An Olympic Race

CAUTION!! 

POLITICALLY INCORRECT RANT.  READ AT YOUR OWN PERIL!

If you don't like this topic, ignore it and find something nice and silly to read. 

(as if fears of offending ever bothered me much to begin with!)

I LOVE the Olympics. I am totally in awe of the athleticism I see on TV. I admire the strength of the swimmers, the speed of the runners, the grace of the gymnasts.

I do wish they would show more of the "lesser"sports. Badminton, equestrian sports, fencing and I bet there are sports I am not even aware of. I think there should be more time given to other events, not just the ones that the US seems to dominate in. But that is a whole different rant, if I were to "go there".

For the highly covered sports, it is the gymnasts that really capture my attention. I remember back in high school getting banged up shins because I could never get my fat body over the "horse". I remember fearing the balance bar because I fell off more than once. Forget the uneven bars, I had all I could do to hoist my bulk up on the lower of the two bars.

The acrobatics on the mats were not much better. I managed a forward somersault. I even managed a backwards one. But I could never ever get my feet above my head, let alone fly through the air.

Wincing in remembered pain, I watch as these athletes do things my body can only dream of. They have my full admiration.

I watched the US team go through all the challenges. Little Gabby Douglas is a star! She is absolutely phenomenal. She has more athletic talent than I could ever dream of having. I cheered as she got the Gold. I cheered for America as she claimed her Gold for the US.

But WHY must we put RACE into this equation? WHY do we have to say she is the FIRST BLACK-AMERICAN to win the Gold in gymnastics? Is that REALLY necessary? To me, that means we have two teams. A Black American team and (Other Race) American team.

So do we signify if a Spanish-American wins? Or what about an Italian-American? Let's not forget the Native-American.

Why can't we just say AMERICAN and be proud of that. Gabby is an American. Any other racial distinction is racist.

People get up in arms when it is said that Black-Americans are more prone to violent crimes. That is considered racial profiling. We can't question the legal status of someone who cannot speak English and appears to be from Mexico. That again is racial profiling. In these cases race cannot be spoken of without a lot of fingers pointing yelling "biggot"!

Am I the only one who thinks that putting any kind of race qualifier in any situation, good or bad, simply encourages further racism? To keep saying Black-American, Mexican-American, German-American, Italian-America etc does nothing more than to keep the divide.

I am all for celebrating different heritages. I love this about the US, believe me. But in the Olympics, it is a contest between nations. Romania against Greece, Sweden against Australia, Germany against China. I have not heard it said that Bavaria is competing against the Cantonese...

But here we are...it had to be stated that Gabby is a Black American.

I think we can see that for ourselves.

And what does it matter?

She is AMERICAN. Nothing else matters.

Maybe I should claim to be a "first" in the beading world. Let me draw upon my own heritage. I can claim I am the first German-Lithuanian-American-One of 3% of the population which does not get wisdom teeth-X-Welfare-Single Mom-Safety Engineer-Beader to have had a bead stuck up her arse and suffered a horrible scratch as a result.

Sorry, but I think that is about as important as putting a race qualifier in front of the word AMERICAN in the Olympics.