I'm the original "witness" and my name is Jay Dolmage. My original posting was to another forum, as a specific answer to a specific question. Someone named "SI" seemed to feel as though it was okay to remove the post from its context and paste it wherever he saw fit.
In any case, I feel as though I have to reply to what has followed.
After the race yesterday, when Boaz was voicing his displeasure, walking around shirtless and upset, a very large crowd gathered around him--over a hundred people. One young woman with a camera, with a telephoto lens, was right in his face--I thought she'd poke his eye out. There was a strange mob mentality there, and what the crowd got was a spectacle. What the crowd wanted was a spectacle. Consider, if hundreds of people were fascinated by your failure, how you might react?
This negative fascination, admit it, is the reason why you're reading this posting, right now. I'll admit that as a runner myself, a Chevy Nova to Boaz' Ferrari, I was momentarily relieved to recognize his mortality. In recognizing his mortality, though, I want to try and see him as a human responding in a human way. I don't want to tear him down.
It is this same recognition of his humanity that a lot of other people are overlooking. He wanted to win and when he didn't, he felt upset. He may have felt as though someone was working against him--and why wouldn't he feel that way when there were a hundred people around him, all perversely happy that he'd lost?
This brings me to the next point: the perverse preoccupation with his failure may be the product of a fine tension between fascination and racism. How does Boaz' intelligence enter into this matter, except as a racist association made by somebody who wasn't even present? How does his right to compete in this country enter the discussion, if it isn't planted by a xenophobe with an inferiority complex?
Boaz was scholar-athlete of the week this week.
As a student with a VISA, Boaz has the RIGHT to compete for his school and, I would say, the right to immunity from discrimination based upon his ethnic heritage.
I am willing to accept that my reaction to what happened yesterday was not right. I feel sheepish about my original posting and I wish it could have its original context back. But I also won't shy away from asking an important question, a question I am asking myself. That is, how much does your fear of difference and your sense of your own inadequacy fuel your interest in this matter? How racist is your fascination?
Finally, the editors of Letsrun.com: in putting this on your main page, what were your motivations?