Being a black man in the United States in the 1930s was about as much fun as having your nuts smashed shut in a vice grip while creepy leprechauns throw horseshoes at you and insult your virility. There was little opportunity for any social or financial advancement, few chances to improve your station in life, and the time-honored American Traditions of rampant unabashed racism and segregation forever were still incredibly popular with dumbass white people in pretty much every corner of our great country. In this atmosphere of hatred, ignorance, and general dumbassitude, Jesse Owens, the grandson of a slave and the son of a sharecropper (the term used to refer to slaves in the 30s), went from being an impoverished gas station attendant to become an Olympic legend, an American hero, and a fucking badass who overcame a shitstorm of adversity to shove his foot up Hitler's ass and prove to the world that he was the greatest athlete alive.
Unfortunately, most U.S. businesses at that time were run by a bunch of uptight stodgy white guys with bad attitudes and incredibly small dicks, and instead of appearing on a bunch of hilarious SportsCenter commercials or pimping "Air Jesse" sneakers to everybody from albino computer software engineers to Kindergardeners, Owens got totally shafted in terms of sweet-ass endorsement deals back in the States. There were no tricked-out Bentleys, no visits to the White House, and no multi-million dollar mansions made out of gold-plated diamonds, but Jesse didn't give a flying fuck at a rolling donut - he just made some extra by putting on badass displays of his incredible speed. He was famous for beating thoroughbred racing horses in the 100 meter dash, which is fucking awesome, and he also had a deal with Negro League Baseball where he would come out and race some of the game's fastest players. He would spot them ten meters in the hundred meters, and still kick their asses - even though at this point in his life he was a pack-a-day smoker. Once he got too old to make Kentucky Derby champions eat his dust, Jesse had a successful career as a motivational public speaker, served as a goodwill ambassador to India on behalf of the State Department, and won the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the highest civilian award offered by the USA) in 1976. Shit, they even named a street after him in downtown Berlin.
