At the 1968 Olympics, Foreman’s flag-waving was seen as deference if not betrayal. But the reaction to it reveals the limited ways we allow Black athletes to express themselvesWhen a teenager from Texas named George Foreman waved a tiny American flag in the boxing ring after winning Olympic gold in 1968, he had little awareness of the political minefield beneath his size 15 feet. The moment, captured by television cameras for an audience of millions during one of the most volatile periods in American history, was instantly contrasted with another image from two days earlier at the same Mexico City Games: Tommie Smith and John Carlos, heads bowed and black-gloved fists raised in salute during the US national anthem, a silent act of protest that would become one of the defining visuals of the 20th century. Their message was unmistakable: a rebuke of the country that had sent them to compete while continuing to deny civil rights to people who looked like them. Their action was seen as ...
George Foreman's 1968 Olympic gold medal celebration, where he waved an American flag, was criticized, especially in contrast to Tommie Smith and John Carlos' Black Power salute. While Smith and Carlos were seen as defiant resistors, Foreman was seen as deferential to oppressive systems. The article argues that the reaction to Foreman reveals the limited ways Black athletes are allowed to express themselves and misses deeper meanings about Foreman, patriotism, and the symbolic political burden placed on Black athletes.
