Emory Douglas
1968
Summer Olympics
The medalists’ podium for the 200-meter race
America’s own two Black athletes,
Tommie Smith and John Carlos –
One, the recipient of the gold medal;
The other, a silver-medalist
Visual history depicts these winners’ fists
Inside black gloves as they raise them into air
To bring to the attention of the world
The centuries-long oppression of Blacks,
AKA the good ole American way
As Smith and Carlos make their unspoken voices heard,
Their medals are being taken away
Standing against the brutally discriminatory
and fear-, hatred- and violence-filled white-domination
is enough reason to strip them both
of their justly earned honors,
you say?
Nay!
A white Australian runner, Peter Norman –
A silver-medalist, chooses to stay with his fellow athletes,
Though sans fist, to show solidarity
He thus lends hope to humanity
And reminds us all of the foundation of our existence:
Unity within diversity. Unconditionally. All-inclusively.
Watching unjust actions unfold for even one of us silently
Is, after all, complicity. Put simply.
Still . . .
The Black athletes
Get their Olympic medals stripped off
They had, however, earned them justly
Promising careers, ruined . . .
In the hands of the white powers that be
How about the rights to practice Civil Rights advocacy?
Huh, what a laugh!
Such freedom for Blacks does not come for free!
In the year of 2014,
A visual art project, “We Can Be Heroes”,
Makes waves across the borders of many a country
The piece is crafted collaboratively
Between the Australian artist Richard Bell
And the American graphic designer Emory Douglas
Bell and Douglas not only eternalize
For the 1968 Olympic medalists
Their moments of protest on an Olympic-athlete stage,
The stance they took against discrimination and inequality;
But also demonstrate injustices to be witnessed globally
As it is evident throughout the volume in your possession,
Our collective efforts geared toward poeticizing
Some segments of the once diligently-recorded reality
Jointly, we are anon sharing the marvel of a phenomenon;
Namely, how Bell’s concept of ‘Liberation Art’,
Coupled with Douglas’ talent in design and illustration,
Grew larger than life and entered the annals of history
In the form of a silent yet utterly vocal iconography
*This poem is one of the three I have submitted to the February issue of The Year of the Poet VIII published by Inner Child Press International.
hülyaswritings 