many disappointed.



My question to this board is we have not had any major symbols of resistance in any areas of life since.

[font="" Roman? New Times? ? ????]We have had explosions of anger in terms of race riots but none of the elite athletes in any of the sports seem to take a stand.



Where are the principled Muhammad Ali’s? Where are the John Carlos’s and Tommie Smiths?


What doe we have in stead ……Tiger Woods…. Michael Jordan …what & what do they stand for other than the dollar?



Why if thing shave improved are they less likely to speak out on such issues?


Do the Sponsors and their reputation in the media matter more than principle?



I remember Muhammad Ali when I was kid, the white people couldn’t stand him.

When I say this I mean his Boxing or is ideology I shall never forget the papers after the first Parkinson interview on BBC.

They hated the man ….now they respect him and acknowledge his greatness as genius in the ring and Black spokesman out of it.



I remember watching my Dad & Uncle wanting him to say something to the media…why because they felt he was speaking on behalf of them…we don’t get that with the Black sports people now…in fact I find them weak seemingly with no opinion on anything outside the genre…I think that it is sad and wrong.



I have immense respect for Lennox Lewis but where stand on the question of Stephen Lawrence’s Murder and why can’t he speak out?

Something is dying within Black people, what it is I don’t know but there is no resistance to anything being done to us.



We stand sometime blindly and loyally to Black people when they are attacked sometimes rightly sometimes wrongly.


Take the OJ/Tyson issue many Black people blindly supported both when they were clearly wrong…even though there pursuit by the media and state was couched in racism.

Did either after all they went though come out and stay. …Something like ‘Now I know what every young Black Man goes through…. I shall speak out in future’.



No they don’t.

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I say where are the resistance to racism coming from? It’s seemed certainly that the spirit of 1968 is dead and buried.

Jacobin wrote: Before I start let me say that if you're the same Jacobin as the EPN version..I say Welcome to Blacknet...However on this issue of seeking leaders among sport personality or anywhere else I strong disagree with this.

I don't think the same situation applies today, nor do i think it is fair to say we 'accept' things as we once did in the past, Blacknet is a form of agitation, EPN is another and so is the other internet forums.. you find agitation in the radio Galaxy,Powerjam and one in Birmingham (sorry escapes me,) to name a few examples.. People are agitating in groupslike the All African peoples revelutionary party, PACM, NOI the Uhuru movement etc etc.. I could goon..but the point is well made we are resisting and resisting strongly..we are not in media frequently asMuhammed Ali or the Olympiads were...

So clearly what is different is the way we agitate and not that we don't. We simply don't resist in the same mass movement that were fashionable back in the sixties and seventies..Whether this is good or bad is debatable...

However what for me is NOT debatable is the need for leaders to lead us by the nose, in my view we are past that stage and what we really need is organisations..not a new masiah to sprinkle words of comfort and to think for us, we are quite caperble of doing that for ourselves now to do any different is for a retrograde step..

So what i'm saying that we should stop looking to the Lennox's of this world to say and do things that we should be saying and doing ourselves...after all what ca they say that we (the people) couldn't do bigger and better and without the contradictions the 'stars' have... I say good riddance to the ideal of leaders and leadership...

Kunjufu....African heart African mind

Yes there is a resistance to racism its called the New Black Panther Party ,they,reone of the few black organisations that have the balls to do something about the situation ,there,s a New Black Panther Party chapter starting up in north london go check it out when ever you get the chance .I don,t know but some black folks over here in the uk just don,t have the juice to do anything about racism ,they,re either shacked up with a white partneror they,re too afraid to make a stand or fight against it or they don,t have any pride period. Some are so deluded that they don,t even think that there is a racial problem.

Markee:

New Black Panther Party chapter starting up in north london go check it out when ever you get the chance

Where is it? Do they have a web site or somewhereI can get info?



I don,t know but some black folks over here in the uk just don,t have the juice to do anything about racism

Think there is an element of truth in that but I dont do anything (that would be noticed by the majority) If i could I would markee. If I had an idea or someone told me how to do itI sure would. AndI think MOST balck ppl are the same. Its not an easy process. It dosent happen over night. And sometimes it feels like an unfightable battle. I dont know what u seem to want to see ppl doing 'over here' on the scale u seem to be expecting.

they,re either shacked up with a white partner

Do u think being shacked up, as u call it, with a white person makes someone forget they are black? Do u think they forget who they are, does their skin colour change and they instantly turn white on the outside and in? I can imagine it happens but to a MINORITY. and those it does happen to were vulnerable to it in the first place and it was prob gonna happen anyway. Ur very ignorant to think that.Its the same with every interracial relationshipI have ever known. Its just like say a Nigerian man getting 'shacked up' with a Basian woman.They both bring their cultures to the relationship and enrich eachothers lives.

The new black panther party has meetings every thursday at 6:30 pm at the Wellbourne centre chestnut road tottenham n16 nearest tube is tottenhale hale (victoria line) as for the part where i mentioned about "some black folks are being shacked up with white partners " on the contuaryi don,t think that is an ignorant statementat all since i,v returned to this country all i see is black folks latching onto white partners and given the current climate of racial intolerance in this country why in the hell would any right thinking black persondecide to hook up with any white person ?since most of these white british people are unattractive anyway, but not just that sincesome black people decide to go with white partners and they are faced with having to deal with aspects of racism what are they going to do ? anything they try to do will be ineffective since they have to considerhow their white partners are going to handle the situation and whether their partners would approve whatever,the black person is caught in a no win situation .i don,t think that the racial situation in this country will be solved over night no it will be alot of hard work and its made harder by the fact thatthere is,nt a whole lot of unity amongst black folksin this country anyway,it won,t be just a fight against a racist white establishment but also a fight against those black people that decide to align themselves with this establishment and in my opinion they,re worse.

[color=navy]Markee:

[color=navy]Ok u have puta hell of a lot in one paragraph butI will try and respond to all u have said.

[color=navy]Thank you for telling me about the Black Panther party. Do you know any more about it? Like what they are doing, planning, wanting?

[color=navy]When you say that most of these white ppl are unattractive do u mean on the outside or the in? In the contextI will assume you meant on the outside. 1)Your taste in women is UR taste. Everyone is unique and everyone is an individual. So if that's ur opinion i will respect it. (mind you, not agree with it)2) Dont you think that judging someone from what they look like on the outside is slightly superficial? Dont they always say,never judge a book by its cover?

[color=navy]I'm sorry butI do have to insist ignorance on this opinion. If a black man or woman (or anyone in their right mind) gets with someone, one of the criteria will be that they are willing to support them with everything they are and believe in. Its one one of the reasonsppl fall in love. In this society, that is so obsessed with colour, a white woman will KNOW what she is letting herself in for and if she is notwilling to accept it, then its the black mans fault for getting with her in the first place. Not every white person is racist. Some would dedicate or give their lives to try and help the situation. MANY white ppl u meet on a daily basis are probably more neutral that you Markee. Do you want unity or power with white ppl?

[color=navy]Dont u think that is just setting yourself up to fail, like fascism has done. Think long term. Its obviously not gonna last 4 eva because of the STRENGTHbalck ppl have got.If u turn it the other way, it will be taken from you again and then back from them and on and on......... In a viscous cycle. Surley unity and a total disregard for skin colour is better. U may be sitting there thinking this sister is sticking up for the white man but trust me i'm not. I'm sticking up for unity and PEACE.

[color=navy]VIOLENCE BREEDS VOILENCE

[color=navy]DISCONTEMPT BREEDS DISCONTEMPT

[color=navy]ANGER BREEDS ANGER

[color=navy]PEACE BREEDS PEACE

[color=navy]RESPECT BREEDS RECPECT

[color=navy]Markee I'm sorry but in the long term this is true. For example tony bas_tard and gorege bas_tard going to war on Iraq has only done 1 thing. It has ruffled the feathers of sooooooooo many ppl in this world. They went in with their guns blazing and now all ppl want to do is fire THEIR guns right back. VIOLENCE ONLY BREEDS VIOLENCE.

[color=navy]What do you mean by black ppl that assign themselves to the racist white establishment? U have to explain more before i jump to any conclusions.

If you want to find out more about what the new black panther party stands for and what their criteria is then i suggest that you go along to the meeting on thursday and find out about it for yourself if you are genuinely interested you have the address ,the original question was asked as to whether there was any kind of resistance to racisim in the sports world, in my opinion there is,nt any black athletesnowadays are more about making money as opposed to making a point. But in regards to what i posted previously i don,t think i,m being ignorant at all,the uk is prettyintolerant place when it comes to race relations and i don,t see why any black person in their right mind would want to open him or herself up to orlatch onto any white english person especially when i hardly see any black couples over here unless they,re african .Believe me i,m not just going by white folks appearances about them being unattractive i,m going by the occurances that i encounter when it involves white folks ,not a week goes by when i have to deal with some kind of racial incident when it involves white folks whether it be big or small the point is ,is the fact that white folks judge black folks or any person of color for that matter solely on the basis of their race all the time so what are you talking about ? As for your point regarding peace and unity i,m for peace and unity amongst black people ,white folks are already disagreeable tobe around so there can never be any peace regarding white folks thats a fact thathas already been proven thru history .I think black some folks over here in the uk have jungle fever overload because some of them don,t even acknowledge their own people.

I think of the current crop of footballers and they are a HUGE dissapointment.

I mean joining the "kick racism out" campaign is one thing but todays athletes are media trained from young. They have learned to be as bland and uncontroversial about anything they say.

Even when speaking out against something like racism, they manage to sound devoid of all personal emotion and feeling they might have. They talk as if they were simply relating what THE opionion may be, not what THEY feel inside.

Kunjufu I think that while we shouldnt look for sportsmen to be our ambassadors or whatever, they ARE in the spotlight and they SHOULD represent.