You can make an argument that the year 1968 was the most pivotal year in the 20th century, and many would agree.  The deaths of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy clearly changed the future of the country.  One of the happenings that may not be talked about enough was the performance of the United States athletes in the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.  Without question, the performance of the track and field team was the greatest of all-time.  The reason people do not talk much about the performances of the athletes because they remember or have seen the “Black Power” salute by Tommie Smith and John Carlos.  It was only 40 years ago, but today it seems like a lot longer than that.

Kobe Bryant and Lebron James may be the most recognizable faces performing for the United States in the Olympics.  They are the most popular players on the “Redeem Team,” and arguably the most popular basketball players in the world.  During last season, both Bryant and James spoke out against the injustices committed by the Chinese government in their support of the Sudanese government in Africa.  The Chinese buys oil from and provides arms to the Sudanese government, a government responsible for a genocide that murdered 400,000 Sudanese in Darfur.  Both Bryant and James said that they would be making comments later on about the injustices, but mysteriously, that has not been the case.

The Chinese government has been going to the limit in order to have a situation-free Olympics in Bejing.  They even revoked the visa of Joey Cheek, a former Olympic medalist turned human rights advocate, because they did not want him mentioning the genocide in Sudan.  Well, doing that to Cheek is not that difficult because no one knows him, but they could not do the same with either Bryant or James since they are global icons and are immensely popular in basketball-crazy China.  Had Bryant or James continued to speak out against the Chinese, they would have exposed the public to China’s policy, but they have not.  Instead, they have fallen into silence, which is exactly what the Chinese government wanted in the first place.

One would have to wonder how disappointed the U.S. athletes from the 1968 Games are with those from the 2008 Games.  The major difference between the athletes is simply political involvement.  It has been a major criticism from the athletes of that time period, especially Jim Brown, that the athletes of today not only do not get involved politically, but the reason they do not has to do with the amount of money they make.  Both Bryant and James should be ashamed that they choose not to speak out on the subject, especially when it comes to basic human rights that are violated by the Sudanese government, with help from China.  They have the platform to do so, but have chosen not to, with the excuse being that they need to focus on the Games.  Maybe someone should tell them that the greatest athletic performance that this country has ever seen came 40 years ago, with the athletes protesting while performing.