1st African American Gold Medal? Big Friggin Deal!!!!!

[SebQtaneus]

Anybody catch the speed skating part of the Olympics last night?

Shani Davis won a gold medal.

Thats great, I like to see Americans do good in the Olympics.
But what the hell is the big damn deal about him being the "first african american to win a gold medal at the winter olympics"? That quote kept being repeated over and over by Bob Costas and the rest of the folks doing the Olympic coverage and it kinda bothered me. No, actually it bothered me a lot! It's like they are making it out to be him winning his gold medal was more special than the rest of the "non-african american" athletes who won a gold medal. Are they going to make the same big deal of it when the first "African-African" wins a gold? Or the first "African-Frenchman" or "Asian-Norwegian"? NO! they aren't! So this guy gets special treatment just because he's a black dude? I mean C'mon! WTF does his ancestry have to do with him winning a gold medal?

And this guy wasn't even deserving of the special attention the begin with! First, he very probably cost the USA's Speed Skating "team" a good chance at a gold medal by refusing to take part in the "team pursuit event" which by the way was a day or two before his own personal event. Then when the tv lady is interviewing him after he wins the gold medal in his "individual event" he acts like a total by giving terse one word answers and not looking at her or the camera. If you watched it, you know what I'm talking about. What a total DICK this guy is! He obviously went to the school where they spell team with an "I" in it. I'm sorry he was even allowed to be a representative of my country in the Olympics to begin with.

[Kuso]

fwiw, he was the first black person to win an individual gold medal in the winter olympics... from the US or otherwise (referring to the term "African-American").

as such, the medal actually was historic.

as for shani davis........



other info i've read suggests that NBC really wants to promote shani's win in order to boost the ratings with the black tv market in the US. idol is killing the olympic coverage. cynical, but probably true.

[SebQtaneus]

[redhouse]

[SebQtaneus]

I just did some more reading and guess what? This guy is not the first black person to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics, that distinction goes to Vonetta Flowers, she was the first black to capture winter gold at the Salt Lake City Games four years ago. She was a pusher on the two-woman bobsled team.

[GodlikeRoy]

[iceman5]

I could ask "Why is there a Black Miss America pageant?", but then I might be considered a racist by certain people.

What about the Black Chamber of Commerce?
Latino Music awards?

Lets have a White Miss America pageant and see how long it takes for Al Sharpton to start a boycott and threaten to burn down the arena where its held.

And these same "certain" people wonder why racism will never die?

[Dumb Snowman]

I say that all the time. My mother thinks I'm a racist

[laynegt]

[Dumb Snowman]

[Juskimo]

[SebQtaneus]

[Kuso]

[Kuso]

[Cactus Jack]

The two-man bobsled team would still be a team event.

Nobody listens to sports talk radio, I guess. Friday and most of the weekend, the rants have been about what Bryant Gumbel said on Real Sports (HBO) about there being a "pausity of blacks" in the Olympics, so it's not watchable. Comparisons to Rush Limbaugh abound. Funny thing is Limbaugh was criticizing the media, which is what Seb's doing here, when Gumbel is being flat-out racist.

It's okay for Gumbel to say he won't watch the Olympics because their are no African-Americans, but not okay for me to say I don't watch the NBA because their aren't enough white guys? I doubt it.

Race is one thing in the US that is beyond strange. Double standards are perfectly acceptable. A pox on political correctness. Hypocrisy comes in all colors.