race and sports

it's always awkward when the subject of race in sports is brought up.
conservative-slanted media watchdog newsbusters documents bryant gumbel's closing remarks about his lack of interest in the winter olympics (along with a needless jab at the republican party)

"So 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 convention."

while gumbel's comment will likely receive less scrutiny simply because he's black, there's a long list of people whose comments stirred alotta controversy and fallout.

al campanis infamously remarked that blacks "may not have some of the necessities" to get high-ranking positions on nightline. similarly, jimmy the greek speechified

"The black is a better athlete to begin with, because he has been bred to be that way. This goes all the way back to the Civil War, when the slave owner would breed his big black to his big woman so that he could have a big black kid, see."

(incidentally, jimmy the greek is #6 on that list with campanis get the #1 slot)

more recently, rush limbaugh made the somewhat valid point that donovan mcnabb could be considered overrated and the philly d 'carried the team'. his mistake was to link this overrating to his being black, and a media tendency (which some of them resented). the subsequent controversy forced limbaugh to quit

¶ - nitish @ 12:40 PM