Dwight Phillips vs. Lauren Fleshman and Nick Symmonds on Twitter

Disclaimer: I hate public discourse based on Black/White labeling but I will stoop to that level for the purpose of this discussion.

I couldn't help but notice in the buildup into the championship game of March Madness that the white point guard from Villanova said that he is relentlessly vilified by the white fans of the opposing teams. Clearly those white fans know that they can't safely attack any black players so they single out the white guy.

Now, I suppose none (Trump supporters aside) of us care because we figure the white guy can take the criticism because he is probably comfortable with the likelihood that the insults aren't race based - whereas a black player would have doubts. I actually support this premise. I'm always willing to give victims of ancestral trauma the benefit of the doubt - with hopes that it is an investment in their ability to eventually break the cycle.

The same thing is happening with Dwightdagreat; he is hyper sensitive because he can't be sure the LF tweets aren't motivated by race.

In the end what does this mean? For one, that DP's ability to lead has been compromised by his blackness. For another, DP's actions could easily be an indictment of all the current USATF leadership.

DP needs to apologize to LF and then he needs to take an honest assessment of his ability to lead. If he was white he would immediately be referred to sensitivity training by leadership or sacked, whichever is quicker.

I for one am shocked we are discussing Lauren's words rather than, like usual, he running.

Dwight appears to be having similar Twitter exchanges with Steve Magness and Pat Rizzo in recent days.

Has the water gone bad in Indianapolis? Some sort of Batman movie come to life? Mixing booze and pills?

There is some crazy stuff coming out of the USATF lately.

TrackCoach wrote:

..

Your post is very insightful, but it is almost impossible for the 'average' White person to comprehend the effect history, the life of their parents and their own experiences has on the psyche of the 'average' Black person....

... White people who are not themselves racist, tend to think the majority of White people are like themselves, which is not true. It you are not a racist and someone who has never been affected by racism, it is understandable that they don't perceive racism and think Black people are always "playing the race card". Last point, you should not generalize about a group as large and as diverse in thought, socioeconomics, etc...the average Black person has never publicly made race an issue about anything in their lives.

Look at you generalizing (many times) about racial groups, and then criticizing others for generalizing about racial groups.

Humorous.

pop_pop!_v2.2.1 wrote:

Has the water gone bad in Indianapolis? Some sort of Batman movie come to life? Mixing booze and pills?

There is some crazy stuff coming out of the USATF lately.

Dwight doesn't live in Indy and he is tweeting from his personal account, not the official AAC account, but it's all related to AAC things, he can't really separate the two in this case...

Party Line wrote:

Why couldn't Fleshman just phoned the office to see if any emails were sent out. She "needed" to make it public. Phillips is just telling her to F off.

end of story.

What office? No one at AAC works in Indy at the National Office. I'm not on their email list, but I assume that AAC leadership sends emails independently from the National Office, and that some random intern answering the phone at the National Office would have no idea if any emails were sent.

Lauren's question was a valid one, and asking it in a public forum was valid. It's a perfectly reasonable question to wonder if things were sent and you were left off the list, or if nothing was sent.

When you publicly criticize people regularly, sometimes they assume everything you say is an attack, fair or not...

Last October, Siegel opened his USATF email to see not just one but two reprehensible emails laced with threats and hate-filled invective, including the repeated use of the n-word.

Other racially charged emails went out that very same day to a range of USATF staff, black and white. Some included just a subject line. Some included more.

The sender seemed to know, meantime, which USATF staffers were — or might be — black, and which white.

“Paul Concert” and “paulgconcert@gmail.com,” the “sender” names, appear to be aliases.

An email that went to a black employee held the subject line, “All white team champions.”

To a white staffer: “Support white community programs.”

-----more in link--------

A bit more to the back story about USATF being the organization wide target of racially charged hate mail

Portland Condo Owner wrote:

Lauren sent out the tweet , already knowing what the answer was. Lauren knows who is responsible for communicating. All Phillips did was send out a response tweet that was way over the top, Trump style. both pathetic

I agree with this post - not defending or even understanding Dwight, but Lauren seems to enjoy just going full blast on social media to attack any organization/opinion she doesn't agree with.

Now, as if some kind of karmic response, this random response in the form of Dwight Phillips comes and she is left probably as dumbfounded as many of the recipients of her own attacks - how do you respond to something that is unsubstantiated but has some level of emotional resonation with people that you can't just ignore it?

She's getting a taste of her own medicine here.

Overreacting to cowardly emails is not professional.

The whitesplaining on this thread is ridiculous. I am black. I am not saying I support the views of Phillips and I generally think Lauren Fleshman is a reasonable and truthful person. I'm not even going to pick a side on that one. However, the detailed explanations of how black people supposedly think about racism on here are hilarious and untrue. I guess I'm not surprised that Rojo somewhat encouraged it being that there has always been a subtle conservative bias behind the scenes of Letsrun. Still, white people please stop make sweeping generalizations about how black people think or react to racism on this thread. Everyone's perspective on this is unique and different within our culture. Don't talk about what you know nothing about.

My thoughts exactly. Unless she was sending him personal emails and he still wasn't responding or performing his role, asking a question over Twitter is a public call-out. His response was over the top, but wasn't without some reason.

I'll start with saying that anyone who thinks Lauren Fleshman (or Symmonds for that matter) is a reasonable person doesn't know them very well. Lauren has consistently been a black eye for the sport with her public whining instead of trying to help where things actually get changed. Tweets aren't, and shouldn't, be viewed as change agents because for the most part they're one way streets. Granted she's lost most of her credibility with USATF etc, but having a private dialogue with the higher ups is where this conversation needs to be held. They can't portray the image of having capitulated to Twitter fingers, if anything complaints on twitter serve as a further purpose not to change things. I agree there are issues in this sport, but I think a lot of it is the clash between "track people" (athletes and those who have dedicated significant portions of their lives to the sport) and "non-track people" (ie Max S and many others at USATF) who view this as a job and not a lifestyle. I spoke with a woman from USATF in marketing at indoor USAs and she still have very little knowledge of the sport after two years working there. Granted part of the problem begins with the fact she works in marketing, but knowledge of the sport should be a prerequisite for a hire at USATF. We need to put business aside and work toward addressing athletes needs and concerns more. Someone recently said that without Nike there probably isn't a sport, however by the same token, without athletes there also isn't a sport...

Start your own company and sponsor the athletes you want.

polevaultpower wrote:

pop_pop!_v2.2.1 wrote:

Has the water gone bad in Indianapolis? Some sort of Batman movie come to life? Mixing booze and pills?

There is some crazy stuff coming out of the USATF lately.

Dwight doesn't live in Indy and he is tweeting from his personal account, not the official AAC account, but it's all related to AAC things, he can't really separate the two in this case...

Ok, so restated, has the water gone bad wherever he lives?

If the USATF was a real job he'd be gone. This is great work if one can get it.

Or nah wrote:

I'll start with saying that anyone who thinks Lauren Fleshman (or Symmonds for that matter) is a reasonable person doesn't know them very well.

Dwight, it's too late buddy. A personal attack this late in your high school drama changes nothing.

Or nah wrote:Lauren has consistently been a black eye for the sport with her public whining instead of trying to help where things actually get changed. Tweets aren't, and shouldn't, be viewed as change agents because for the most part they're one way streets.

You mean like going to the USATF's big meeting on her dime as an athlete rep and voting, only to have that vote denied by the cabal that runs the sport? Yeah. What a do nothing.

Start your own company and sponsor the athletes you want.

Why would anyone want to do that? So they can waste their husband's money sponsoring a bunch of middle-pack B level performers no one pays any attention to?

wineturtle wrote:

http://www.3wiresports.com/2016/04/01/usatf-target-racially-charged-emails/

This is one of the strangest posts ever by the head of North Korean propaganda, Mr. Abrahamson. Stranger still are the persons suddenly posting comments.

Some crazy stuff going on at USATF.

polevaultpower wrote:

Party Line wrote:

Why couldn't Fleshman just phoned the office to see if any emails were sent out. She "needed" to make it public. Phillips is just telling her to F off.

end of story.

What office? No one at AAC works in Indy at the National Office. I'm not on their email list, but I assume that AAC leadership sends emails independently from the National Office, and that some random intern answering the phone at the National Office would have no idea if any emails were sent.

Lauren's question was a valid one, and asking it in a public forum was valid. It's a perfectly reasonable question to wonder if things were sent and you were left off the list, or if nothing was sent.

When you publicly criticize people regularly, sometimes they assume everything you say is an attack, fair or not...

What does this mean , " What office? No one at AAC works in Indy at the National Office. I'm not on their email list, but I assume that AAC leadership sends emails independently from the National Office" ..... they work out of the office where there is no office?