Tommy2Nuts wrote:
Let the jealousy and envy and thinly veiled racism begin! I love it.
2 golds for America and Americas running "fans" cant deal with the fact that a black naturalized CITIZEN wins them.
Ive been reading the threads and theres more concern for Mottrams bad run than for Lagats great wins. Plural.
How sad is that?
So, for many running fans, legal immigration is just as unfair as illegal immigration. Shows what a shallow group of individuals you all are.
And that you have NO CLUE how America runs. Or even stands for.
Well said.
I was thinking about Lagat in the context of what I consider a similar situation: Roger Clemens coming from Boston to New York. Now, Clemens WAS a Red Sox. He'd kicked Yankee butt many times. But he's a warrior, as are the Yanks and their fans, and true warriors understand that when a great warrior from the other tribe leaves them and joins you, and makes it clear that he's now with you, and when he then proceeds to bestow the blessings of his great warriorship on you, you honor that.
I know no passion more powerful than Yankee hatred for the Sawks, and vice versa. Yet it took the Yanks fans about one Clemens-for-the-Yanks win and then they embraced the guy. And he delivered, and kept on delivering.
Lagat is a great warrior. He's left his tribe, the country of Kenya, the national team he could be running for, and he's come over to our side. He shows no ambivalence about that shift. He's one of us now--I'm speaking as an American and runner--and he's already producing spectacular results for us.
So what's the beef?
I think it's pretty obvious by this point, if it wasn't obvious before.
The beef, such as it is, is driven by racism--or, more precisely, racial anxiety, racial insecurity. Lagat's victories, much as they do for America and America's standing in international track, fail to reassure anxious white American runners that white guys can compete with Kenyans, Ethiopians, et. al.
Well that's just too danged bad.
My own feeling is that American running would benefit if we had MORE Lagats and warriors of his ability-level joining our team, sharing their training philosophies, marrying into the family, producing American children, and generally upgrading our game. Of course that would do nothing in the short term to reassure those (whites) pervaded by racial anxieties; in fact, it would probably reinforce those anxieties in the short term.
I personally happen to feel about Lagat the way I felt as a Yanks fan when Roger C. came on board and began to pound the Sox. I feel good. I'm an American pragmatist; I'm also tribal. We've got one of their best warriors now. More power to us for the fact that he chose to join us. We must have something good going on. And we do--better, now that he's on our side.