Jonathan Zimmerman: Take a pass on Beijing Games
[Jonathan Zimmerman teaches history at New York University and lives in Narberth. He is the author of "Whose America? Culture Wars in the Public Schools" (Harvard University Press).]
A fascist, dictatorial regime plans to host the Olympic Games. Critics call for a boycott, but the Games come off as planned. And on the field of world opinion, the hosts score an enormous victory.
Berlin in 1936? No, Beijing in 2008.
Now that the Winter Olympics are over, all eyes will soon turn to the Summer Olympics. And that's just what the Chinese want. Like the Germans before them, they will use the Olympics to showcase their booming economy-and to hide their repressive behavior.
But the rest of us don't have to help. Lest we repeat the errors of 1936, the United States should lead a boycott of the 2008 Olympics. Anything less will give the Chinese the same kind of propaganda boost that the Nazis enjoyed.
If you don't believe me, go rent Leni Riefenstahl's prize-winning documentary Olympia. Released on Adolf Hitler birthday in 1938, two years after the Berlin Olympics, the film shows the Games-and the Germans-in all of their glory. The enormous main stadium, expanded to fit 110,000 spectators. The brand-new Olympic Village, boasting 100 different buildings and 387 dining halls. The brilliant pageantry of the Olympische Jugend ("Olympic Youth"), who wowed audiences with their festive dances.
Hitler himself was no great fan of sport, fearing that athletic competition would elevate the lone individual over the all-powerful state. But he recognized the enormous potential of the Olympics to burnish Germany's international standing, which needed all the help it could get. As early as 1933, for example, a New York Times editorial suggested that the Nazis' "race doctrine" contradicted the spirit of peace, equality, and fair play at the heart of the Olympics.
So Hitler issued strict orders: no racism at this Olympics. Defenders of the decision to hold the Games in Berlin often point to African-American track champion Jesse Owens, whose four gold medals supposedly undermined Nazi racial ideology. According to one well-worn myth, a deflated Hitler refused to shake hands with Owens after the runner had destroyed the Third Reich's pretensions of "Aryan" superiority.
But the truth is almost exactly the opposite. Rather than challenging Nazi racism, the triumphs of Owens and other black athletes allowed the Germans to hide it. "The racial point of view should not in any form be a part of the discussion of the athletic results," the Ministry of Propaganda warned.
"Special care should be exercised not to offend Negro athletes." Indeed, the ministry reprimanded one newspaper after it took a pot-shot at America's "black auxiliaries." Hitler himself refused to pare footage of Owens and other black stars from Riefenstahl's film, rejecting suggestions that the documentary was too "positive" towards African-Americans.
Fast-forward to Beijing in 2008, when we can expect China's dictators to disguise their own cruelties in a colorful haze of artistic and technological wizardry. To be fair, the Chinese leaders have never demonstrated the genocidal mentality or the global ambitions of Nazi Germany. And nominally, of course, China remains a "Communist" nation. But make no mistake: it's a fascist one....
A fascist, dictatorial regime plans to host the Olympic Games. Critics call for a boycott, but the Games come off as planned. And on the field of world opinion, the hosts score an enormous victory.
Berlin in 1936? No, Beijing in 2008.
Now that the Winter Olympics are over, all eyes will soon turn to the Summer Olympics. And that's just what the Chinese want. Like the Germans before them, they will use the Olympics to showcase their booming economy-and to hide their repressive behavior.
But the rest of us don't have to help. Lest we repeat the errors of 1936, the United States should lead a boycott of the 2008 Olympics. Anything less will give the Chinese the same kind of propaganda boost that the Nazis enjoyed.
If you don't believe me, go rent Leni Riefenstahl's prize-winning documentary Olympia. Released on Adolf Hitler birthday in 1938, two years after the Berlin Olympics, the film shows the Games-and the Germans-in all of their glory. The enormous main stadium, expanded to fit 110,000 spectators. The brand-new Olympic Village, boasting 100 different buildings and 387 dining halls. The brilliant pageantry of the Olympische Jugend ("Olympic Youth"), who wowed audiences with their festive dances.
Hitler himself was no great fan of sport, fearing that athletic competition would elevate the lone individual over the all-powerful state. But he recognized the enormous potential of the Olympics to burnish Germany's international standing, which needed all the help it could get. As early as 1933, for example, a New York Times editorial suggested that the Nazis' "race doctrine" contradicted the spirit of peace, equality, and fair play at the heart of the Olympics.
So Hitler issued strict orders: no racism at this Olympics. Defenders of the decision to hold the Games in Berlin often point to African-American track champion Jesse Owens, whose four gold medals supposedly undermined Nazi racial ideology. According to one well-worn myth, a deflated Hitler refused to shake hands with Owens after the runner had destroyed the Third Reich's pretensions of "Aryan" superiority.
But the truth is almost exactly the opposite. Rather than challenging Nazi racism, the triumphs of Owens and other black athletes allowed the Germans to hide it. "The racial point of view should not in any form be a part of the discussion of the athletic results," the Ministry of Propaganda warned.
"Special care should be exercised not to offend Negro athletes." Indeed, the ministry reprimanded one newspaper after it took a pot-shot at America's "black auxiliaries." Hitler himself refused to pare footage of Owens and other black stars from Riefenstahl's film, rejecting suggestions that the documentary was too "positive" towards African-Americans.
Fast-forward to Beijing in 2008, when we can expect China's dictators to disguise their own cruelties in a colorful haze of artistic and technological wizardry. To be fair, the Chinese leaders have never demonstrated the genocidal mentality or the global ambitions of Nazi Germany. And nominally, of course, China remains a "Communist" nation. But make no mistake: it's a fascist one....