Checkmite
Skepticifimisticalationist
Glenn Beck, a prominent member of the right-wing media machine in the US, is lately on a junket of sorts with former-President Trump - one which hasn't been selling quite as well as had been hoped; but that's not my focus right now.
A few nights ago an interview between Beck and Trump was televised, and in the middle this happened, a short interlude in which Beck, sitting at home, takes some time to spread the good word about diet supplements:
Beck hawking quackery Alex-Jones-style isn't my focus either; it's the grift most of these guys are running in the COVID era and there's not a whole lot to add on that subject. I want to focus on what's behind Beck. That blown-up photograph, framed and mounted on the wall back there. For some reason, this shot - and it's an extended, static one of Beck talking - seems almost consciously framed to include the entirety of that image.
You may not recognize what that's a photo of, so I'll tell you. It's of the end of a boxing match on June 19, 1936 between not-yet-world-champion Joe Louis and Germany's top fighter of the era, Max Schmeling. This is the moment in the 12th round when, after having had Louis on the back foot for the duration of the match, Schmeling finally knocked him down for good and Louis was counted out.
If you were an American at this time in history, this moment sucked hard. Louis hadn't won the championship yet and this wasn't a title fight, but he was a famous up-and-comer, he was a strong American boxer, and he'd just been defeated by a German, the time in his entire career that Louis had been knocked out. The American media, which at that time was still unabashedly racist in its coverage of black fighters, at least still wanted them to win against other countries' boxers, and particularly ones seen as geopolitical enemies.
If you were the people running Germany in 1936, it was a different story obviously. The victory was an unfettered domestic PR coup for the Nazi government. In post-fight interviews Schmeling dedicated the victory to Germany and the Fuehrer; Adolf Hitler sent Schmeling's wife flowers. Images of Louis's defeat, especially this one due to its framing - visibly depicting the German standing triumphantly as the referee counts over the fallen American, the fallen black man - were extensively used in propaganda at the time, and again two years later leading up to the rematch.
Oh yeah, the rematch. A year after this loss, Joe Louis won his first world champion title. And a year after that, he would fight Schmeling again, this time in a title match that both the American and German press politicized the hell out of as essentially a proxy battle between the US and Nazi Germany. Schmeling himself wasn't a dedicated Nazi personally, but he was treated by the Nazis as a national symbol of German political and racial superiority nonetheless. An actual Nazi Party representative accompanied Schmeling's team, and reassured the world that the conclusion of the upcoming fight was forgone - Schmeling had already shown he could defeat Louis solidly, and it was impossible for a black man to defeat a German in any case.
The rematch fight took place on June 22, 1938. It didn't last a round; in two minutes, Louis absolutely demolished Schmeling - demolished as in, Schmeling was finally released from the hospital a week and a half later. The American press called Joe Louis a hero, and also "a jungle man, primitive as any savage". That's really all there is to say as far as that goes.
But now we've got this photo, of Joe Louis being defeated in the first fight. And it is enlarged and handsomely displayed on the wall at Glenn Beck's home. Why does Glenn Beck, who is an American, have this photograph of the moment of an American being beaten down by a representative of Nazi Germany on his wall? Is it because the winner is from Nazi Germany? Is it because the loser on the ground is a black man? Or would Beck contend he is wholly ignorant of the context of the photograph and the actual people in it and just thought it was a "neat boxing photo"? Why did he frame the shot for this commercial seemingly with intention to include the photograph? I can think of no good answers to these questions.
A few nights ago an interview between Beck and Trump was televised, and in the middle this happened, a short interlude in which Beck, sitting at home, takes some time to spread the good word about diet supplements:
Beck hawking quackery Alex-Jones-style isn't my focus either; it's the grift most of these guys are running in the COVID era and there's not a whole lot to add on that subject. I want to focus on what's behind Beck. That blown-up photograph, framed and mounted on the wall back there. For some reason, this shot - and it's an extended, static one of Beck talking - seems almost consciously framed to include the entirety of that image.
You may not recognize what that's a photo of, so I'll tell you. It's of the end of a boxing match on June 19, 1936 between not-yet-world-champion Joe Louis and Germany's top fighter of the era, Max Schmeling. This is the moment in the 12th round when, after having had Louis on the back foot for the duration of the match, Schmeling finally knocked him down for good and Louis was counted out.
If you were an American at this time in history, this moment sucked hard. Louis hadn't won the championship yet and this wasn't a title fight, but he was a famous up-and-comer, he was a strong American boxer, and he'd just been defeated by a German, the time in his entire career that Louis had been knocked out. The American media, which at that time was still unabashedly racist in its coverage of black fighters, at least still wanted them to win against other countries' boxers, and particularly ones seen as geopolitical enemies.
If you were the people running Germany in 1936, it was a different story obviously. The victory was an unfettered domestic PR coup for the Nazi government. In post-fight interviews Schmeling dedicated the victory to Germany and the Fuehrer; Adolf Hitler sent Schmeling's wife flowers. Images of Louis's defeat, especially this one due to its framing - visibly depicting the German standing triumphantly as the referee counts over the fallen American, the fallen black man - were extensively used in propaganda at the time, and again two years later leading up to the rematch.
Oh yeah, the rematch. A year after this loss, Joe Louis won his first world champion title. And a year after that, he would fight Schmeling again, this time in a title match that both the American and German press politicized the hell out of as essentially a proxy battle between the US and Nazi Germany. Schmeling himself wasn't a dedicated Nazi personally, but he was treated by the Nazis as a national symbol of German political and racial superiority nonetheless. An actual Nazi Party representative accompanied Schmeling's team, and reassured the world that the conclusion of the upcoming fight was forgone - Schmeling had already shown he could defeat Louis solidly, and it was impossible for a black man to defeat a German in any case.
The rematch fight took place on June 22, 1938. It didn't last a round; in two minutes, Louis absolutely demolished Schmeling - demolished as in, Schmeling was finally released from the hospital a week and a half later. The American press called Joe Louis a hero, and also "a jungle man, primitive as any savage". That's really all there is to say as far as that goes.
But now we've got this photo, of Joe Louis being defeated in the first fight. And it is enlarged and handsomely displayed on the wall at Glenn Beck's home. Why does Glenn Beck, who is an American, have this photograph of the moment of an American being beaten down by a representative of Nazi Germany on his wall? Is it because the winner is from Nazi Germany? Is it because the loser on the ground is a black man? Or would Beck contend he is wholly ignorant of the context of the photograph and the actual people in it and just thought it was a "neat boxing photo"? Why did he frame the shot for this commercial seemingly with intention to include the photograph? I can think of no good answers to these questions.
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