The Olympic Games has made its way to the stadium in Tokyo.

Every four years, the world's greatest athletes come together to compete in the summer Olympics,

to showcase feats of speed and strength and endurance, to this pageantry and good will,

and lots and lots of flag waving.

The whole thing can be dizzying yet beautiful.

But sometimes this huge global Olympic stage with all its pomp and nationalism becomes

something much more.

Like when the US women's soccer team took a knee before their match early this week.

The United States will take a knee before kick off the Australians, the Matilda gathered around

the center circle in solidarity.

For decades, Olympic athletes and Black American athletes in particular have used the bright

lights of the games to draw attention to social and racial issues, even though the rules

in the Olympic charter prohibit any kind of political expression.

John Carlos and Tommy Smith, Negro runners who won medals in the 200 meter race, today were

ordered by the United States Olympic Committee to leave Mexico.

Earlier, they were suspended for raising Black Gloved Fists while a star-spangled banner was being

played at an awards ceremony.

The iconic image of Sprinters John Carlos and Tommy Smith,

shoelace, with their Black Gloved Fists raised high on the winners podium during the 1968 Olympic Games

in Mexico City, has become an enduring symbol of the emergence of the Black athlete.

I don't like being discriminated against me or Black people say it's me.

I still stand for Blackness, I still stand for me.

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