Ignoring pressure from woke U.S. athletes for the freedom to protest, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is standing firm against social justice madness. Washington Post liberal Kevin Blackistone predicts the IOC ban will only empower the radicals at the Summer Games in Tokyo.
Rule 50 of the Olympic charter reads in part: “No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.” American social justice warriors don’t understand any part of what “no” means. Late last year, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee petitioned the IOC to allow peaceful demonstrations.
“Last week, as the world continued to be roiled by protests — against racialized police lethality in the United States, authoritarianism in Myanmar and human rights abuses in Russia, to name but a few — the International Olympic Committee announced it was upholding its ban of protests at its Games” Blackistone wrote. The IOC warned of punishment against athletes who use the world platform to make political statements.
Blackistone said some athletes denounced the decision and one organization promised to provide legal assistance for Olympians punished by the IOC.
“I, however, wholly support the rule. After all, are you really protesting if you do so only after being granted permission?” Blackistone asked. But don’t be fooled; he really wants unfettered protest this summer.
Protest is not, according to Blackistone, “a cooperative event. It is a confrontation. As the Organization of American States reminded in a recent report on protest and human rights, "the exercise of fundamental freedoms should not be subject to previous authorization by the authorities.”
It’s also “the height of disingenuousness” for Olympic organizers to claim political purity and force it upon athletes by threatening punitive measures for those who should use the Games to prove otherwise, Blackistone continued.
The IOC’s resolve will do what Blackistone says it has always done: invite protest. He added, “What athletes with something to say should do is what their predecessors have always done: accept the invitation with glee.”
The Post writer described his view of protest that is prohibited. It stands out and resonates, he says. It captures and demands our attention and curiosity and makes people investigate. The Milwaukee Bucks refusing to play an NBA postseason game after the 2020 police shooting of Jacob Blake personifies this for Blackistone.
“When protest is negotiated, it can be diminished,” Blackistone wrote. “It can be defanged. It can be dampened. Already, the protest movements that have defined this early part of the 21st century, particularly those we have seen in sports, have given way to too much agreement, if not outright commodification, which has led to the diminution of their messages.”
To prove the latter point, Blackistone says the “sting” of Colin Kaepernick’s organic kneeling during the national anthem to protest “the unchecked extrajudicial killing of Black men” was mediated. SJWs wanting to pick up where he left off now do so out of sight and off the field. This season, the NBA returned to “its entertainment-first past,” Blackistone groans.
The Olympic Games feature nationalistic, jingoistic flag-waving, says Blackistone, who hopes those on the Tokyo stage will disrupt that spirit. Past Olympic scandals featured what he wants again: athletes who don’t negotiate the right to protest with Olympic organizers. “They just did what they thought was best and used the Olympic stage to broadcast their positions, repercussions be damned,” Blackistone reminded today’s SJWs.
