Letsrun bias for white athletes?

scooooooooter wrote:

not really. Gatlin's association with Trevor Graham is the reason for the Letsrun sentiment. Remember all of the Eddy Hellybuck bashing in here?

I thought Hellybuck was black?

really old guy wrote:

If you're looking for racism, you'll probably find it whether it's there or not.

Exactly. Race was not mentioned, so we could just as easily say that the animosity was already present in the original poster's mind, and he's the one who's looking for an excuse to spread the hate around. Being sensitive to the point of absurdity creates so much tension and misunderstanding that it can cause as many problems as racial bias itself.

People see what they want to see. Racism - or at least the manifestation of it - isn't all that common, but some people make it their business to see it everywhere. It's just like the saying about people who claim they're psychics that can communicate with ghosts in haunted houses: There aren't haunted places ... but there are haunted people.

right right. we do have to psychologically evolve, but there is a mitchondrial speed bump going on there.

anyway, off the topic... what does persona non grata mean?

person not wanted or welcome

IF YOU GOT AN ISSUE, HERE'S A TISSUE....

belgian

Whites are underdogs in the world of T&F. Nothing wrong with celebrating the first white 400m US champ in decades-- just like there's nothing wrong with celebrating Halle's emmy as the first given to a black leading actress.

Scientologyist wrote:

doug225550 wrote:

hey dont blame me, i am always telling everyone how werknesh kidane will take down radcliffes marathon record, i always talk about how cute bezenesh bekele sertsu is, and how pretty the ethiopian girls are. and someone suggested evelyn abelagesse is dirty, and i personally volunteered to take a shower together with her and get her all cleaned up.

woow dude ego, no one even mentioned you. no need to defend when you aint accused.

Good post!

Gatlin has been a good representative of USATF; I thought he had friends. I am surprised at how quickly everyone has assumed he is dirty. I don't know if he doping or not; why and I not assuming he is dirty. (What makes me different?) I hear people on this board say, Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson was dirty; I hear people say that the Kenyans and the Ethiopians are dirty.

Don’t tell me about Gatlin’s previous positive for taking a drug that contained a minute amount of amphetamine, which he took everyday. From what I know, taking amphetamine everyday offers absolutely no benefit as a performance enhancer. It only has benefits when administered in high dosage an hour or so prior to your event. This amphetamine was an ingredient in an ADD drug Gatlin had been taking for year 10 years; unless you think he was doping at age 11, through out this argument out.

Don’t tell me about the Trevor Graham connection; if I lined up the top 20 sprint coaches in the world, I can only think of about 2 or 3 who have not had an athlete associated with doping. When I played football, kids were taking all sorts of things, which I am certain the coaching staff did know about. When an athlete comes up dirty, the coach does not have to be complicit in it.

Also, Gatlin has not has not had extraordinary performance increases or body changes; everything has been incremental. His success did not come out of nowhere, back when he was age 20, most people felt he would was going to do great things. Like I said, I don’t know if Gatlin is dirty, but he is an American and from what I know he is a pretty decent guy. If he is dirty, I hope he prosecuted to the full extent of USATF, IAAF, WADA, but I hope he is clean and at the very least I am giving him the benefit of the doubt.

I am always hearing people point out racism on this board; I usually don’t agree. I always felt that this board is probably about 99% White and that people feel they are in their element and are comfortable saying what they want to say and that they are not necessarily out in society causing harm. This is probably no different from what I would expect to find on a board that is 99% African American. Racism is a strong word and should be reserved something more than silly comments a person makes, but I am starting to see a trend on this board that makes me not so sure anymore.

A positive drug test is what makes people on this board think Gatlin was using drugs. Playing the race card doesn't change that fact.

Na thats the problem now. If you call somebody racist its almost like a f*** you. How do you come back from that in an argument. Most of the time it hasnothing to do with race either, people just say racism so they can change the argument to something you are not prepared for. Its a good debate tactic, but also a very immature one and shows the inability to think of a constructive response to the prior argument.

As for Gatlin being clean or dirty I hope to hell he's clean, but he does have the one test he did fail. And he has said himself that he should have looked at the band list better and gotten his medication approved.

As for the bored being racist, maybe it is maybe it isn't. Its still the best place Iknow to come of and talk about running.

There's a difference between rooting for non-Africans and non-African Americans. Rooting for the latter would indeed be racism. But I don't hear about many people hoping for the day that Simon Bairu, or Abdirahman, or any other black runners in the United States/Canada go down. I only hear Americans wanting other Americans to give AFRICANS (not African-Americans), who dominate the sport of distance running, a run for their money. Is that so terrible? Is that racism? No.

levelheaded wrote:

I think the biggest reason there is bias towards whites on this board is because most of the posters are white. Track and field is dominated by Africans and people of African descent, so naturally a caucasion gets excited when Mottram, Wariner, or Tegg run well. When they run well it gives "whites" the encouragement that "hey, we can compete with these guys." That is why letsrunners don't get as excited when Meb wins silver, Abdi runs 27.22, or Lagat outkicks Bekele compared to Matt Teggenkamp (sp?) running 13.04 and finishing 8th in a Euro meet.

Whites are not showing racism they are just looking for someone to make them believe that all these 100 mile weeks are worth a damn.

well put levelheaded.

i sometimes wish the whites start running as fast as the africans without doing all the hard work so they we can get over this.

scooooooooter wrote:

http://www.mensracing.com/photos/parkersburg01/park04.jpg

belgian

nice titty.

First of all I know nothing about cycling. It is a dirty as hell sport. But i do know people who know Gareth Turnbull and swear he is innocent. He supposedly is contesting his ban on claims the T/E ratio test is suspect. This is the same test Landis is busted on. So I give him the benefit of the doubt.

Gatlin meanwhile I don't believe testes positive on the T/E ratio test. He is coached by Trevor Graham who has coached a slew of athletes who were caught doping. generally i believe most coaches are not innocent bystanders if their athletes are doping. Plus at meets, I hear information (perhaps you want to call them rumors) that makes me not be surprised when certain things happen.

I don't have reason to doubt the test and he is associated with a coach with a shady reputation who was involved in the Balco scandal. Thus, I generally think it doesn't look good for Gatlin. Hopefully he can prove his innocence.

Yes i thought Eddy H is dirty. He is white but I guess I'm racist.

How come you only delete posts by black people?

"Gatlin meanwhile I don't believe testes positive on the T/E ratio test."

wejo, this kind of allegation has nothing to do with what you believe. talking about shaddy coaches and agents, cycling has plenty. if you say you don't anything about cycling then don't put up a blatant bias headline (and care a little about racial sensitivity).

a token "belgian" white dude does not exonerate your systematic racial bias. it has to be someone more conventional like suzy hamilton, mary slaney etc.

Who would like to combat racial bias in the media? Here you go. Start with seeing to it that the stories in this article

http://www.loompanics.com/Articles/hatecrimes.html

are given as much national attention as racially-motivated crimes as was the Duke lacrosse tale.

If you're truly interested in eliminating a media agenda, it seems like bringing national attention to those rape and murder stories as the hate crimes they are should take precedence over some iffy-at-best racial slight on a runner's site which concerns somebody's preliminary drug test. So think about a bigger picture if you want to complain about biased reporting.

Besides, what's it to you if some guy thinks Gatlin is guilty but Landis might be clean? How, really, does that do the least bit of harm to you? Does it strain race relations one iota? Maybe after you raise the previously nonexistent issue it does. Or is it because it seems like it might be possibly capable of being perceived as sort of a little bit racially slanted, kind of? Well, Booooo-Hooooo! (sound of violin playing) I've had vegetables offend me worse than that! Get over it!

Weldon,

Let me get this straight.

1. Hearing several rumors on the track and

2. A connection with BALCO

is all it takes to consider a man guilty.

Then why are all of the Alberto Salazar accusations deleted from this board. He definitly falls into both categories.

If tribalism is the result of evolution, it doesn't really matter if we 'need it' today. I guess you could argue the moral part of it, but since none of us had any control over the evolution of our species, we are not really responsible for whatever adaptations have been passed down. It would be like judging the morality of having a big brain, you might be able to come to a conclusion but it wouldn't change anything and there would be no one to hold responsible if you decided it was morally wrong.

I think you can make an effort to change, but I don't think you can make an effort to evolve.