"Finally, tonight, the Winter Games. Count me among those who don’t like them and won’t watch them ... Because they’re so trying, maybe over the next three weeks we should all try too. Like, try not to be incredulous when someone attempts to link these games to those of the ancient Greeks who never heard of skating or skiing. So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world’s greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention. ...for God’s sake, let the games begin."
This from Bryant Gumbel…one of the whitest black dudes you’ll surely EVER see. He’s made no efforts with regards to race relations that I’m aware of and suddenly he’s spouting off about how the Winter Olympic Games are racist due to the lack of black athletes…suddenly he’s “taking a stand.” – Good for him...
Meanwhile a guy from the city of Chicago was busy fulfilling his dream…winning Gold in the 1,000 meters…just a regular guy who worked hard, practiced daily, dreamed nightly and merely smiled and gave a quick wave when he accomplished it all…Shani Davis, after no doubt suffering through years of mental torment and “teasing” because of his choice to try and skate faster than anyone else in the world despite his blackness…Hell, he’s supposed to be playing basketball right? Catching a football or something – right Bryant?...don’t be confused here folks – while he no doubt took a lot of crap from young white kids he most certainly heard the loudest criticisms from what should have been some of his loudest supporters - and friends for that matter - young African Americans…
This racial nonsense just boggles me…a respected young black television personality like Gumbel sits on his rather popular sports show on HBO lamenting the lack of black athletes in the Games rather than taking an opportunity to highlight the Gold Medal potential an athlete of said race…Rather than show the difficulties and struggles Davis went through just to stick to his chosen sport, and rather than highlight the fact that Davis was shooting to become the FIRST African American gold-medalist EVER – he chose to try and steal a couple headlines (which he did) and in my opinion try and label everyone participating in or endorsing the Games as a bunch of racists…I just don’t get it…
About a month or so ago I happened to catch Morgan Freeman sitting down with Ed Bradley on an installment of 60 Minutes…two prominent, well respected Black males…I watched as they touched on many topics and was intrigued by how REAL both of these men were…just regular people while they sat and talked…then, just like sports, or acting or the presidency – race came up…I remember being struck by how poignant and straightforwardly the subject was approached…a line that I’ll most likely remember for a long while came from Freeman… “the best way to deal with race, and racism, is just to stop talking about it.” In essence – the more we talk about it, or throw it around like a weapon of sorts – the more we perpetuate the overriding issue at hand…the more we sit here and use it a reasons or excuses for everything, the more and longer this cloud is going to rest over ALL of our heads…
I guess that’s why all this race stuff just makes me frustrated, confused and PISSED off…frustrated that this crap is still going on - confused that people STILL can't just get passed something so trivial - and pissed that it's just accepted as apart of our daily lives...
And even more so when I watch a young successful black athlete reach his goal while another successful black man is on the other side of the world sitting in his posh home with his white wife trying to suddenly act like he is a voice for the “plight” of the black man when he had an opportunity to highlight the skater’s merits and triumphs…
No doubt though, that as soon as the Games are over Gumbel will bring Shani Davis on his program to wax poetically about what a shining light he is for all the hopeful young black athletes who wish to take part in the Winter Olympics one day…
In other news – a 7-foot-tall white-dude from Germany just won the NBA three-point contest…
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