We Need to Talk About the Olympics

As you may know a female sprinter named Sha’Carri Richardson was supposed to compete in the Tokyo Olympics this summer but was suspended over a positive cannabis test. Considering that they also banned Soul Caps which are designed for black hair, I think it’s pretty obvious that the Olympics is racist. However, I have a lot more receipts to share.

I’ve never been very interested in the Olympics itself. I feel like, as with anything involving sports, whenever the Olympics was going on all of a sudden our country was completely absorbed in the games and it was all anyone, including the media, was talking about. (I feel like another hint that the Olympics actually sucks was because the awful pastor [or maybe I should say IMpastor, because he was a hypocrite] mentioned it during his homily.) I digress.

Basically, growing up, I felt like the Olympics, maybe even sports in general, were kind of pushed onto me and I felt like I had to care.

When I was in eighth grade, I was given a book that consisted of mini biographies about female athletes like Leslie Sparks, Venus Williams and Michelle Kwan. When I think of Michelle Kwan, I feel like she’s so well known as an Olympic medalist that it may be shocking to know that she never won a gold medal. In fact, this statement was used as a punchline in an episode of the Gilmore Girls (I believe it was the Thanksgiving episode in season 3). Perhaps the reason why Kwan never won a gold medal is because the Olympics is racist?

The other day, I happened to be looking at footage from the US Open 2018, Naomi Osaka vs. Serena Williams. In the video I watched them emphasize the fact that Serena broke her tennis racket and the announcer mentioned that Naomi’s victory was overshadowed by Serena. Honestly though, Serena has every right to speak up. This is her career. And as she told the judges, this had happened several times before. It wasn’t okay that they pushed her into the “angry black woman” trope, but if I was in her situation, I would have been furious.

When you remember the fact that Naomi Osaka’s Haitian heritage is always left out during interviews, does it really surprise you that the Olympics is racist? I mean, literally Google Naomi Osaka it will say “Japanese tennis player.” However, she is half Haitian and half Japanese.

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