Darren Rovell Racist Anti-Meb Article

SPNKY wrote:

luv2run wrote:

Also, Frank Shorter was born in Germany.

Umm I believe his father was military. Please atleast offer a valid argument.

I'm embarrassed that all these silly letsrun posters are e-mailing him making fools of themselves!

This is how these lim wristed pansies respond when they hear the truth. They write letters spewing their ignorance because their feelings are hurt. Bottom line is this, Meb ran a sick race and won! He might have bought his citzenship, but he wasn't born American. I thank him for bringing attention to my sport, but he won that race for Eiteria. Now Ryan Hall, that's a card tottin', red blooded, true grit, real American!

CNBCrap wrote:

Well Stinky, if you had bothered to read and comprehend the "column", you would have noticed he said he'd break out his red, white and blue if any "American-born" runners stood on the top step of the podium. Since Shorter was born in Germany, he's not a real American.

SPNKY wrote:

Umm I believe his father was military. Please atleast offer a valid argument.

I'm embarrassed that all these silly letsrun posters are e-mailing him making fools of themselves!

NICE CNBCrap, name calling-very intellectual and mataure (lol). Yes, I did read the column and just to educate you, if a person in the military has a child while stationed in another country, they are in fact an American. But I'm sure facts are of no importance to you in your arguments and intellectual pursuits! You go for it though. . .

To the poster, CNBCcrap, Wow. Your posts are awesome (lol). Nice job with your mature, sensible, and well-though out arguments. Good on ya big boy!

NObama........................ wrote:This is how these lim wristed pansies respond when they hear the truth. They write letters spewing their ignorance because their feelings are hurt. Bottom line is this, Meb ran a sick race and won! He might have bought his citzenship, but he wasn't born American. I thank him for bringing attention to my sport, but he won that race for Eiteria. Now Ryan Hall, that's a card tottin', red blooded, true grit, real American!

You don't want an American to win, you want a good old fashioned Aryan to win it for the master race. There is no American race.

SPNKY wrote:

CNBCrap wrote:

Well Stinky, if you had bothered to read and comprehend the "column", you would have noticed he said he'd break out his red, white and blue if any "American-born" runners stood on the top step of the podium. Since Shorter was born in Germany, he's not a real American.

NICE CNBCrap, name calling-very intellectual and mataure (lol). Yes, I did read the column and just to educate you, if a person in the military has a child while stationed in another country, they are in fact an American. But I'm sure facts are of no importance to you in your arguments and intellectual pursuits! You go for it though. . .

This actually supports CBNCrap's point, that place of birth is not really relevant to the discussion of whether or not Meb is American. In fact the only thing that is relevant is his nationality from a legal perspective.

Rovell's article was one of the poorest pieces of journalism I have come across for a while: somewhere between misinformed and misleading.

At the end of day the only thing that seems to be true, it doesn't matter where you are born as long as you are a descented of East African heritage. Someday if Africans become Icelanders they might have a chance at winning a major marathon, other wise they can dream about it (and goes for Amercia to).

If this guy was Asian American I bet all the Asians around the world would be going crazy cheering him......shame on them!

Hayduke wrote:

Jorge can run for president, Med can not. Is that racist? Is that up for debate?

Is Frank Shorter an American distance champion? Do you know that HE cannot run for President?

Hayduke wrote:

Jorge can run for president, Med can not. Is that racist? Is that up for debate?

Jorge is ineligible for the presidency. So are Hall, Ritz, Tegenkamp, and Sollinsky. If eligibility for the office of president is your litmus test, most of your stars don't qualify.

I wrote a letter to sportsbiz @cnbc. Check it out.

Mr. Rovell,

I'm glad you found the courage to stand up and tell someone he isn't American. Meb Keflezighi is definitely not American. He did move to this country as a refugee from his native Eritrea (oh, and your description of the country is so precise. I had no idea it was a small country in Africa. Do tell more.) when he was 12. He was brought up in the American running system through high school and university and was trained by some of our best coaches. Even by your generous standards of what it takes to be an American, he falls short. Obviously, if he were American, he would have devoted his life to sports where he could make big money instead of collecting the relatively small paychecks that professional running offers. This isn't the case for most Africans, because as we all know, most Africans are poor. And so is Meb. While Meb has grown up in the US since the age of 12, he's still just a poor African and always will be. Let's just tell Meb that he isn't wanted here and never will be, because Meb will never be an American.

Thanks for your xenophobic opinions! I just love watching Lou Dobbs tell me who is American, Glen Beck tell me who is racist, and Rush Limbaugh tell me how much he hopes that our president fails. I'll just have to add you to that list.

Thanks again,

Brad

NObama........................ wrote:

SDGuy wrote:http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/news?slug=ys-cnbcmarathon110209&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

After reading this I am ashamed to be from the same country as Rovell...

It's a very well written article that speaks nothing but the truth. I dare you to highlight one incorrect fact in his article. You just dislike his opinion and in this case, he's are right as rain!

OK here is one incorrect fact:

"...but the fact that he’s not American-born takes away from the magnitude of the achievement the headline implies."

And the headline he is referring to is:

"American Wins Men’s NYC Marathon For First Time Since ’82"

The magnitude of the achievement? There is no magnitude implied in the headline. It says an American won. The author is implying that Meb is not American since he is not American born.

He either does not know the definition of American or he is just lying to create controversy.

Also comparing Meb to an office ringer you hire to win a softball game? Another lie.

Who hired Meb to run in the US?

Wasn't that his decision when he was a teenager growing up in California?

Did the US government give him money to run in a US singlet at the NCY marathon?

I do agree with the point that the article wasn't racist. IMO it was just stupid. If an American born runner ever wins NYC marathon Darren Rovell should just keep his flag hidden away. We don't need any band wagon Americans waving Old Glory pretending to patriotic.

You can't possibly know that, that is your own bias speaking.

ming ding xiong wrote:

Red Glare wrote:

You have your bigotry confused. According to what he's said in that article he is jingoistic, not racist.

He wouldn't have said that about someone who moved to America at 12 from Europe or Japan or Nicaragua.

The guy is just stupid. Does he really think the same genetic talent pool that would be running is steering itself off to football and basketball instead? Does he have this idea that there is just a monovariate thing called "athletic talent" and that if football and basketball players cared to do it, they could have been good distance runners?

Dumbest statement you will read in a mainstream article about running:

"Americans haven’t had much success in the marathon. Many cite lack of motivation as the root of our troubles, as in our best athletes devote their lives to sports where they can make big money instead of collecting the relatively small paychecks that professional running offers. That, of course, is not the case with African runners, who see in the same winner’s check a lifetime full of riches."

I can't believe that social constructivism has penetrated society so deeply. Even conservatives believe in it now.

Meb is American! Journalists write things to get talked about, because they spend thier whole lives writing about what other people do. Somewhere recently they got talk shows, and round tables, and somehow they became "experts." Who cares what some never done anything opinionated person says......Way to go Meb! You make us proud!

This is such a "hot" topic these days. I completely agree that Meb is an American and his situation is much different than the Quatar ringers that we see in the World and Olympic Champs races.. But it's hard to deny that 90 percent of the World's fastest distance runners come from Kenya, Eritrea, Ethiopia or other East African countries. The fact that Meb was born in one of these countries does water down the accomplishment in my book as well. It's just harder to be excited about another East African born athlete winning another big marathon or race. Meb is awesome, hard working and all of these things.. Great person.. I'm certainly not trying to take a shot at him or any of the fast African born runners out there... It's just not the same given that he was born in the same part of the world where most of the other stars on the world scene were born as well. I'm sure it's just a coincidence though.

If Meb was Caucasian I bet Darren Rove and the KKK loving let's runners would not be raising objections here. Fact is most of the American distance runners are white, and American non minority fans tend to favor distance running events. What's really going on here is that the critics would really like to see a white boy win in order to quelch the idea(which is not justified in my opinion) that white folks just are not good enough distance runners to actually win. To illustrate my point if Meb had been actually born in the US to Eritrean parents the critics would still have something to say about it. Well you know he was born here but he is not actually one of us ( wink, wink...white). People need to get over themselves already.

26mi235 wrote:

Is Frank Shorter an American distance champion? Do you know that HE cannot run for President?

Uh... Yes he can.

Shorter can run for president.

Rovell may or may not be racist, but he is a pinhead. His column shows very little knowledge of Meb ....specifically, that his entire running career has occurred since he came to the United States. And yeah, I do believe if Meb had come here when he was ten or 12 from Norway, Rovell wouldn't be writing this column.

Is Rovell the same guy who went on CNBC and railed against the racists and sexists for calling out Caster Semenya? Saying all that matters is training, not whether s/he's intergender or whatever? If so....What a hypocrite! If not, Rovell still has a very narrow-minded view.

Seems Rovell is going back on his statements and doing the research. Good thing he did the research second and then wrote the article. It only made for great posting here on LetsRun.