ABSTRACT
In late twentieth-century America, the cultural capital of corporations has replaced many human forms of cultural capital. As we buy, wear, and eat logos, we become the henchmen and admen of the corporations, defining ourselves with respect to the social standing of the various corporations. Some would say that this is a new form of tribalism, that in sporting corporate logos we ritualize and humanize them, we redefine the cultural capital of the corporations in human social terms. I would say that a state where culture is indistinguishable from logo and where the practice of culture risks infringement of private property is a state that values the corporate over the human (Willis 1993: 132-133).
The accomplishments of the African American members of the US track and field team at the 1968 summer Olympic Games were astonishing. In winning seven gold medals, the African American men established five world records and tied another. The 400m record set by Lee Evans stood for twenty years, and Bob Beamon’s long jump standard was not bettered until 1991. Their women team-mates won three gold medals and set two world records, with Wyomia Tyus becoming the first woman to win the 100m at successive Olympics. Nearly forty years later these remarkable sporting achievements continue to take backstage to the dramatic political gesture of Tommie Smith and John Carlos. Both men had been involved in the civil rights movement and were on athletic scholarships at San Jose State University, where they met Harry Edwards, a civil rights campaigner and former student-athlete at SJSU where he was then teaching part-time. Smith and Carlos became involved with the Olympic Project for Human Rights, an organization that Edwards had formed in order to get African American athletes to boycott the Olympics. Although this goal failed, Smith and Carlos were still determined to make a political statement about racism. The drama unfolded as Smith, who was one of twelve children from a poor Californian farming family, and Carlos, who was born and grew up in Harlem, stepped on to the podium to receive their gold and bronze medals, respectively, for the 200m. Both men had already removed their shoes and rolled up their sweat-pants in order to show their black socks. Carlos wore beads around his
