Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom Bryant Gumbel is at it again. <<Winter Olympics not diverse enough for US media Anyone who follows US sports is aware of how obsessed the sports media is with blacks. NASCAR and NHL (ice hockey) spokesmen are constantly having to explain to reporters why their sports are so lacking in diversity (unlike the NBA!) and how they’re working hard to change things. Even the mostly black NFL comes under regular criticism from media because there are so few black coaches and quarterbacks - the two positions that seem to require the most intelligence. With the Winter Olympics about to begin it is unsurprising that the US sports media has already started to recycle the same complaints about diversity they had at Salt Lake, Nagano, Lillehammer, Albertville and so on. Bryant Gumbel the black celebrity presenter who says the US is “hopelessly racist†and last year went to Europe to investigate the racism of European soccer fans appears to be the first to put down the Games. Speaking on his HBO programme Real Sports he said “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 conventionâ€. He went on to suggest the Winter Games are just February filler (following the NFL season) as we wait for March Madness (diverse US college basketball). >> All this and Black History month too.
Originally Posted By wahooskipper Well, not to state the obvious, but the blacks are on the basketball court, not the ski slopes. That might be oversimplifying things a bit but I don't think winter sports are a major draw in that demographic. Who is Bryan Gumble to talk about this anyway? I thought he was white.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA Nope, looks like a black guy to me... <a href="http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2002/SHOWBIZ/TV/04/04/gumbel.cbs/story.gumble.jpg" target="_blank">http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2002/SHOW BIZ/TV/04/04/gumbel.cbs/story.gumble.jpg</a>
Originally Posted By FaMulan During the Parade of Nations, I was pleasantly surprised at the number of African and Tropical countries that fielded even one athlete this time around. Sadly, for people of African descent, there doesn't seem to be a keen interest in winter sports or even water sports. The US swim team also lacks in darker skinned participants. However, in order to participate in a sport, one must have the desire to do so. The US does not force people into a sport a la the old Soviet Union (there were stories of the CCCP Olympic committee going into villages and decreeing that this child would be an ice skater and that child a gymnast), one has to truly have the desire to participate in a sport to excel. I wish more people of color could find their passion in winter sports. I saw a news bit about a Latina speed skater who made it to the Olympics for the US, but is not a medal contestant. She has a famous sponsor: George Lopez. He's 100% behind this young lady realizing her dream and is totally ecstatic that she's into a winter sport.
Originally Posted By gurgitoy2 "Speaking on his HBO programme Real Sports he said “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 conventionâ€. He went on to suggest the Winter Games are just February filler (following the NFL season) as we wait for March Madness (diverse US college basketball)." Well, this doesn't sound so much racist as very Ameri-centric. So, he's basically saying that American sports are the more important events, and the Olympics are "filler"? Yeah...ok. I also agree with FaMulan, that nobody (in the US) is forcing anybody into the Olympics. Athletes chose to be there, so if it's not that diverse, it's not because anybody has been "screened out" or whatever.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan <--- had to look up the definition of the word "paucity". I'd never heard that word. I was thinking Pau City was some place in Italy where curling competitions were being held.
Originally Posted By wahooskipper I was being sarcastic. While many white teens try to emulate the black experience he was one of the first widely known black folks to try and emulate the white experience. Either way...he is a tool. How many African countries have snow? How many ski slopes are in the inner cities of America? Heck, how many black hockey players do you know?
Originally Posted By Lake Nona >>Heck, how many black hockey players do you know?<< Anson Carter, Jarome Iginla, Grant Fuhr
Originally Posted By Dabob2 Gumbel has irked me for a long time, and I think he irks a lot of people. He does seem to have a smugness/superiority complex about him. Which is weird, because he's not that interesting a sportscaster. (I still remember at Letterman Top 10 list about a previous Olympics with Greg Gumbel that said something like "No, no, Greg is the nice one.") That said, KT, when you cut and paste a quote, it would be nice if you would paste the link also, so a). we know where it came from, b). we can read more if we're so inclined.
Originally Posted By Darkbeer Proud to say I know Willie O'Ree quite well from all the time he spent in San Diego <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_O" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W illie_O</a>'Ree
Originally Posted By Darkbeer <a href="http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=63192" target="_blank">http://www.sportingnews.com/yo urturn/viewtopic.php?t=63192</a> >>However, if you have any brains, that's not even the most damning thing Gumbel said. The comment about the Olympics not having the world's greatest athletes because of the lack of black athletes is a flat-out joke. Sure, a good deal of the worlds greatest athletes are not in Torino, but a lot of them are. Oh, that's right. NHL players, world class figure skaters, Shaun White and Ted Liggety must not be any good because they're not black. I guess that's what Gumbel means. You can twist Gumbel's words however you want too, and I'm sure a lot of you will. You will hammer me and call me all sorts of names because I took major offense to Gumbel's commentary. What you can't do is ignore the absolute damning criticism by Gumbel that would never be accepted if Gumbel were white and said he would not watch the NBA because of the lack of non-black players. Imagine if I went on Sporting News Radio and said the NBA is impossible to watch because there are too many blacks, or if I said the reason why I have an incredible passion for hockey is because the player pool is overwhelmingly white. You would want my head on a platter, with knife in hand. Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder was rightfully fired by CBS, Al Campanis was justifiably fired by the Los Angeles Dodgers for his comments on ABC many years back, and Rush Limbaugh was blown out of his ESPN gig for stupid remarks about Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb. If we're being fair here, shouldn't Gumbel be fired for his blatant racist and ignorant comments on HBO last week? I know every comment is different, and needs to be judged independently. I had no problem with Snyder, Campanis or Limbaugh getting shown the door, but so should Gumbel. A person of his intelligence, experience and polish absolutely cannot compare the Winter Olympics to a GOP convention, which is to say that the Olympics are not good because of the lack of blacks, and also that a huge section of our government is largely exclusionary. Here's another issue: HBO does not air that show live. How in the world did a comment like that escape HBO's production team or upper level management? Does that mean that HBO, which has issued no response to this issue as of Thursday, agrees with Gumbel? They must, because the silence is deafening. Or maybe, it's part of a bigger problem. That if you are black, you can say more damaging and hurtful comments, but if you are not, don't even go down that road. <<
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Ever notice how some folks here get such a charge about finding a reason to call a black person a bigot?? As if a white person would ever have ANY CLUE what it's like to be on the receiving end of discrimination.
Originally Posted By wahooskipper I have been discriminated against because I am a white male...on more than one occassion. Is my life oppressive? No. But I can understand how it feels to be discriminated against.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<I have been discriminated against because I am a white male...on more than one occassion.>> Perhaps you’ve been discriminated against in relatively minor ways having to do with affirmative action etc. But I really don't think a white person can come anywhere close to knowing what it is like to be black. If you are walking down a street late at night people aren't immediately scared of you like they would be if you were black. When you walk into a room the color of your skin is not the first thing people notice about you like would happen if you were black. When the good white people of Punta Gorda were stupid enough to try riding out a hurricane in their mobile homes, they were made out to be innocent victims. When black people were stupid enough to try riding out a hurricane in New Orleans they were made out to be idiots who deserved what they got. When you are black the color of your skin is going to have some impact, usually negative, on every single day of your life. I don’t think a white person could ever imagine what that is like.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom <<Ever notice how some folks here get such a charge about finding a reason to call a black person a bigot?? As if a white person would ever have ANY CLUE what it's like to be on the receiving end of discrimination.>> RoadTrip, I am the person who created this thread. And as you an many other people on this thread as aware, I am gay. Yes I have been gay bashed. Yes I am discriminated against almost daily. Although I have been in a stable long term relationship for going on 11 years now, we can not marry. Since the greater part of our younger careers were spent as public servants neither of us are elligible to recieve survivors benefits on our respective retirement plans. I could go on and on and on here. Yes I called Bryant Gumbel a bigot because he is. I don't go out of my way to bash people on a daily basis like Bryant Gumbel does, and believe me I could.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip KT, No, I did not know you were gay, but I guess that doesn't make a whole lot of difference. I wasn't referring specifically to you (which is why I said "some folks"), and I wasn't even referring specifically to this thread. It just seemed to me there have been several threads posted over the past couple of weeks that seem to delight in pointing out examples of blacks discriminating against others.
Originally Posted By DlandDug >>As if a white person would ever have ANY CLUE what it's like to be on the receiving end of discrimination.<< Based on this logic (or lack of same), no Democrat should ever criticize a Republican. After all, until you have supported the political aspirations Gerald Ford, or George W. Bush, or Bob Dole, you cannot begin to comprehend the mind of one who does, so don't even try. It's so presumptuous.
Originally Posted By StillThePassHolder "Based on this logic (or lack of same), no Democrat should ever criticize a Republican. After all, until you have supported the political aspirations Gerald Ford, or George W. Bush, or Bob Dole, you cannot begin to comprehend the mind of one who does, so don't even try. It's so presumptuous." You can't be serious. Are you really trying to compare the political differences of of Democrats and Republicans with being black or white in this country? At least in the former instance, a person has a choice, just off the top of my head.
