Let’s finish the work of the civil rights movement – urges Laureus Academy Member Michael Johnson
What happens next? It’s the question that is constantly on the mind of Laureus Academy Member and track star Michael Johnson as he reflects on the protests that have spread across the United States and many other parts of the world in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder.
“My biggest fear is that the conversation will now turn to simple personal racism,” he says in an interview with Laureus.com. “Such as the relationships between black people and white people. That’s important. Stamping out the racist sentiment of small groups of people who are white supremacist and discriminate against black people, that’s important.“But what is the MOST important thing here is the systems that support those things; that allow people to have those views and feel comfortable with those views."“It’s the inequality in the systems and institutions which leads a white police officer to believe he can assault or even kill a black person without consequence. That leads a company that sells to a broad spectrum of black people to have zero black members on their board of directors.“People are marching because the system in this country speaks of fairness for everyone and equality for everyone and the American dream, the opportunity for everyone to prosper and succeed. But in reality, this system is not set up equally for everyone. The system was built by white people for white people at a time when black people were not recognized as being equal, and it still exists.“The civil rights movement was a huge step forward in eliminating the ability to legally discriminate against black people, but from there, there has never been another sort of movement to make black people truly equal in this country. And that's what this is about.”
Olympic track star Johnson, who won four gold medals in a sparkling career, is massively respected in the sports world and beyond for his perceptive views on many issues. He has shown personal strength in fighting back from a stroke in 2018 and is a much admired TV sports analyst and journalist.
He fervently hopes that these issues will be resolved before the 2028 Olympic Games, which is taking place in Los Angeles.
“I think it's too early to determine how something like the 2028 Olympics is going to be affected by this or could be instrumental to this. I can only hope that either things have changed significantly by then, or that we are still actually talking about this issue and it is still as significant an issue then, as it is now. Given that we have this momentum, we need to start seeing change right now.“That’s not to say that I expect that legislation is going to happen in the next weeks, or even in the next year, that's going to take significant change. But I surely expect to see some changes happening within the next months, or next year, and then we build off those things as they happen.”
Johnson believes sport has a significant part to play in helping to create a more equal society. He admits his view has changed over time and he has become more vocal on these issues.
“The question was whether or not prominent people, sports people, had a responsibility to speak up and to be involved with these sorts of movements. My answer has always been: it's up to them.“However when there is a movement like this that requires your attention and if you say that you believe in fairness - and not just if you're a black person - then, yes, I believe that you are complicit if you’re silent, because it is the silence around this issue over decades that has caused us to get to this point.“So yes, my position has changed given the momentum that exists right now around this issue, and I think that if you have an ability to help, then you must help.“We know that sport has incredible power and people respect and follow athletes, so every athlete has an opportunity with this situation to help, to continue to try to sustain this momentum, but also to help bring people together because we know that sport has always been a very powerful tool for bringing people together“One of the things we have to do, is to have the conversation. We have to bring people who have opposite views together to talk and to understand one another's perspectives. And sport would certainly be a tool for helping, and I think that it will in the future.”
This year is the 20th anniversary of the creation of Laureus Sport for Good and the speech Nelson Mandela, first Patron of Laureus, made at the inaugural Laureus World Sports Awards in 2000 when he said ‘Sport has the power to change the world….to break down racial barriers…..and laugh in the face of discrimination’ made a big impact on Michael Johnson.
He reflects: “I'm very proud to have been involved with Laureus and being an Academy Member for the last 20 years. We all understand as athletes how powerful sport can be and how we've used it with Laureus to bring people together, to address issues of social injustice and to address issues of poverty and conflict and the consequences of that and how it affects people and especially young people.“As Academy Members and as an organisation we are always wanting to rush into wherever there is a problem to see how we can use what we have to fix it, or to help and support. And those are conversations that we're having as an organisation, as Academy Members, right now, with regard to the issue of inequality here in America. We have so many amazing people within Laureus. So we have a voice.
“At Laureus we support organisations that address issues like poverty, and give people who are disenfranchised or poor or black, access to education and things that they don't get.“Part of the reason why there is a need for those organisations that we support is because the system is already so unequal that it creates a need for organisations like ours. That's why we do the work we do, because the system has created situations that create inequality.“We're already doing a lot of fantastic work where there's a void and that void exists because of the system. There will always be an area for us to help, but this is an issue in many cases where the work that Laureus is doing is the work that shouldn't even need to be done, to be honest, because the system should be there for people to educate people and give them the same opportunities that other people have, at least in this country.”
