Video of the event in March 2022 shows a judge handing out medals for participation to a line of young gymnasts, but ignoring the only black girl. A photographer, coach and other officials fail to intervene. A mediation settlement reached with the family involved the judge taking anti-racism training.
None of these organisations made any public comment on the girl’s treatment at the time and it would be another year before the family got an apology from Gymnastics Ireland, after the video went viral internationally.
Holy shit. A fucking year? And obviously only after this thing went viral. They just hoped that nobody paid enough attention and that it would all blow over. And no comment during this happening. Disgraceful behaviour.
I don’t understand it, seriously. I can understand that some people are racist. What I don’t understand is how he can’t pretend he’s not racist when cameras are pointed at him. Seriously, it’s not that hard - there are a few clients I hate to get on a call with but they all love me because I’m always polite and helpful, because that’s part of my fucking job.
“Racism is bad. I’m a good person. Therefore what I did wasn’t racism.”
But yeah, it’s infuriating when bigots can be absolutely unequivocally bigoted, and then casually say “not bigoted tho” like it’s a spell that absolves them of guilt.
I find myself feeling really bad for both the kid and the person handing out the medal.
In a room full of one skin colour and one or two outliers, I can imagine myself being socially clumsy enough to not see them at first and then feel too embarrassed or scared to admit why I overlooked them. I bet it’s even happened to me.
The organisation made an entire mess of this and made the life’s of all concerned more painful.
It seems you kind of understood systemic racism. The person who looks different than the 20 people next to them will experience this on the regular. Which, considering it objectively, is shitty for them to happen to and shitty to be done by the rest.
Yes, I assume if this happens once then it happens more regularly. It sounds absolutely draining.
I think people don’t realise that racism doesn’t just mean intentional and pre-meditated behaviour, but also inherent biases. Biases that we should really be educated on to make the lives of our fellow humans better.
Exactly it’s important to acknowledge the different ways of how racism can show.
It’s quite possible the person didn’t have a malicious or racist intent at that moment. It’s still racist and people need awareness to tackle that subconscious racism. That’s why talking about it and bringing it to the news is so important.
Not saying you wanted to stop the discussion, btw. Just wanted to add to it.
