Questionable Prize Standards?

Wow, where did all of these idiotic, self-hating whites come from? How is requiring someone to speak a particular language "racist"??? Did the entry form even mention RACE anywhere? I'll answer for you: NO. No it didn't.

If I had the time I'd love to go and run this race just to stand up for this Ken guy. You people would be hilarious if the implications of your Obama "all minorities are victims all the time" mentality weren't so frightening.

I don't think language is a good criterion to determine someone's eligibility for prize money. Give the money to whoever runs the fastest. I you don't want Kenyans around give out non-cash prizes.

Kenyan have to run for a few hundred bucks because they a poor. Probably they couldn't afford a proper education when they were young, let alone laerning a foreign language. If they could they'd probably have a office job in Nairobi or something.

And what would be the point in giving one Kenyan prize money because he was lucky enough to learn a little English and exclude another one who wasn't that lucky.

Furthermore, if a English-speaking runner won a road race in Germany, France or Italy would you deny him the prize money just because he doesn't speak German, French, Italian or whatever?

I'll admit though, at a small local race it *might* be o.k. to limit prize money eligibilty to citizens of the respective country or state. In that case foreign prize money hunters usually don't really add to the event. But as I said, language is not really a good criterion.

Lastly, an example: there is a local half marathon in Germany where you can win a few hundred euros. Second and third tier Kenyans swept the prize money year after year. The race director then decided to give prize money to members a German athletic clubs only. This seems reasonable to me because the local sports clubs support popular sports and contribute to people's health.

Totally agree with you on all your points. Thanks for posting this response. A boycott is definitely the answer; we shouldn't support this racism. --mike s

Is it a running competition or a speak a language which actually does not originate from America competition?!

English speaker wrote:

Wow, where did all of these idiotic, self-hating whites come from? How is requiring someone to speak a particular language "racist"??? Did the entry form even mention RACE anywhere? I'll answer for you: NO. No it didn't.

If I had the time I'd love to go and run this race just to stand up for this Ken guy. You people would be hilarious if the implications of your Obama "all minorities are victims all the time" mentality weren't so frightening.

This message speaks volumes about the poster.

I think that the most effective way to deal with this particular case of discrimination is probably to go directly to the sponsor, a Catholic hospital that claims to be especially concerned about caring for the poor and disadvantaged. Ask the hospital why it is sponsoring an event that is designed specifically to discriminate against Africans, and incidentally discrimates against the not-insignificant Hispanic, Catholic population of Indiana.

I don't know whether the terms of this race are illegal (and anyone who claims to know, without a substantial background in state and federal civil rights law, is probably just a dope). But as was shown in the Deep South a half-century ago, there are ways of dealing with invidious discrimination through market forces, without government intervention.

What I think is strange is the fact that no one here realizes that English is an official langauge of Kenya and every Kenyan speaks English. Their accent and grammar might eb different and hard to understand, but they do know English just like any American!!

I'm at a loss as to why Africans winning money doesn't add to an event, but slower non-Africans does add to the event... Fast is fast. A race is not a government service, nobody has more right to the money than another unless they beat them in the race. Two prize pools seems to me the best way to do it, but obviously this halves the money for everybody.

There are two points. One the citizenship. If they want to limit to US, that helps (sort of) the development and support of subelite/elite types in our country. Sound fine to me. I believe racist in this context would be if they allowed brits and canadians but no ethiopians. I don't know that us citizens are allowed to participate in kenyan only events, or the european only events. Or how about the commonwealth games or the pan am games? I would bet there are african only events. There's a lot of this, just the us isn't in any of those groups.

The english only thing is a big deal to a lot of race directors. When the winner can't speak english, the director and race get screwed out of any publicity with the US public. I think it would be fair for the berlin marathon do something similar to us participants. (God knows we don't know any languages)

Putting them together like that was weird, though. Make it a US only event, fine. Have a speaking requirement if necessary for publicity. OK. Putting them together seems to seek out specific citizens for discrimination. Not the africans, though, as everyone is commenting. It would mostly be kids of immigrants born in the US which means hispanic migrants etc. Kind of weird rule.

I think it would be hilarious if a really fast white guy won this race and then refused to answer any questions except through his "interpreter." Any time the guy is asked a question, he and his interpreter could talk to each other in pig-latin before the interpreter answers the question in English.

"Fluent speaking and understanding"? It makes no sense. Who is the judge? And what criteria are we using here? Will the runners be required to write essays after they finish? Give interviews?

I would like to know the director's rationale behind this rule. Sounds like the dude is just tired of foreigners trouncing the local runners.

I often run races overseas and certainly hope that such exclusionary practices are not extended to other countries.

I will not support this race. Write the director to express your disapproval:

klong@kenlongassoc.com

O.k., let's make it a two events sports: Let the participants run the race and do a grammar test afterwards. Convert the race results to a point score, sum up race and grammar test results, and there you go!

my best guess is this event is getting loads of free publicity by a stupid idea...my best advice, ignore this thread and this event and hopefully both will go away...it's like saying Big Sur will offer a million bucks for a WR (free publicity... and it can't be done [ to many hills])

Why didn't Ken just state "Cash Awards only available to US Citizens"?

Alan

If having good quotes from the winner is so important for PR, why not just hire a translator?

Simple Problem Simple Solution wrote:

If having good quotes from the winner is so important for PR, why not just hire a translator?

You could probably get a volunteer for this too.

This is ludicrous. Runners run, not speak to one another. Barring people from participating based on their speaking abilities is weak. Are some of the roads blocked off for the race? Does the hosptial receive public funding? If so, then these stipulations could be a violation of more than just bad taste.

I ran a 10K yesterday in about 56:00, give or take a minute. But my english is impeccable.

Simple Problem Simple Solution wrote:

If having good quotes from the winner is so important for PR, why not just hire a translator?

That may be difficult to impossible for smaller races. I have even seen Major (w/ a capital M) events where they had to get someone out of the audience, or an agent, come up to translate. As a journalist it makes it that much harder to write about the event.

Bottom line, companies are not sponsoring races out of the goodness of their hearts or b/c they love/support running, but b/c they get publicity out of it. If the race winners can't give good quotes, there is less publicity generated, both in print and (especially) on TV. Hence, less reason to renew the sponsorship in the future - they'll throw their $$ behind a golf tournament or something.

New Haven 20k has gotten far more coverage, esp. pre-race, since it went to US championship, thus eliminating B-team Africans from the field. There is much more interaction w/ the American runners, both by the crowds and the other non-elites.

In no way am I saying runners who speak little or no English have no right to run for $ - but if the RD wants publicity, he is entitled to ensure that they winners will be intelligible to the media.

My first reaction is that a RD has the right to offer whatever prize structure he/she wants.

The fluency in English is an odd requirement, I will admit. How does one determine that (easily anyway)? Do all the runners have to pass a test beforehand? Heck, how many native born Americans would fail a test in English fluency?

Have you written the RD to ask about the requirements?

I suspect that there is no legal issue (I cannot imagine a race director or the sponsor not looking into that).

actually there is a legal issue, a HUGE legal issue involved in this. If the overall intent of the race is to prevent people not fluent in english from racing, it is a violation national origin based discrimination protected under title seven of the civil rights act. this place should be looking well into this issue because they may get sued

Being upset about the wording is one thing, but now you have stepped over some bounds. I know plenty of "black, brown,yellow, and red people" who speak fluent English. Saying only U.S. citizens and fluent in English may not be a good thing, but it isn't racism.