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@sophiabush : Yesterday marked 50 years since @tommiesmith68 and John Carlos raised their fists at the Summer Olympics. The year was 1968. They were standing atop a platform in Mexico City. The gentlemen raised their fists to protest inequality and the horrific treatment of people of color. This was the very definition of peaceful protest. Yet the stadium erupted in jeering and racist slurs, the men were stripped of their medals, and received death threats at home. Much like what we’re seeing today, the backlash was swift, intense, deeply racist, and the feedback centered around the “not this way” rhetoric. • Apparently it’s never the “right” way, the right place, or the right time to take a stand. History often celebrates the protestors and the martyrs decades after their struggles, but in the present their experiences were awful and unjust. This “not this way” notion? That there’s some better way to do the right thing? That’s a lie. Protest makes oppressors uncomfortable. That’s the point. To highlight what those in power do to those they try to keep power from. And this is where we are today. Y’all, it’s up to us to dismantle systems of oppression and also the lies they’re founded on. There is no finite bucket of power. No finite bucket of success. Everyone deserves equal access to life, liberty, and a pursuit of justice. It’s our birthright. And anyone who tells you differently is operating small. They are motivated by scarcity mentality. Let’s not be those people. Let’s be Tommies and Johns. • Last night, as we kicked off @mspackyetti’s study group at the @harvard IOP, we watched a video from Tommie Smith. He asked our class to join him in a third salute to mark this monumental anniversary. To commit to the fight for equity and justice. I was so proud that virtually every student stayed for the photo. For the cause. For a commitment to unity. Y’all are the future. You will change the world. Now do me a favor and prove me right. #Vote like you mean it. #HarvardIOP #HarvardKen