Sacrosanct on one hand and counterfeit on the other, symbols both refine and diminish the genuine for a simulation?
?Jack Johnson is a boxing and pioneer whose reputation was wrongly tarnished by a racially motivated conviction more than a century ago. I hope President Trump will seize the opportunity before him to right this historical wrong and restore a great athlete?s legacy.??Sen. John McCain
Symbols possess a potency all their own. Sacrosanct on one hand and counterfeit on the other, they both refine and diminish the genuine for a simulation, a ritualistic reflection of a specific time and place in which we rewrite history from the periphery of experience imagined and not lived.
There have been many attempts to overturn the racially-motivated conviction of Jack Johnson, the first African-American heavyweight champion and a touchstone of defiance for over a century. Appeals to several presidents over the years to pardon Jack Johnson always seem to fall on deaf ears. But one president, Donald J. Trump, our current president, who doesn?t know irony from a hole in the ground, appears willing to at least consider granting Johnson a pardon, thanks in large part to the efforts of Sylvester Stallone, aka Rocky, who Trump calls a friend and with whom he has spoken about the issue.
?Sylvester Stallone called me with the story of heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson,? Trump tweeted from Mar-a-Lago over the weekend. ?His trials and tribulations were great, his life complex and controversial. Others have looked at this over the years, most thought it would be done, but yes, I am considering a Full Pardon!?
It?s impertinent, and a misreading of history, to presume that Johnson?s legacy is in need of restoration. His legacy, in and out of the ring, for good and for ill, is the stuff of legend and the less tampering with that legend the better. Johnson was and continues to be an iconic figure, inspiring books, plays, films, documentaries, and record albums. He also influenced men no less substantial than Muhammad Ali.
The idea of a pardon isn?t insulting on its face, except when it?s abused as is often the case. But since sanitizing Papa Jack doesn?t do much of anything for anybody, except those misguided enough to intercede on what is presumably his behalf, it?s reasonable to assume that by pardoning Johnson we diminish him at the same time as we pardon the United States for its antiquated customs, laws, and mores.
