Viewpoint: Race perceptions in America still need to evolve
Gabby Douglas with her coach Liang Chow (left) and team leader Martha Karolyi after winning gold in the women's individual all-around competition.
It was never “Gabby Douglas won the Olympic gold in the women’s gymnastics all-around.”
It was always “Gabby Douglas is the first African-American to win the Olympic gold in the women’s gymnastics all-around.”
It’s a stat worth mentioning, but just a mention would suffice. Instead, it feels like every news organization in the world is leading with Douglas’ race. I’ve even seen a few use the phrase “woman of color,” which sounds like something straight out of the civil rights era.
Bob Costas -- NBC’s primetime Olympic anchor -- threw gasoline on this century-old fire when he commented in depth on Douglas’ race.
“You know, it’s a happy measure of how far we’ve come that it doesn’t seem all that remarkable, but still it’s noteworthy, Gabby Douglas is, as it happens, the first African-American to win the women’s all-around in gymnastics,” Costas said. “The barriers have long since been down, but sometimes there can be an imaginary barrier, based on how one might see oneself.”
Costas has been one of the best sports reporters on the scene for a while, always asking the tough questions and providing thoughtful insight. His monologue on NBC makes me ask myself one question.
Why does it matter?
Douglas’ race has no relation whatsoever to her gold medal. Her win may inspire some young black girls to take up the sport, but they were never faced with a “barrier” that blocked them from doing so.
The bigots of America have long since dwindled to an insignificant few. We’ve evolved as a nation, to the point where we elected an African-American president.
But, there is still a racial barrier in our country, proven by Costas’ remarks, proven by the topic of this column.
As long as we acknowledge that there is a barrier, there will always be a barrier.
The only fundamental difference between races is genetics, which could include anything from skin color to a greater risk for an illness. Beyond that, we are all human beings with the same functional ability, whether that is as simple as breathing or, in Douglas’ case, as complicated as vaulting.
In sports, there are so many stereotypes based on race, but there are even more contradictions. Jeremy Lin is Asian, a Harvard graduate and a starting point guard in the NBA. Danny Woodhead and Wes Welker are two short, white men who play skill positions in the NFL.
Not to mention culture. In the 1990s, white rappers Vanilla Ice and Eminem revolutionized a historically black genre of music. Now, there are as many white fans of rap as there are black fans.
Races clash all the time, but when they meet in the battlefield, they don’t know why they’re fighting. The war is won. Permeating racism is all but dead. The skirmishes still persist, but each epiphany of understanding is a step closer to ending the idea of race as an inhibitor.
As Douglas, 16, stood on that podium and listened to The Star-Spangled Banner, I wonder if it crossed her mind once that she was black. I bet the only colors she was thinking of were red, white and blue.
And maybe gold.
Dan Norton is a Summer 2012 USA TODAY Collegiate Correspondent. Learn more about him here.
This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.