"Although I wasn't invited to shake hands with Hitler, I wasn't invited to the White House to shake hands with the President either"

Jesse Owens’ remark reflects both his wry humor and pointed commentary regarding the intersection of race, politics, and international prestige during his time. After winning four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Owens became a symbol of excellence and a challenge to Adolf Hitler’s Aryan supremacy narrative. The widespread belief is that Hitler failed to shake Owens’ hand in Germany, which was often cited as evidence of Nazi racism. Yet, Owens’ statement reminds us that discrimination was not limited to Nazi Germany.

He deftly highlights a painful irony: while Americans loved to criticize Hitler for his racism, their own President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, never extended an invitation or handshake to Owens upon his return to the United States. Despite his monumental achievements and his role in countering Nazism through athletic prowess, African Americans like Owens remained marginalized and unacknowledged at home. The juxtaposition exposes the hypocrisy within American society, which claimed moral superiority over Germany while continuing to uphold Jim Crow laws and deny Black citizens basic civil rights.

Owens’ words also reveal a sense of resignation, or perhaps a stoic acceptance, of the barriers he faced. He does not dwell on the lack of recognition from Hitler, but he equally notes the absence of acknowledgment from his own country’s leader. By doing so, he forces listeners to confront uncomfortable truths about the universality of racial prejudice, delving beneath surface-level narratives that conveniently cast all racism as foreign or external.

His reflection is a critique of empty patriotism, one that champions national heroes abroad but fails to honor or uplift them at home if they are Black. It’s a call for introspection in the American conscience, urging society to recognize and rectify its own injustices rather than solely indicting those abroad. By contrasting the two snubs, Owens captures the enduring struggle for recognition and equality faced by Black Americans, even amid their greatest triumphs.