Paul Oberjuerge: Bryant Gumbel and White Winters
Bryant Gumbel, Mr. Crabby, went off on the Winter Olympics the other day. Said they were a fraud because they have no black athletes.
Said he never watches them. etc.
Is he right? Does no African Americans mean no legitimacy?
Partly. Mostly, not.
The U.S. team is an ethnically diverse as it's ever been, and is trending toward even more. A black man, speedskater Shani Davis, won a gold and silver medal, a black woman (Vonetta Flowers) competed in bobsled, a Mexican-American and a Cuban-American (Derek Parra, Jennifer Rodriguez) competed in long-track), a Japanese-American (Apolo Anton Ohno) went in short-track, as did a Mexican-American (Maria Garcia) and a Korean-American (Kim Hyo-Jung).
What I think Gumbel was suggesting is something we wrote for the newspaper last week: That Winter Olympians aren't all that god-like, because the talent pool in most of these sports is very very thin.
If that means you prefer not to watch, fine. As I also wrote: This isn't the final of the men's 100-meter dash. Those guys are the tip of a very big pyramid.
It doesn't have to be about race. It has to do with participation. Numbers. Even cultural preferences -- not many black kids going skating, as Shani Davis did as a child.
Not every issue in American culture is about race. Bryant ought to know better.
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