Did you know that Jackie Robinson had an older brother? I did not. Matthew MacKenzie “Mack” Robinson finished 2nd in the 200m to Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympic Games. He and Jesse were two of 18 black athletes representing the United States at the Hitler-lympics. That’s right. Besides Jesse Owens, there were 17 additional black athletes, some of whom did exceptionally (the documentary begins with Archie Williams winning gold, not that the English announcer can identify him with a word other than “Negro”), some of whom were denied chances at the exceptional.
Not one month ago, we saw Young Woman and the Sea, the story of Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim the English Channel. The film segued in the middle to the Paris Olympics of 1924 where Ms. Ederle underperformed. The film takes the position that “Trudy” came back with a “mere” one gold and two bronzes for poor coaching that kept her from training at a critical stage. This is treated as tragic.
Yeah, that’s not tragic. Disappointing, clearly, but not tragic. Trudy Ederle never aimed for the Olympics, and -bad training or no- got her shot when she arrived in Paris. Now, imagine you are Tidye Pickett or Louise Stokes, both Olympic sprinters. Their lives are all about track and field. They qualify for the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. The Games in which Adolf Hitler wants to make a statement about the superiority of the German race and the inferiority of other races, including African-Americans and Jewish-Americans. And when the time comes to prove yourself and your race equal to the challenge, you are removed from competition by your own coach because … racism. That is tragedy.
Olympic Pride, American Prejudice is a documentary that sees the whole picture. African-Americans faced horrible racism at home. 1936 was a time of Jim Crow laws and lynchings, a time when African-Americans could not rise as far as their character could take them, but only as far as society allowed … and certain American societies at the time allowed no black person to rise any higher than the worst-off white person, sad to say.
One of the fascinating moments of this documentary comes with the description of the Olympic village. Hitler wanted to show off the German race through competition, yet wanted the façade of Eden-like equality to prove that Germans succeeded given a -both literal and metaphorical- level playing field. As a result, the Olympic village itself was a symbol of refinement and equality. African-American Olympians there were treated better -and much better at that- than they were at home or even on the boat ride over to Germany. They lived better in those ten days than they had ever or would ever live again in their entire lives. This kind of myopic propaganda has existed throughout history; we see it in Mao’s China and post-war Vietnam, but if you want an immediate example, check out Tucker Carlson’s recent trip to Russia. Yeah, cuz that’s what all of Russia looks like, just like all of Hitler’s Germany
was open to blacks and Jews at all times.
The NAACP was not interested in sending black athletes to Germany. In their estimation, it was pointless to have black athletes compete for the United States as if to make a statement: “Our racist country is better than your racist country.”
They were not wrong.
But – and it is really important to point this out in the American age of infinite hubris – this is a prime example of how one can be morally correct, assertive of a moral standard, can prognosticate perfectly the immediate future AND STILL GET IT WRONG. Imagine if the United States doesn’t send black athletes to Germany … does that stop Hitler’s war machine? How is the world helped? More importantly from the US POV – if Jesse Owens doesn’t humiliate Adolf Hitler, does Jackie Robinson happen in major league baseball? How long until the color lines are breached in all major sports? What does American sport look like today? What do the Olympics look like today? These are great moments in history the NAACP would have denied.
OTOH, give the NAACP its due – what do we know about the 1936 Olympics? Hitler, propaganda, Owens. That’s it. Most people know nothing of the 17 other black athletes on the US team or Jewish sprinters Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, whose stories were almost identical to those of Pickett and Stokes above. We only know Hitler, propaganda, Owens because that is the only story the US wanted to tell in the wake of those Olympic games. Gee, I wonder why.
There was once an American sprinter named Mack
Who medaled silver, despite being black
His brother would redefine
The color barrier line
Would that happen if big bro didn’t have his back?
Rated TV-PG, 82 Minutes
Director: Deborah Riley Draper
Writer: Christopher Englese, Francis Gasperini, Deborah Riley Draper
Genre: Damned if ya do; damned if ya don’t
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Anybody who understands the whitewashing of history
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: MAGA
