The Anthropology Days and Berlin Olympic Games - Essay Example

The Anthropology Days in 1904 and the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936 were both international and interracial competitions, but they were not held in order for to show equality and achievement. The comparison of the two events that took place show how each competition was aimed towards showing the advancement of the white race in comparison to all other races. The goal of each was to show that whites were the advanced race of people and would be excel far greater than any other. Early in the twentieth century following the United State’s purchase of the Louisiana Territory a special type of Olympic games were held.

The events held at the St. Louis State Fair in 1904 were known as the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, and the competitors were over three thousand indigenous people from all over the world that came in order to compete, entertain, and be research subjects for the American Anthropologist Association. WJ McGee, the head of the LPE Anthropology Department primarily wanted his exposition to be key in understanding Native peoples in the modern age and how race correlated with athletic ability. Many events were unfairly held with strict rules that would ensure the dark-skinned or “primitive” peoples failed and the Caucasians or “advanced races” were “scientifically proven” to be the superior race.

This international event included many events found in the regular Olympics such as: weight lifting, long jumping, spear throwing, and shot put. McGee aimed to prove how White athletes were more advanced because of their ability to excel in these events—even though their international competition never practiced these events. By the time the Olympics were being held in Berlin in 1936, Nazi Germany was already on the rise and many wanted to boycott the games due to their antisemitic and racial policies.

However the boycott failed and the International and interracial competition was going to continue. The goal of the Nazi regime was to exploit the Games and win over foreign spectators with an image of a peaceful, tolerant Germany. Hitler’s goal of the games was also to promote the myth of “Aryan” racial superiority and physical advancement. Even though Non-Aryans were excluded from German sports associations and Germany allowed only one part-Jewish athlete, Helen Mayer, in order to show their tolerance.

The predominantly Aryan Nazi team went on to achieve many of the medals in the games, and it was used as Nazi propaganda to promote the Aryan race and subsequently put down all other races. Jesse Owens alongside eleven other African American athletes competed on the U.S. track team and went on to win several gold medals representing the U.S. Although the Nazi Olympics were aimed at showing the world the superiority of the Aryan race, victors of all races and nationalities stood on the victors’ podium of Berlin in 1936.

Through the development of the “scientific” agenda behind the LPE, McGee biasedly compared the differing cultures and their athletic prowess similarly to the 1936 Berlin Olympics in which Hitler wished to show Aryan domination in the athletic field. While both proved to show no viable scientific evidence towards the advancement of either race in any certain field, the racial implications behind each are evident to show the backward notion of correlating ones race to their athletic achievement.