During the Olympics, I want to focus on the extraordinary talents of athletes. But governments and the mainstream media get in the way. I try to resist the xenophobia that can mar the collective support for all the participating athletes. Xenophobia is when one believes that another’s country, culture and customs is inferior and believe their own country is superior to all.
(We saw a glimpse of xenophobia when Mexican-American Leo Manzano took silver in the 1500 meters and was soundly criticized when he made his victory lap draped in both the American and Mexican flags.)
African Americans definitely made their marks on the 2012 Olympics. However, it was the sistahs who captured the spotlight this year, and not always for the right reasons.
Louise Stokes and Theodora Ann “Tidye” Pickett were the first black women to qualify to represent the U.S. in the Olympics. The two came ready to participate in the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1932 but were not allowed to run and were replaced by white runners. The same thing happened to Louise again in 1936. You may remember this as the same Olympics where Jesse Owens did an in-your-face track performance and won four gold medals during the height of Hitler’s white supremacist Nazism.
Since those early days, the numbers of black athletes representing the U.S. in the Olympics has steadily increased and diversified. Racism in the media kept them from getting their just due, and sisters had the added burden of sexism, mirroring the economic disparities that black women experience in everyday life.
Track athletes such as Wilma Rudolph, Alice Coachman, Mae Faggs, Lucinda Williams and Willye White followed Stokes and Pickett, paving the way for Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Florence “Flo-Jo” Griffin Joyner, Valerie Brisco-Hooks, Gale Devers, Evelyn Ashford and Vonetta Flowers.
In turn, new doors beyond track and field were opened for Debbie Thomas (skating), Dominique Dawson (gymnastics), Zina Garrison (tennis) and Maya Moore (basketball).
In the 2012 Olympics, the U.S. Women’s 4×400 team of Allyson Felix, Tianna Madison, Carmelita Jeter and Bianca Night set a world record; runners like Dawn Harper, Kellie Wells, Sanya Richards-Ross and DeeDee Trotter added to the formidable sistah presence.
Lia Neal took home a bronze in swimming. Selena and Venus Williams continued their golden dominance on the courts. Brittney Reese became the first American woman to win the Olympic long jump title since Jackie Joyner-Kersee in 1988.
Claressa Shields, 17, took gold in the welterweight division when she crushed her Russian opponent in the first ever women’s boxing competition in the Olympics. Gabrielle “Gabby” Douglas, 16, brought home three golds, including in the coveted individual all-around category, and executed a nearly perfect performance.
When criticisms about her hair surfaces, Gabby responded that it doesn’t matter if her hair is short or she’s bald. “Nothing is going to change,” she said, so “you might as well just stop talking about it.”
This internalized oppression fanned by the white mainstream media intersects with the racist comments like those by shock jock Don Imus when he called the Rutgers women’s basketball team a bunch of “nappy-headed ho’s.”
That same media downplay the athletic accomplishments of Dawn Harper by covering Lolo Jones, even when Harper wins. Why? Because Lolo is a light-skinned beauty and Harper is a chocolate-skinned beauty. It’s the old plantation strategy that is a deep part of black people’s psyche and perpetuated by white oppression. It keeps the “light-skin” and “good hair” part of the present instead of being put in the trash can of history.
Harper calls the media coverage “hurtful” and unfair; I call it racist and intentional coverage and it needs to be called out. Sports are political and are impacted by all the biases we endure in the broader society. We can enjoy the Olympics, but we should understand that the same factors that are in play off the field are in full play on the field.
