News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Aug. 26, 2016: The Obama’s are back in The White House. Vacation over.
And Obama’s America is back to normal after computer woes last week.
And now that the Olympics are over and the United States crushed the world and came home with a hoard of Medals, no doubt the Olympians will be invited to The White House to be praised by President Obama.
What is wrong with this picture?
Nothing at all on one level but quite a lot on another!
It looks very good if you don’t look under the hood.
But if you do, it reflects a less invited aspect of America – one President Obama is very comfortable with but we should not be. The very narrow nature of African-American success and continuing widespread exclusion.
It is reflected very well in Barack Obama’s own success. We have a Black President so that must mean things are great for African Americans?
NO!
Or looking at a picture of Simone Biles and one of her Gold Medals we can say that too?
Not quite. Call it the Big Disconnect. It’s the same with the Olympics.
Or as March Morial, president of the Urban League, said in The New York Times in response to a Donald Trump criticism of the conditions in Black America: “Have you seen the Olympics?”
To which I would reply have you seen the Olympics Mr. Morial?
Yes Simone Biles and Simone Manuel and other Black Olympians are tremendous examples of success but the Olympics are still a Black Ghetto.
We will prove it here in Obama’s America as no other media source has done or will. They will just focus on the few examples of African-American success to provide Americans a false picture of the reality of sports.
And as with everything else, President Obama will do the same – ignore reality when he has the power to force change, but as usual he never will.
So here is the TRUTH about the Olympics – these numbers do not lie.
Rather that writing a puffy feel good story that implies African-Americans now can have a bright future in Olympic swimming because Simone Manuel won a Gold Medal – even indirectly implying that young African Americans are not on the Olympic team winning lots of Medals because they just have not made the effort to do so …
All this is the Tiger Woods scenario on a smaller scale.
Of course there is NO good reason there are not lots of good African American swimmers on the Olympic teams. African Americans needless to say are every bit as athletically talented and as intelligent and as eager for success as White Americans and there is NO reason why in 2016 Simone Manuel is the first Black American to win a Gold Medal in swimming and only the third in history to win any Olympic Medal in swimming while since the Modern Olympics began hundreds of White Americans have won Olympic Medals in swimming.
I did a simple survey – there were 555 men and women on Team USA at the Rio Olympics …
involved in 29 different sporting competitions…
leaving 3 sports aside to make an important point
boxing, basketball and track & field
of the other 26 Olympic sports…..
there are a total of 24 African American athletes
on 15 of those 29 sports there are NO African Americans
but including boxing, basketball and track & field
emphasizes the “segregation” of Black athletes
that they are so highly represented in 3 sports
and so little in the 26 other sports
boxing – 5 of 6 athletes are African-Americans
basketball – 19 of 24 athletes are African-Americans
track & field – 86 of 129 athletes are African-Americans
in these 3 sports – 110 of 161 athletes are African Americans
in these 3 sports – 60% of the athletes are African-Americans
in the other – 26 sports, 6% of the athletes are African-Americans
in 3 sports – there are TEN times as many African Americans
as in all the other 26 sports combined
THAT IS A STAGGERING RATIO …
There are only two plausible conclusions ..
1) African-Americans have a very narrow athletic ability compared to White Americans
OR
2) Something is very, very wrong here. The answer is #2.
What separates boxing, basketball and track & field from all the other sports is they are “poverty” sports meaning – young men and women do not need special facilities or equipment to express and develop their talent ..
while virtually ALL the other sports do ….
In other words this is “proof” that in fact African-Americans would compete very effectively in the other 26 sports too IF they had the same kind of access to these 26 other sports.
That is an important story of these Olympics for Americans and this situation is NOT going to change in the next Olympic or the next 10 Olympics without a decision to do so.
This is no different than golf and Tiger Woods’ success – it has had NO impact in creating more professional Black golfers because African-American kids do not have real access to golf. There are NO African-Americans on the PGA tour now that Tiger Woods is gone. Not even any Black caddies!
So when Simone Manuel won her Gold Medal in swimming – (Manuel is the only Black women on the Stanford U. team) – that is a great individual achievement that means nothing at all for the future of African-Americans in Olympic swimming or any other Olympic sport ……
Olympic Sports are a reflection of the larger American society and there is NO change coming. All these Olympic sports with little or no African-American inclusion will remain this way because Black Americans are denied the means to enter these sports; they are EXCLUDED and even more at competitive levels, and there is no serious effort to change this.
IMAGINE President Obama criticizing this situation, demanding change?
All you can do is IMAGINE it because Obama never will!
