Land of Make Believe

[pktechgirlbackup]

Olympic gold medal gymnast Gabby Douglas went on Oprah and talked about racial bullying she received at her (former?) training gym. Several ex-gymnasts have issued statements defending the school. Before I even watch the actual interview, I'd like to play a game called "let's pretend that's true" with the defenses.

This is absolutely ridiculous. I trained at Excalibur gymnastics for 8 years and I personally trained with gabby for 2 of those years. The accusations that are being made against the gymnasts and coaches are just sickening. I watched dena and Gustavo put so much of their time and effort into gabby and the other athletes, no matter their race. Gabby was never a victim, in fact many would say she was one of the favorites.

Let's pretend that's true... even if she was their favorite, that doesn't prevent them from ever saying or doing something racist, and it really doesn't prevent other students and staff from doing so.

I am not saying that she never felt bullied because when you are in a sport with a bunch of girls it is bond to happen. However, anything that she may have felt was never about race and I can assure you everyone at some point has felt bullied.

Right. Girls are well known for being vicious little harpies who nonetheless scrupulously avoid ever making someone feel left out because they are in some way different.

I never once heard her complain about girls being mean, funny how it is just now coming up.

I'm glad we've established her qualifications to talk on this subject.

Also, not only does she owe the gym thousands of dollars but she owes dena thousands as well. I watched dena open her home to gabby, feeding her, taking her to gym, and allowing her to stay over her house whenever gabby wanted to. You take people like dena and Gustavo, people that are selfless and put so much into helping these gymnasts reach their potential and you make them out to be evil and heartless.

Let's pretend that's true... this is another thing that only even pretends to address a small portion of the problem, and doesn't even do that. Also, I find it curious that she's consistently capitalizing the male coach's name, but no one else's.

You should all be ashamed of yourselves. Unless you were there to witness these so called racial acts against gabby I suggest you take your comments elsewhere because you sound ignorant. Girls leave gyms all the time it is just part of being an athlete but there is absolutely no need to publicly bash people that have done nothing but support you and do the best they can to help you reach your dreams. I also trained with Morgan Evans, Marcia Newby, Britney Ranzy and Sheriese Clark all of which were on the national team and are African American. I can assure you they all have nothing but great things to say about their experience at Excalibur.

So... none of your black friends have ever complained about racism to you? And the conclusion you draw is that racism is not a thing?

Here's another one, from another athlete.

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing the Excalibur coaches for many years- never once would I question their coaching or love for their athletes. In fact, Dena and Jim were the first coaches to congratulate other athletes, as well as their own.

I don't think anyone did question their coaching or their love for their athletes. And I'm running out of ways to say "but that's completely orthogonal to the point in question."

I couldn’t agree more with Randy Stageburg. While I wasn’t personally coached by Jim, Dena or Gustavo- what Gabby is saying makes me sick.

I have no data except the belief that things I find unpleasant aren't true.

I know numerous gymnasts who experienced nothing but fantastic memories from Excalibur. Pay back the money you owe, stop playing the victim and respect the coaches who got you to the Elite level. Because the Excalibur family is one that I personally remember during my career.

Let's pretend that's true... I understand the implication that she's trying to make Excalibur look bad so she can avoid paying them back, or is just complaining out of spite. But it turns out it is possible for people to be racist even at locations that have extended you credit. I know, I was shocked too.

The article has a video response from her gym. It's less terrible, in that they give actual facts that affect the argument (i.e. that Douglas wasn't the only black gymnast), but mostly it's one lady saying Douglas never told her about this at the time, and she's sad that she's doing so now, which if she had read this post she would know is not a counter argument.

Okay, I just watched the video (embedded in the article, starts at 4:30, and again at 11). She doesn't make a single accusation against the coaches.

So here is what I suspect happened: from the perspective of the defenders, Gabby was unpopular for reasons not related to race. She was a coach's favorite and he apparently deliberately kept her apart, and she didn't have the gifted-level EQ required to overcome that. Plus, it's teen girls in a competitive environment, society doesn't have a concept of them not being mean. Independent of that, there were a few isolated incidences of girls making jokes that could have been racial in origin, although we can't even jump to that conclusion, they could have been using the word slave in a race neutral sense.

From Douglas's perspective, these things are not separable. Separability is for people at the top of the privilege hierarchy. Which means I don't have a ton of insight here, because I am very near the top myself. But I am very sure that's what's going on.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

But you never told me at the time IS a counter argument. As a former educator (and of course student) I can point out that no teacher can see every incident that ever happens. Everyone too has probably been bullied. You do your best-to handle it when its recognized. Sure many kids are scared to bring it up to teachers... But surely the place for it to be dealt with is to go to the people involved so they can stop it. Not to go on national tv first and complain about bullying. When this can affect people's careers, etc.

Not to mention its Gabby's side of the story.. Maybe Gabby did have people who were mean to her-totally possible? But how was Gabby towards HER teammates. Can you say 100% that she was a perfect angel? I can't... There are other kids- and they are kids that she's accusing Kids who can't defend themselves. Do I believe Gabby probably faced bullying sure-but the way its brought up and the way its talked about and the context.

Not to mention she presented an image of that gym that was blatently-unfair. I was the only African American gymnast in the gym. Not to true, not true at all. That gym has had numerous African American gymnasts, and even has had African American gymnasts like the experience so much-that they came back to coach there.

But now this gym that actually 100% fact produced more African American gymnasts on the national team than anyone else, has minority coaches etc. Gets to be called racist. Fair. Yes Fair.