Terrell Owens, Jesse Owens, and Other People Who Need More Attention

                In the midst of the build-up to and celebration over the win against Michigan, though, the passing of Rosa Parks got kind of glossed over.  This is a woman about whom I am grossly undereducated.  My understanding of the situation is, she was sitting on a bus, a white man walked on and told her to move so he could sit, and she refused, setting off a firestorm of controversy and resulting in her having to finish her life under the constant specter of retribution from the angry segregationist white society in Alabama (their real state motto: “Thank God for Mississippi”).

                There is no denying that Rosa Parks truly is a hero.  I don’t intend to take anything away from her.  Frankly I have lived too privileged of a life to take anything away from anybody.  But I think it is worth noting that in our nation’s combined consciousness, there are African-Americans in history other than Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks who really deserve some credit.

                And here I am referring directly to Jesse Owens.  I really think that in the annals of the civil rights movement and in athletics, he is perhaps the most underrated individual I can find.  When we heard of Rosa Parks’ passing here in Drackett 0514, there was some commentary by gathered Buckeyes—and then heated debate about one Jesse Owens.  Ol’ Beefster thought it would not be outlandish to suggest that perhaps the greatest track and field performer of all time was a bit overshadowed by a woman who refused to give up her seat on the bus.

                Apparently, according to popular opinion, it is outlandish, blasphemous, racist, and sexist to suggest so.  Really?  Let’s break it down, step by step, and see if Jesse was really as insignificant as we treat him:

                The first delineation is in the acts themselves.  For the moment, let’s disregard any of the though processes these two individuals had before or after the events that made them historically significant: let’s look just at the moments that made them famous. 

Remove bias goggles.  Which feat is more impressive, to you: refusing to give up your seat on a bus, or winning four gold medals and setting four world records in the Olympics?  “But Beef, on that bus, there were probably dozens of white people pressuring her to get up.”  You do realize that those Olympics were held in Berlin, right?  Berlin, as in Germany?  In 1936?  When the Nazis, led by one Adolph Hitler, were in full swing?  Refusing to give up a seat in front of ten, twenty, however many white people, or beating a prototype, bred-to-win Aryan ϋber-athlete on his home field in front of 80,000+  white people who have openly admitted that your race doesn’t deserve to live?  Advantage, Jesse.

“But Rosa could have faced violence right at that moment; Jesse was safe in his Olympic village.  Nobody was going to kill him right then.”  Do you really believe that?  At the 1972 Olympics, 6 Olympic athletes were taken hostage and killed.  The perpetrators have yet to be found and tried.  Those games were held in Munich…Germany.  What evidence do you have that Germany did a better job of protecting athletes (particularly black American athletes who had defeated their Aryan counterparts) in 1936 than 1972?  Jesse was far from safe.  Anybody who believes that is simply showing gross ignorance on the subject of Olympic and world history.

“But Rosa lived in a racist society.”  And Jesse Owens didn’t?  His parents were sharecroppers.  He grew up in the face of racism.  What evidence do you have that America in the 1930s was less racist than America in the 1960s?  That is akin to saying that Michael Jordan’s feats were more spectacular than Jackie Robinson’s because he lived in a racist society.  Was there racism in the 90s? No doubt.  More prevalent than in the late 40s and early 50s, Robinson’s heyday?  Only a fool would make that argument. 

The counter-argument is then, what about before and after their respective events?  I would posit this question: is it tougher to prepare for years, to devote yourself to a cause for your adult life knowing that you will be traveling to the most hostile environment possible to try to fulfill dreams that could be snatched away (and almost were) by arbitrators with no motivation to remove their bias at all?  Or to spontaneously make the decision to stay seated rather than stand?  “But Beef, maybe Rosa Parks had planned to refuse to give up her seat.”  Alright, I will concede that point.  Maybe it was planned civil disobedience.  Does the pre-event, if you will, still compare?  Deciding ahead of time to stay seated, as compared to spending years working mind and body for two days of competition?  The idea that Rosa was risking her life in pre-meditation and Jesse was not is laughable.  So far, Mr. Owens resolve leading up to what made him famous and then the event that made him famous itself are both more impressive.

Now the biggest point of contention, the life they lived afterwards.  My understanding is that Rosa Parks received death threats and lived her final years in a state of fear, at least until the Civil Rights Movement had come full-swing.  It is true that Jesse Owens received a ticker-tape parade upon his return to the United States, and that it was well-deserved.  What is often glossed over, however, is the tribulations that he had to endure later in life.  Despite being an Olympic hero and the fastest man alive, he had no source for income.  He was reduced to running professional races against horses, motorcycles, Negro League baseball players—anything for a buck.  And, of course, he never escaped the overwhelming blanket of racism that still haunted the country.  Those who see Rosa Parks as more of a hero because of her defiance of the white racists probably have not read Owens’ book, Blackthink, published during the height of racial tensions in America.

Owens spoke with his actions as a young athlete, and with his words as a public speaker and Civil Rights Activist.  Yet of the two, I am guessing (I don’t have the statistics here in front of me) that we learn more about Rosa Parks in social studies classes, talk more about her in the terms of earth-changing civil rights figures, and celebrated her more upon her passing than Jesse Owens.

Please, please, do not take this as an attempt to denigrate what Rosa Parks did. She deserves every plaudit, every praise, every memoriam that we can give her.  It is simply worth noting: If we choose to celebrate Rosa Parks as much as we do—how can we not choose to hold Jesse Owens as highly as an American hero?  Memories are short, and fifteen seconds of fame sometimes trump lifetimes of steady work and effort.  Jesse Owens, born 1913 and died 1980, deserves better.

Ols: There are no over-rated civil rights activists; only under-rated.

                

 

  

the rest of the thoughts       11.26.05