Remembering the White Guy on the Podium: Peter Norman

[Jimmy Higgins]

White Guy on the podium? You mean Sebastian Vettel?

Although Nico Rosberg and Valteri Bottas got robbed!

Oh, you mean an Olympic podium from almost 50 years ago? There is absolutely nothing admirable about the Black Panthers and it is shameful what went on at that podium.
They were a racist, murderous, Maoist group of armed thugs and no amount of breakfasts they might have served or ridiculously biased PBS documentaries will cover the crimes, including many murders, this group committed.

Weren't they mainly a bunch of angry 20 year old blacks that felt what was happening to blacks was crap? Weren't the Black Panthers also roughly 30% FBI including many with orders to either cause dissension in the group or to encourage violence?

 

[maxparrish]

Yes...yes...we all know the misty eyed romanticization - the sepia toned revisionism turning the Black Panthers into "idealistic innocents" brutalized by the police of the 60s. It was a common motif among the liberals and radicals of the 60s and early 70s, till reality set in when the truth came out. However, that was a long time ago - long enough that the left apologists resurrect the ghoul and turn them back into "heros".

Horowitz, the one-time radical and editor of Ramparts was the first to see the light, then others followed. He has told the story of his disillusionment. He raised over 100K (big money 45 years ago) for the Oakland Community Learning Center, touted by SF KQED as "an internationally recognized school that provided free meals for children and which was, in fact, the party's show*piece and base of operations throughout the Seventies."

The school was real, but it was also a front for a criminal gang attempt*ing to control the illegal traffic of the East Oakland ghetto. My association with the Panthers terminated in 1974 when they kid*napped and murdered the woman I had engaged to do bookkeeping for the school, Betty Van Patter, a well-known member of the rad*ical community and the mother of three children. ... Ericka Huggins, who is featured in the film as an idealistic Panther leader, was the head of the Panther school at the time. Elaine Brown, who is celebrated in 'Eyes on the Prize II,' was the head of the Party. ...

Despite considerable risks to their personal safety, a number of journalists—Lance Williams, Pearl Stewart, and Kate Coleman among them—gradually uncov*ered the true story of the Black Panther Party, its origins as a crim*inal gang, its assumption of a political personality, its continuing criminal activity, and the reign of terror it conducted mainly in the Bay Area's black community, during which more than a dozen people were killed. The positive effect of these stories was to warn others not to make the mistake that I and so many like me had made in responding to the Panthers' idealistic image a decade ear*lier. Under the impact of this adverse publicity, the Panther Party ceased to exist.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/259612/pbs-propaganda-machine-black-panther-killers-frontpagemagcom

 

[laughing dog]

Peter Norman did not give the salute. His "crime" was wearing the Olympic Project for Human Rights badge. So your entire response is based on a false conclusion.

I did not say he gave the BP salute, I said he allowed himself to be associated with it, and the Black Panthers. He insisted on participating, adorning the human rights badge they also displayed. Clearly he was supportive, as the two other 'black power' activists appreciated. He let it be known that he was "with them".

Had he said otherwise, your claim of innocence would at least have a plausible basis - but he did not.

Your analysis is based on conjecture, not fact and extremely selective reading comprehension. No one said Norman was supportive of the Black Panthers. They said he was supportive of them (the runners) in their wearing of badges for the Olympic Movement for Human Rights.

In addition, I strongly suspect that the Black Panthers did not generate the irrational fear among the some white people and the white power structure in Australia as they did here, so I doubt Norman's treatment at home was due to his alleged alliance with Black Panthers.

Perhaps if our Aussie friends see this thread, they can comment on the (lack of ) accuracy of my suspicions.