Gabby Douglas, who has spent her entire life dedicated to her sport and to representing her country through that sport, has had the crowning event, the Olympics, ruined, by a bunch of obnoxious white people on twitter giving her shit for not putting her hand over her heart during the anthem:
As younger U.S. teammates added to their medal haul Sunday, Gabby Douglas, the Virginia Beach native who captivated the gymnastics world in winning all-around gold at the 2012 Olympics, struggled to a disappointing and emotional finish at the Rio Games.
After finishing seventh in a field of eight in her lone individual event, the uneven bars, Douglas fought back tears when reporters’ questions about her performance turned to questions about a wide range of criticism that has been directed at her, much of it on social media: about her stance during the playing of the national anthem, her expression in the stands as Simone Biles and Aly Raisman vied for all-around honors, and a perception that she has distanced herself from teammates.
Douglas said she had avoided the Internet while in Rio because of the “negativity,” which she said she didn’t understand.
Seriously, fuck you people.
Robin G.
Black female accused of being insufficiently patriotic: news at 11. Every day. For all of history.
*sigh*
(Plus side: at least all the bullshit sexism and misogyny during this Olympics means there’s been an *opportunity* for it to be on display. Tons of women’s event coverage! Frequently bullshit coverage, but still coverage!)
Keith G
Her treatment was deplorable, but predictable given the elevated LQ of social media. LQ = Loser Quotient.
My question would be why anyone who is already under acute stress would think that unfiltered social media would be a place to experience.
Robin G
@Keith G: I imagine it would be easier if the MSM didn’t cover troglodytic Twitter backlash like it was unusual or newsworthy. Those tweets were turning up in regular news and Douglas was being asked about them by reporters, IIRC.
cleek
Twitter continues to look like something i don’t need in my life
smintheus
As Gabby’s mother pointed out in a Reuters article, she comes from a military family where its customary to stand at attention as she did when the national anthem is played.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-olympics-rio-agymnastics-douglas-bull-idUSKCN10P0M6
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
And OMG the crap about her HAIR has come back up. My PT was complaining about that last week.
Mnemosyne
@Keith G:
It sounds like she was wisely avoiding social media during the Games but that the reporters decided to ask her about it, so she ended up being blindsided by the criticism.
amorphous
I was watching the German network broadcast on Sunday. The German guy who won the medal was just enjoying himself during the medal ceremony while Deutschlandlied was playing, shuffling, smiling, waving. You know how many people got super pissed here? No one. No one cared.
You know how many times my kids say the German Pledge of Allegiance at school? None.
Because over here people don’t have this fetishistic need to show how Patriotic! they are.
Seriously, I’ve just become so much more unhappy with and pissed at America since we moved here. So much dumb shit every day. Not to mention that I constantly have to try to explain Trump’s latest doozy at lunch.
The best and worst parts of the US are the people. Mostly worst.
Keith G
@Robin G:
The Daily Beast up to old tricks?
Napoleon
. . . and of course the people doing this are likely the first to break into a chant of “USA, USA!”
CONGRATULATIONS!
The bad part – well, one of many awful, awful parts to this – is that the media treats this social media shit like it’s real. Newsworthy. Worth even a fraction of a second of our mental space and attention.
If you rounded up a hundred typical American dipshits out of a department store, asked them their opinion on anything, and then broadcast it on the news, people would think you were an idiot. And you would be. Yet we take the opinions of people who didn’t even put in the work to get dressed to go out to a department store and treat those opinions as one level below Moses’ tablets.
smintheus
@cleek: Speaking of twitter, this report on the RNC twitter feed is interesting. For the last half month their twitter account hasn’t mention Trump’s campaign activities or anything about what he says or supports. It has given up on Trump and gone over to explaining why Clinton belongs in jail.
cmorenc
Gabby Douglas could’ve quieted the yahoos if only she had sewn a flag pin onto her gymnast uniform, right over her heart. Because wearing a flag pin is the equivalent of two combat tours in the military to douchenozzle wingers who didn’t inconvenience themselves to actually serve the country, like Gabby’s father (and mother?) did.
Betty Cracker
Anyone who would criticize Douglas or anyone else for not holding her hand over her heart during the national anthem is a slack-jawed moron. That said, I truly hope Douglas won’t allow such dumbfuckery to “ruin” the Olympic experience she worked so hard to earn. I hope she realizes this is a situation where “those who matter don’t care and those who care don’t matter.”
Mary G
She’s black, so any excuse to be assholes and tear her down is seized on. The more things change the more they stay the same. Reminds me of 1968 when Howard Cosell was nattering on through the national anthem about how many famous actors he was friends with, then got all outraged
Trollhattan
Four years ago it was this, perfectly diffused by the prez.
RobertB
If you’re supposed to put your hand over your heart, evidently Michael Phelps’ heart is where most folks’ spleen is. Probably what makes him swim so fast.
Mary G
@Mary G: Shoot! Howard Cosell got all outraged about Tommie and Juan Carlos doing the black power salute.
ET
This is the kind of thing that “people” focus on when they don’t have anything worthwhile and get stirred up by whatever echo chamber/email chain they are on. Before these people just raised their fist and yelled at the TV but the Internet has given them a platform they never had.
Cat48
They did this to Obama, no hand on heart for national anthem, at an Iowa event. White people need to understand, in the Midwest, at ball games, etc. we didn’t do that. We always stood up to show respect. That was all that was necessary.
They need to stop terrorizing black people about the National Anthem! It’s unAmerican!
Joel
Who was the reporter who asked the question? Why don’t they identify him/her? I feel that this is relevant.
Ajabu
I even recall somebody (I think from the last Olympics when Gabby was a media darling instead of a “what’s wrong with THOSE people”) suggesting she consider cosmetic surgery because her nose is too flat.
Really? By whose standards? Motherfuckers…
Booger
Hey, middle-aged white guy from a military family chiming in here.
Do I put my hand over my heart when the National Anthem is played? No, I do not, because putting my hand over my heart means absolutely nothing to me. Do I like the national anthem? Sure, not my favorite song, but I can get emotional about it in context. Do I put my hand over my heart when I recite the pledge of allegiance? No, I do not, because I do not recite the pledge of allegiance. It strikes me as idolatrous and ill-advised.
Our flag is not what makes our country great, and the pledge just strikes me as outdated red-scare craziness, especially with the heinous “Under God” line stitched in the middle.
Ragging on this wonderful representative of our nation for how she responded to national symbols is just bull$hit, folks.
Splitting Image
I haven’t been a follower of pro sports for over twenty years. Every time a sport starts to get interesting to me, I begin encountering sports fans.
Ajabu
@Mary G:
That’s JOHN Carlos. Not Juan. Cuban heritage, born in Harlem, New York.
A friend and superb human being who wrongly suffered for decades as a result of that salute in 1968.
Punchy
Do lefties use their left hand to “cover” their heart, or is this a right hand thing no matter what, like handshakes? If so, anyone else as concerned as me that lefties and righties have hearts in diff locations in their bodies?
Betty Cracker
Sincere question: do most people put their hands over their hearts when the national anthem is played at sporting events, etc.? I don’t ever recall doing it myself, and I’ve attended scads of games. I’m pretty sure I would have noticed if I was the only person who didn’t put her hand over her heart. The only iron-clad rules I remember re: the national anthem were that you should stand, face the flag and remove your hat, if applicable.
ETA — @Booger: Glad to hear I’m not the only one who feels that way about the pledge of allegiance. Even as a child, I thought it was creepy and Orwellian.
Brachiator
@Robin G:
It would have been a problem even if reporters never mentioned it at all.
Twitter and idiot social media behavior is the problem, not reporters.
The storyboard artist Lauren Zuke deleted her twitter account because “fans” didn’t like the way the show Steven Universe treated some of its fictional characters.
What is extra depressing here is that women are more often the targets of this insipid rage.
smintheus
@Betty Cracker: I cover my heart with a huge foam “#1 USA!” finger.
MomSense
When I was growing up we put our hands over our hearts for the pledge of allegiance but never for the National Anthem. Was this a regional thing or did it only become an expectation immediately following the 2007 Iowa Fish Fry?
rikyrah
The tweets about her hair made me livid.
OzarkHillbilly
@Punchy: Speaking only for myself, my heart has never been in the right place.
Mike in NC
Recall back in 2008 the uproar in some quarters over candidate Obama’s lack of an idiotic flag lapel pin, even though McCain and everybody else weren’t wearing them. When asked if they’d vote for Obama if he wore the pin, almost all said no. The stupid, it burns.
aimai
What is wrong with people? Seriously, what is wrong with these people? How dare they do this to this poor girl? I wish someone would collect and forward these hostile tweets to each and every person’s mother and that at least some large fraction of that maternal universe would bring down the hammer of god on them and let them know that this behavior is intolerable. They should each and every one of them be ashamed and be made a spectacle of public ridicule.
But I will also add that there is nothing new here–women, and especially black women (around the world, not just AA women) have been made targets like this for just such trivial “offenses” as long as there has been writing, let along twitter.
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
No idea. I also didn’t know that ultra-patriotic jackasses used the US Code to specify how the flag and the National Anthem should be respected, and other dopes decided that overt displays of patriotism were mandatory.
I listened to a talk radio host, otherwise fairly sane, mention that he always feels a twinge of revulsion when people disrespect the flag.
I admit here that I went out of my way to avoid most forced displays of patriotism, starting maybe around the 4th or fifth grade. It was not based much on anything said by family or peers. It just rubbed me the wrong way.
Gin & Tonic
@Ajabu: And Tommie Smith, in that race, set a world record which stood for 11 years. He gave one of the shoes he wore as a birthday gift to Usain Bolt.
Hal
I mentioned this a few days ago, but I have had two separate white friends on Facebook criticized the news stories of black american athletes at the Olympics. One friend said she noticed her white friends were posting stories about all the athletes regardless of race, while her black friends were posting only about black athletes. She just wanted to know why that was?Just asking!
Another wanted to know why stories about Gabby Douglas, Simone Biles and Simone Manuel focused on their race. This is after the mercury news headline: “Michael Phelps shares historic night with African-American.” To certain numbers of people, particularly straight, white men, the recognition of race in someone’s success, especially when they are a “first” is unnecessary. Meanwhile, this kind of success has a huge impact for millions of people who see people like them represented. So I guess what I’m really trying to say is; fuck em.
Brachiator
@OzarkHillbilly:
Didn’t realize you were a Vulcan.
Gin & Tonic
@Betty Cracker: I’m with you on the pledge. I am a regular attendee at municipal meetings that all begin with that. I’ll stand, but not place my hand over my heart nor recite the pledge. Nobody has ever commented to me about that.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: At the beginning of every union meeting, the Pledge of Allegiance was recited, but not by me. Don’t know why, but I just can’t do it.
shomi
No doubt a lot of this probably has to do with something else. Like the fact she is black for example.
I have nothing but respect for these athletes. The amount of hard work and dedication is something very few people can do. To get to that level is so impressive.
For people to shit on them like this is beyond disgusting. Internet people are fucking assholes in general. If facebook/twitter was around when I went to high school I don’t know if I would have survived. It’s a lot harder on young people now because of social media imo.
I remember how important it was back then to be accepted. Thankfully that goes away as you get older.
Brachiator
36 U.S. Code § 301 – National anthem
There are, of course, no penalties if civilians fail to comply. Not sure about military personnel.
Hildebrand
@Punchy: I stopped putting my hand over my heart for any patriotic moment in elementary school, as I always thought that since I am a lefty, it was proper to use my left hand. One of my teachers was mortified that I should besmirch the honor of the our great country by using my left hand (she always tried to get me to stop using my left hand for writing, as well), so I simply quit the whole hand over my heart business. My dad, a Korean War vet (Marine), told me that standing straight (and actually paying attention) absolved me of the need to put my hand over my heart. My Mom whispered to me at some point that I didn’t have to say the words either, as she found them wholly unnecessary, ‘think of something useful, instead.’
NorthLeft12
In a related story, your World Champion decathlete [Ashton Eaton] is getting grief from American “fans” because he was seen wearing a Canadian Olympic hat and cheering on his wife [Brianne Theisen-Eaton] who is Canadian and competed in the Heptathlon. She won a bronze medal BTW.
LINK:http://olympics.cbc.ca/news/article/ashton-eaton-responds-traitor-backlash-for-supporting-wife-brianne-theisen-eaton.html
Betty Cracker
@MomSense: That’s my recollection too, growing up in Florida. We were definitely instructed as schoolchildren to place our hands over our hearts for the pledge of allegiance but there wasn’t any such requirement that I recall about the national anthem. Maybe it’s one of the several stupid byproducts of post-9/11 hyper-patriotism, like the replacement of good old cheerful ditty “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” with the maudlin “God Bless America” during the 7th inning stretch.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@rikyrah: It’s not just tweets. My PT was hearing it among his family and extended social circle. He really, really doesn’t grok running someone down like that.
Helen
Trump up live. He is stoned on downers. ALLEGEDLY!!!
BR
In other news, Biden’s speech was classic Biden.
Dork
@Punchy: Heart-y har har. Cue the organ music. For your prize, choose either Aorta B door to see what’s behind them! I hope you tipped the assistant, waiting in the atrium.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
Thank goodness Twitter wasn’t around when Dave Wottle forgot to remove his hat in 1972 or he’d have been electronically lynched. But at least he did put his hand over his heart during the anthem – which was roundly mocked at the time, because it wasn’t yet customary, let alone mandatory, to do that. If only Gabby had worn a hat to cover her unacceptable hair while placing one hand over her heart, the other hand over her nose to hide those unacceptably black features, and maybe dropping to her knees for emphasis … nah, still wouldn’t satisfy the fuckwads.
oklahomo
The assholes bitching about this are the same ones I’ve seen use their spit-take into a spitting-tobacco cup as a way to see if everyone else is looking before they bother standing and removing their hats at an event.
Emma
I have been in a pure rage since I saw the news stories at the BBC site. I posted about it in one of the threads below. I am so damn happy I don’t have Twitter or Facebook or any social media. I would have a heart attack sooner rather than later.
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: I just wish she would just come out and say, “I have a message for all the racist fake patriot dickheads who don’t like me: Go fug yourselves.” and walk away from the podium
Iowa Old Lady
@aimai: They’re just mean. Taylor Swift was right.
MomSense
@Brachiator: @Betty Cracker:
Guess we were doing it wrong, Betty.
Well now we know.
Mary G
@Ajabu: I’m sorry, I got confused, meant to look it up, hit post comment by mistake then lost the plot. My apology. The response and ongoing black-listing (not intended to be a pun) has been a disgrace.
Feathers
Chris, what an asshole.
The Stepford Rule: If your reaction to a woman’s work is to offer makeover tips, you are being a misogynist. (noting that misogyny is exponentially increased when race, religion, et al. is included.)
The coverage of female athletes at the Olympics has been atrocious. Watching diving late one night, the announcer mentioned that one of the American divers was getting married after the games. This seems entirely sensible, and common, brought up when talking about the sacrifices made by both men and women training for the games. However, this guy then when full douche “So she’s going home to make the biggest decision she’ll ever make – band or DJ.” Rage.
Roger Moore
@amorphous:
Overt patriotism is actually an important thing that binds together the diverse population in the US. We don’t have an ethnic ideal of nationalism we can rely on*, so we have to fall back on overt symbols of our country as a way of keeping us unified. And it’s not as if the Germans never used overt national symbolism as a unifying force; they just got it beaten out of them during the occupation.
*Or at least not one that treats people like Gabby Douglas as genuine Americans
OzarkHillbilly
@Brachiator: I’m not. I’m an asshole.
guachi
Middle-aged white guy (is 42 middle-aged?) who is still IN the military – I stopped reciting the Pledge of Allegiance sometime in grade school and don’t particularly care how someone stands during the National Anthem.
Heck, during a medal ceremony, if you’re a medal winner, the anthem is playing for YOU. As far as I’m concerned you can do what you want. Ms. Douglas stood politely at attention (well, in a military sense it was more like ‘at ease’ but it was respectful of the other winners)
Brachiator
@OzarkHillbilly:
Many Vulcans are. You sure you’re not a space alien?
Capri
At one time, I worked with the redneck-iest rednecks that exist (poor, not college educated, whites from rural Southern Indiana). They loved football, so one of the people brought her TV into the office so that they could watch football games when they had a few minutes. They would often comment about the black football players either not putting their hands on their hearts or not singing to the National Anthem when it was shown at the beginning of games. So this attack on Giffords didn’t come out of the blue, it’s a thing.
Grumpy Code Monkey
Must have been the London games where NBC first brought in Seacrest to spend a segment seriously discussing the Twitters when they could have been showing competition. Because the Twitterverse is populated by Serious People with Serious Thoughts That Can Fit Into 140 Characters.
I wish I could resurrect Howard Cosell, not only to show these losers how sports journalism is supposed to be done, but also to levy his special brand of verbal abuse at them.
Just One More Canuck
@Helen: It would be irresponsible not to speculate
Brachiator
@Roger Moore:
I don’t know. For some reason, when I feel patriotic, I feel like singing La Marseillaise. But only if German officers are in the room. Like this.
I take your point, but the other thing that binds us together is not needing to be bullied by authorities or higher ups into proving our love for our country with phony or insincere displays of patriotism.
maryQ
I still remember being rather annoyed, back in ’88, when commentators felt free to note the “hubris” of Debbie Thomas, and in ’06, the “anger” of Shani Davis. Now we get to question the patriotism and social behavior of Gabby Douglas. On the positive side, though, I did overhear some people praising the gratitude of Simone Manuel. It seems that black athletes in predominantly white sports have a very narrow range of acceptable behaviors, and need to be grateful that we let them in.
OzarkHillbilly
@Roger Moore:
It’s not working. Jus sayin’.
glory b
@Betty Cracker: Fun fact: My father, who grew up in Jacksonville Florida and southern Georgia (pre-civil rights movement), didn’t hear the national anthem until he was playing in a high school football game in 9th grade.
Black schools played “Lift Every Voice and Sing” each morning and he thought that was the national anthem.
Also, related to an article I read a few days ago about black swimmers, he was a great athlete, baseball (had an offer to play in the negro leagues right before their demise, but chose to go to college instead), football and track, but never learned to swim.
Grumpy Code Monkey
@Brachiator:
Yet another reason I never really liked Enterprise. Spock and Sarek were never assholes. Curt, brusque, not big on small talk, but never assholes. Neither was Tuvok.
But T’Pol? Soval? Assholes. Rude for the sake of being rude. As Vulcans, they were poorly written IMO.
glory b
@maryQ: Don’t forget Afro French ice skater Surya Bonaly, who was too “athletic” and “powerful” and executed moves not allowed (she performed gymnastic flips on skates) and, of course, not graceful enough.
At one award ceremony, she took off her bronze metal and gave it back.
OzarkHillbilly
@Brachiator: Hmmmmm….. come to think of it, I’ve never seen my birth certificate.
Msb
Is there somewhere that normal(ish) people could write to Douglas and thank her for representing her country do well? And I hope it’s not sexist to say so, but I was much struck by her beauty, now that she’s 20.
AliceBlue
@MomSense:
Same thing when I was growing up.
sukabi
@Capri: another way to “other” people without seeming to be bluntly racist.
hovercraft
From the Guardian.
Brachiator
@Grumpy Code Monkey:
I always thought that Tim Russ did an excellent Vulcan. And back in the ancient days, maybe Compuserve, there was a long thread from some bozos about why Russ should not play Tuvok because “everybody knows there are no black Vulcans.”
Yeah, one of the many problems of Enterprise, that I dropped early in its run. Archer was drab and boring, T’Pol rude without purpose. Much of the rest of the cast simply bland and anonymous.
Feathers
@Capri: One of the problems with the racially-segregated housing and schools in the US is that too many white kids grow up completely unable to recognize real-world racism. They learn about it in school as something that happened in the past, and are spoonfed movies like The Help, where they are invited to pretend that they would have proudly stood up to bigots back in the civil rights era, despite the fact that they say nothing when their friends talk shit about Gabby Douglas’s hair.
schrodinger's cat
@Brachiator: Archer was the worst captain of any Trek.
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
The most PC people in the U.S. are white Republicans.
SiubhanDuinne
@Betty Cracker:
@Gin & Tonic:
Add me to that list. I can’t remember the last time I recited the words of the PoA in public. And no hand on heart for the SSB, either. I stand respectfully, but that’s it.
Edit: If I’m at a Canadian event, I stand respectfully for “O, Canada.” Same with any other country and its anthem.
schrodinger's cat
deleted
Mnemosyne
@MomSense:
That’s how I remember it, too — you stood for the National Anthem, but you didn’t need to put your hand on your heart.
schrodinger's cat
Speaking of assholes. Ghastly people with their ghastly religions (paraphrasing Churchill) complete 70 years of independence, while their former rulers struggle to keep their kingdom united. Happy 70th, India!
Mnemosyne
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap:
Yep. They demand all kinds of symbolic bows to their greatness and get pissed off if anyone else demands the same.
Brachiator
@schrodinger’s cat:
It’s like they went to Scott Bakula and said, “you were charming and charismatic in Quantum Leap. Can you turn all that off?
The Ancient Randonnuer
I’ll bet real money that close to 100% of the whinging faux-patriots couldn’t sing the entire anthem without a cheat sheet.
Judge Crater
Just one more thing to hate about the Olympics – the commercialization, the joke of “amateurism”, the nationalism, the jingoism, the media coverage… the goddam hype and bullshit. Also, how does beach volleyball get to be an Olympic sport? It’s awful. The whole enterprise is corrupt and irredeemable.
maryQ
@glory b: Thanks for the reminder on Bonaly. I remember the back flips, and the era. But I was too lazy to look it up, because she wasn’t grateful.
Amir Khalid
@Judge Crater:
Women’s beach volleyball has very fit young women in bikinis, that’s how.
Trollhattan
@Judge Crater:
I’ll defend beach volleyball as at least athletics. Golf?!? Gosh, so glad they dragged that back after a century of sanity.
Dread
A lot of people seem to be stuck in an infantile mode when it comes to religion or nationalism where you cannot quietly love God and country and be a good person or citizen, but must wear a giant cross and flag pin and perform all of the public rituals to show how good of a patriot and religious person you are to the world.
Fuck them.
schrodinger's cat
@Brachiator: I too stopped watching after may be 5 episodes.
DS9 is my favorite Trek, followed by TNG (last 3 seasons)
p.a.
@schrodinger’s cat: I never really liked Kate Mulgrew’s capt in Voyager. The doc & 7 of 9 made that watchable (and I’m not (just) talking skin tight costumes; the ‘search for inner humanity’, although redundant in the franchise, is always *ahem* fascinating.)
Lurve DS 9 aka Star Trek Spacemall.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@Brachiator: “Should” is not mandatory. Also, I think that there are First Amendment problems here.
The Ancient Randonnuer
@Booger:
I too am from a military family and a vet. I never put my hand over my heart and I never recite the pledge. The pledge got turned into a Christianist salute when they added “under god” in the 50’s. Compleltely ruined the flow and the intent. I find it off putting that people who fetishize military service also like to lecture me about patriotism. My usual response is to give them my best RBF and calmly tell them to get out of my face. I don’t play the vet card because I am no different than any other citizen. I don’t need anyone’s approval.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@Dread: You could always quote Matthew 6:5-6.
p.a.
@Brachiator: I like NCIS NOLA. Just once, in any of those shows, I want to see the response to badge and identification be “What’s that? You’re making that up.”
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Brachiator: Military, on base, is different:
Hand on heart? Nope. NOT DONE.
And hey, on base civilians are included! As are any military family members. Any they’re not fucking around about it! Last base I was at, I ran to get to my work area before “colors”, because otherwise you were stuck outside in 120 degrees of the Arabian Peninsula’s finest heat and humidity, standing in the hot sun facing the flag. And if you think our National Anthem is long, try sitting through it in that kind of heat.
And yes, there are penalties, both for military and family members, who don’t do “colors” properly. If you’re a civilian, they’ll just throw you off the base, which may not be a big deal, or may mean that you’re now unemployed.
schrodinger's cat
@p.a.: Mulgrew grew on me. In any case she was better than Archer. I totally agree with you that the Doctor and 7 of 9 made Voyager bearable.
Feathers
@glory b: One of the problems with skating is that when you watch it on TV, you get no sense of the relative speeds of the skaters, which is a major component of how skaters are sorted into tiers. Surya Bonaly hauled ass. She flew across the ices, much faster than any of the other top skaters. However, the speed came from skating in a straight line, not the wide curves, using the edge of the blade, which is how it is supposed to be done. I remember watching her on TV, wonder how the hell she made it into the final group, because despite her jumps, she moved like a junior skater. Once I saw her live, it all pieced together. She was like a ski jumper who uses “illegal” form, which is deeply penalized by the judging, but still goes far enough to nearly make it to the podium. Which all got turned into an ugly racist mess. There was a really good short documentary about her career on ESPN within the last year or so.
Short postscript: One of my favorite Bonaly moments was at a pro competition in DC a year or so after she retired. A super dressed up, suit and tie, tight, tight hair, with glasses, probably a student at Howard, black guy came to the boards with a HUGE bouquet of roses for her as she came off the ice. She was completely stunned, utterly astonished. It was clear that this wasn’t something that happened to her at all. I really hope the guy gave her his number and that she called.
Judge Crater
@Amir Khalid: Yes, you’re right. I was being intentionally obtuse in condemning it. How about badminton? Why not croquet or horseshoes?
p.a.
@Judge Crater: believe badminton is an O sport, and I’ve seen competitions of professionals. It’s way cool. Daddy-O.
I miss Wide World of Sports. Lots of exposure to non-trad stuff. I don’t have cable, so I can’t access the narrowcast availability of world sports. If espn still had a soul that might help.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@glory b: @maryQ: If I remember correctly, the back flip was banned AFTER Bonaly started doing it, because SHE did it and it was therefore deemed unladylike (i.e., not white/Asian, thin, and pretty). I believe, as she and her mother did, that if a white girl had done it first, it would have been the hottest new thing in skating and would be a mandatory element by now.
SRW1
@amorphous:
But there are a non-negligible number of people in Germany who mouth off when players with migrant background in Die Mannschaft (the soccer national team) don’t sing the national anthem at the beginning of games. And then there was the ‘neighbor affair’ about Jerome Boateng before Euro 2016 when almost 20 percent had some undertanding for that position.
Mnemosyne
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
I think there’s a rule (and always had been) that you could only do a backflip if you landed on one foot. The only skater I’ve even seen who was able to do that was Bonaly. She was amazing.
Gin & Tonic
@Dread:
Yup. Now if only there were a passage in Christian Scripture about that…
Judge Crater
@p.a.: I was unclear. Badminton is an olympic sport.
raven
@CONGRATULATIONS!: In Korea i was on a small, Battery sized, support base. They played reveille and retreat on a record player piped around the compound on speakers like on MASH. You could hear then key the mic and then the needle drop. We would make mad dashes for any open door so we didn’t have to turn in the direction of the flag being raised or lowered at the HQ. The lifer fucks didn’t like that shit either.
Brachiator
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
Thanks for the info. I can understand this on a military base. Not so much at a sporting event.
ETA: I omitted the section of the Code that laid out the rules for military personnel:
“individuals in uniform should give the military salute at the first note of the anthem and maintain that position until the last note; members of the Armed Forces and veterans who are present but not in uniform may render the military salute in the manner provided for individuals in uniform”
Matt McIrvin
@MomSense: That was my reaction too: I was taught to do the hand-on-heart thing for the Pledge of Allegiance, not for the national anthem. But other people I’ve asked don’t seem to agree with me.
NorthLeft12
Ahhhh, bless her sweet heart. I am not being sarcastic here. There are many young people, who for whatever reason, do not understand why there are so many awful excuses for human beings in this world.
Here Gabby, let me supply you with the appropriate response to the idiot “fans”; “Fuck you, you small hateful douchebag!”
raven
@Brachiator: Ever wonder why the only proper way to retire an American flag is to burn it?
Matt McIrvin
@raven: I remember learning some crazy stuff about flags that isn’t actually in the Flag Code. As I recall, there’s a line about how you’re not supposed let the flag touch the ground, and another line about how irreparably dirty or worn flags ought to be retired in a respectful manner e. g. by burning. When I was a kid, those two things got mashed together into a legend that a US flag legally had to be burned if it ever touched the ground. I think the family next door did that once.
Amir Khalid
@Judge Crater:
Malaysia is a major power in international badminton, I’ll have you know.
Trollhattan
@Amir Khalid:
Your national mastery of the noble shuttlecock is to be commended and feared.
Trollhattan
@Matt McIrvin: Also, too, never use fabric softener.
MomSense
@Matt McIrvin:
I think I even did it wrong at a DAR meeting.
Bottom line is that this is more racism and cruelty to a black woman. They were vicious to the young woman who played Rue in the Hunger Games and furious about the casting of Hermione recently. There were no issues of flag or anthem protocol as tests of patriotism. We’re talking actors playing fictional characters in completely made up worlds.
raven
@Matt McIrvin: You’re not supposed to step over certain Buddhist books either!
Brachiator
@raven:
To prevent it from coming back from the dead?
Even though I was never overtly patriotic, and rebelled or subverted attempts to enforce conformity, I learned flag protocols and respected them as a Boy Scout, as part of the tradition and ceremony.
PST
@Matt McIrvin: Count me as one more person, 62 years old, who was never taught to put hand over heart for the National Anthem, only the Pledge of Allegiance. I think maybe some folks have picked up the habit by analogy, but we just stood and sang away. Whatever the custom, it’s no excuse for being mean to Gabby Douglas.
schrodinger's cat
@raven: Touching anything with your feet or kicking it signifies disrespect. Touching books or food with your feet is a no-no.
Tazj
I just don’t understand people, instead of being happy that someone as beautiful and talented as Gabby Douglas represents your country, you have to put her down. What a mean despicable waste of time.
I think that having to put your hand over your heart during the national anthem is new, something that I was never taught in school. Although, I do remember learning all those flag rules in a movie we watched in school. It made me terrified to hang the flag outside our door on holidays as a child.
As children we always joked about playing for the gold medal in backyard badminton. I’m old so I doubt it was a medal sport then but it might have been. I’ve made it a point to watch the Olympic badminton in the past and it’s amazing how fast the game is.
Mnemosyne
@Tazj:
It kind of blew my mind to find this out because my brain doesn’t operate this way, but many racist people are actually embarrassed when non-white people are out there representing the US. Like they think we’re showing to the world that we don’t have enough talented white people, so we’re filling in with non-whites. They actually think it’s humiliating for the US to be represented by non-whites.
I know it’s fucking insane, but it’s a true thing.
Gravie
These self-righteous asshats just suck the joy out of everything. Yes, I’d like to punch them in the head, hard.
1,000 Flouncing Lurkers (was fidelioscabinet)
@Betty Cracker: It’s older than that–try Cold War era, for sure.
I think this is something that goes in cycles, and the more anxious certain groups of people feel about the world, the more they fall back on these shibboleths for reassurance that things really are OK and they are in the company of the like-minded. (You’ll also note how quick they are to disregard the part of the US Flag Code that says the flag should not be made into clothing, for example.) And these are, for the most part, shibboleths–look at the mini-frenzy over Tim Kaine’s Blue Star parent lapel pin that died a quick death when the patriotism of those belittling it was called into question.
The chief use of many of these civic rituals is to enforce conformity and reassure the anxious, which is why so many of us are bored and irritated while others are practically frantic about them. You would think the Son of Heaven was putting the Celestial Empire in peril by failing to perform the correct seasonal in the approved manner.
I won’t say that civic rituals have no place in the US–Kurt Vonnegut’s observations on Armistice Day are worth considering. But the more relentless and rigid we are about their performance, the more we say about our own, personal issues, and the less useful a criticism it is of those who aren’t performing to our requirements.
imonlylurking
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Not true-the backflip was banned ages before Surya came onto the skating scene. There was a male skater that did it first, and it was banned right after his first competition. That skater taught it to Scott Hamilton, who used it in pretty much every professional competition he did. Surya did them in the warmups and I believe she did one in competition once to throw the meet. The commenters said she wanted to turn pro but the French Skating Commission (or whatever they called themselves) were pressuring her to stay as an amateur competition.
I used to watch waaaaaaaay too much figure skating.
Edit-make that several male skaters. Supposedly first done in 1957. Illegal whether you land on one foot or two.
Matt McIrvin
@PST: Apparently, hand-on-heart during the National Anthem is there in the advisory US Code about patriotic symbols. Whatever, I never really internalized that detail as a kid.
Matt McIrvin
@Trollhattan: I found the whole discussion very strange back when there was the stupid push to amend the Constitution to ban burning the flag. I remember thinking “I thought there were times when you’re required to burn the flag!”
J R in WV
@Matt McIrvin:
Yes this; required to burn an American flag that has become worn. Years ago I worked in a small office with a window, one of only two windows on the whole floor. It looked over a pretty lawn with a row of big oak trees in front of a wholesale warehouse operation. They also had a really tall flagpole, and a flag that was in tatters.
So one day I took a break and went next door to tell them to do something, anything but continue flying a flag that was disrespectful. Since I was beard and pony-tail, they were a little surprised, as I didn’t fit their profile of patriotic bitch about tattered flag. But if you’re going to do it, do it right!
The next day they had a new F’n flag.
I’m surprised to see that I’m allowed to salute even in civvies, as a veteran, during the national anthem. I did not know that. As a beard and long hair, sometimes in a pony tail, less often now that I’m retired, I don’t know how that might work.
But I also don’t much care. Nice thing about getting older, you have fewer fucks to give!! Me and My Man, Obama, NMFTG!!
Mnemosyne
@imonlylurking:
Okay, this thread may be dead, but I KNOW I saw Sorya Bonaly do flips during the Olympics without being disqualified. Were they during the free skate or something?
goblue72
@Tazj: Some people – we will call them racist arses for the time being – just can’t deal with someone who is not white representing the U.S., or winning things. Blacks winning = white losing in their minds. They’re pathetic and sad people who are increasingly a cultural minority in this country. That said, our corporate (white) controlled mass media doesn’t help things much.
One thing which sticks out – in a good way – is how ethnically diverse the U.S. Olympics team is. You could see some diversity in the larger Western European countries with a history of immigration (UK, France), but most other country’s teams are quite ethnically homogenous. The U.S. diversity is incredibly noticeable on the screen – both in terms of the team in general and in terms of who amongst the team is winning medals. We’re like the international poster child for the nation state superiority of diversity – a poly-ethnic Ubermenschen.
Its kind of fantastic. Can’t help but feel that this pause from our election season and politics that the Olympics has forced for these two weeks (which is kind of the meta-point of the Olympics) has put a nail in Trump’s coffin as much as anything. His white pride rants – which were insulting and hateful before – just seem buffoonishly and comically sad, and woefully out of touch, when people like Simone Biles and Simone Manuel are getting gold medals & breaking records.
J R in WV
@goblue72:
THIS! so much this! Beautiful men and women from everywhere – crushing their events. Very American.
Aleta
Yet somehow those who attacked Gabby Douglas believe it’s normal and patriotic to publicly insult a dedicated US citizen officially chosen, according to US tradition, to represent the US before the world? (Yes, they do believe that. Because Tommie Smith and John Carlos dared to raise their fists in 1968 in Mexico. So she must be punished because she too is an African-American, and she did not conform, and because other African Americans are protesting when they are supposed to stay quiet. It all makes sense in a racist country.)
Imonlylurking
@Mnemosyne: According to Wikipedia, she did a backflip in Nagano in 1998 and was penalized for it. She finished in tenth place. That may have been the one I watched. Wikipedia says she was injured and not able to compete her planned program. I distinctly remember Scott Hamilton yammering on about how much she wanted to turn pro but Wikipedia didn’t say anything about that.
The Lodger
@Brachiator: I always thought Tim Russ could be a great Obama character.
sherparick
@amorphous: As the Vox article points out, you don’t have to go to another country, just look at the comparison between Douglas and Michael Phelps regarding the behavior during the National Anthem. http://www.vox.com/2016/8/15/12476322/gabby-douglas-rio-olympics-racism
Shemicka
@amorphous: who gives a shit about a German dancing during his country’s national anthem? Better that he raise a stiff armed salute?
Shemicka
@Cat48: “terrorizing”?!!! Drama