Racist 10k Announcer at D1 Champs

lol it is kinda funny.

We know he was comparing to a tree trunk.. but still totally no transition to the comment

You sure he didn't say LOG? I don't get counting the rings on a dog.

jeffsdaf wrote:

Wtf? One of the announcers just compared African junior runners to dogs when talking about age, and then recommended cutting off their legs.

He said something like,

"When people speculate that some of the foreign runners running junior records are older than their official listed age, I say just solve the problem like you would for a dog. Cut off their legs and count the rings."

He thought it was funny. The other announcer seemed noticably bewildered by the ridiculous statement and there was a pretty long silence. Wtf?

Although this may have been a ridiculous comment, how is it racist?

Hahaha okay I think log makes a lot more sense. I was sooo confused by the comment. Still makes no sense at all. Not as racist though.

Because comparing black people to animals belongs to a long long history of racism and slavery. And recommending that you cut the legs off African runners (this comment was tongue in cheek of course) is just reprehensible.

But of course since he probably said log the first point that I make is irrelevant.

No, he definitely said dog. Why would anyone care about the age of a log?

there was this dude who started races in the big XII's from like 2001-2009 who was super racist.

It was terrible but kinda funny. He loved the steeple chase. He though white steeple chase guys were totally BA.

There would be tons of people running out at the start of the race just getting warmed up off the line, normal old drill. Once it would be like 5 mins before the gun went off hed corral the africans and make them stay on the line. I think I heard him say "Com er' boy!" and then grabbed one of the texas tech kenyons and pull him into the line. he would only ever yell at them and use this well practiced racist voice. terrible and hilarious.

Okay yeah... I mean it's just so weird. It definitely sounded like he said dog. But then cutting off the legs to count the rings is a reference to a tree. I think most people have more coherent ideas when high.

We get that. But no one wants to think about a severed leg.

jeffsdaf wrote:

Wtf? One of the announcers just compared African junior runners to dogs when talking about age, and then recommended cutting off their legs.

He said something like,

"When people speculate that some of the foreign runners running junior records are older than their official listed age, I say just solve the problem like you would for a dog. Cut off their legs and count the rings."

He thought it was funny. The other announcer seemed noticably bewildered by the ridiculous statement and there was a pretty long silence. Wtf?

That was an unconscionable comment; the announcer needs to he fired immediately.

Ghrelin wrote:

No, he definitely said dog. Why would anyone care about the age of a log?

A woodworker would care. Depending on end use and type of wood it is sometimes desirable to have an extremely fast growing tree(willow) for a Cricket bat or a tree that grows very slowly such as Spruce for a violin.

The announcer was talking about going to the dog pound and picking up a dog and not knowing it's age. . . then cutting it's leg off to count the rings. . . wtf? He definitely compared him to a dog. What a horrible comment.

I hope there's some consequence. As far as announcing goes, we wouldn't be missing much if he was fired, he was pretty clueless.

I was only paying half attention to the commentary. But I remember thinking 'wtf is he talking about?' and the fellow commentator saying "...back to the track".

Truth is, I think the comment was so utterly weird nobody can even say if it was racist.

Kind of like the Seinfeld sex dirty talk. "...You mean the panties your mother laid out for me?".

jeffsdaf wrote:

Hahaha okay I think log makes a lot more sense. I was sooo confused by the comment. Still makes no sense at all. Not as racist though.

Yeah, but when Larry uses the expression "they're running Indian file," the immature un-pc kid inside of me has to laugh.

ryan foreman wrote:

I was only paying half attention to the commentary. But I remember thinking 'wtf is he talking about?' and the fellow commentator saying "...back to the track".

Truth is, I think the comment was so utterly weird nobody can even say if it was racist.

Kind of like the Seinfeld sex dirty talk. "...You mean the panties your mother laid out for me?".

I think the comment definitely falls in both the racist and weird camp.

A condensed version of what he said:

"You know those Africans, you never can know their real age. It's kind of like going to the dog pound and not knowing the age of the dog. You could just cut off their leg and count the rings."

He's perpetuating the stereotype that Africans are never honest about their age, comparing the runner to a dog, then recommending cutting off his leg to somehow count rings. Wtf?

Ghrelin wrote:

No, he definitely said dog. Why would anyone care about the age of a log?

Counting rings is what you do to determine the age of a tree. A log is part of a tree. If that is what he meant he should have said trunk.

You do not determine the age of a dog by cutting off it's legs and counting rings. That makes no sense whatsoever. But again, isn't this Rawson we're talking about?

Well. I don't think that is a negative stereotype as far as not knowing their real age. First of all, the sketchiness of the age of African runners can be real. As far as I can see there really isn't any system to document DOBs in East Africa. Secondly, Its not like Africans are cheating and getting away with anything if their stated age is not right.

As for the "...going to the dog pound..(etc)". I'm completely bewildered as to what he is even talking about. Is he referencing trees in that last sentence? Its totally off the charts weird. I think you are giving him too much credit to suggest he's racist and that you understand what he was saying.

In the end I think he was honestly trying to convey that 'yeah the age of East African are sketchy but who cares, just appreciate the performance you are watching'.