Bryant Gumbel is a Racist. Anyone see HBO Real Sports?

[Ovett]

After a piece on the 1966 Texas Western Basketball team that broke racial barriers by winning a championship with an all black team when this was rare and not considered acceptable, Gumbel closed with a racist screed against the Winter Olympics, saying its racial makeup looks like a "GOP Convention", as if this somehow undermined its athletic legitimacy. He said the announcers would pretend to be interested in sports like the luge, bobsled, etc. His racist intent and utter hypocrisy was all too clear coming on the heels of his report on how blacks had overcome racism in basketball and now dominate the sport. He said the Games are just a lame distraction during the "dreary days of february" and he can't wait to get on to "March Madness", which by implication has a more acceptable racial makeup. What a dickhead.

[PretzelWarrior]

1. He is a dick. but it doesn't mean he's a racist.

maybe a good question to ask is why the racial makeup is so monolithic considering how many races participate in the typical summer games for USA. Seems a relevant question even though they guy is a dick. I'll give you that.

[dsc]

2. maybe because the sports in the Winter Olympics

are sports that are rarely done in either high school or league settings where most people who aren't wealthy do their sports. Other than Hockey which is only in rural northern schools I can think of no other Winter Olympic sport that isn't the perview of wealthy people.

[Ksec]

4. Most countries that participate are Nordic countries

Not exactly areas with high concentrations of Black or Brown people.

Its got more to do with geography than anything else.

[Blue_In_AK]

18. That's right ...

Alaska's sending a BUNCH of people to the winter olympics, many more than went to the summer games.

[Ovett]

5. first off its not monolithic

There is plenty of participation by non-white athletes at the Winter Games. There is not as much diversity as the Summer Games because Winter Sports don't exist in as many non-white countries because of climate. This is not surprising. But for Gumbel to claim that because of the racial makeup the Games are not legitimate is total bullshit and is racist as far as I can tell.... especially coming on the heels of the Basketball piece.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Chose another subject. I don't like him, but the thought of trying to

smear him would never occur to me. He's just a spoiled brat, like far too many other assholes.

This is a POLITICAL message board, remember.

Racism would be somewhere else.

[Ovett]

9. well there was a political slant

with his GOP comment. This seems politically relevant to me. Racism/civil rights etc. has political relevance.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Ovett]

11. hahaha

NO. not trying to defend the GOP, but I really thought his comments were outrageous and degrading to the athletes in the Winter Games. For a supposedly distinguished sports reporter to denigrate the games and those athletes is fairly ridiculous.

[varkam]

12. Rofl

Best laugh all day. Thank you.

[buff2]

23. Gee whiz......

That's too bad he said anything against the GOPerverts. You shouldn't let it bother you so much though. This is America....everyone should have a right to their own opinion...oh wait! I forgot this is BU$H's America......never mind. :eyes:

[Ovett]

25. huh?

He didn't really say anything so bad about the GOP other than they are mostly white I guess... so therefore the Games must be a joke if they are also mostly white. Why is he focused on race?

[buff2]

27. Because the GOP makes it about race.

They are a predominately white party. I can see his point when he made that remark.How often do you see repukes hanging out with blacks other than photo-ops? I like Gumble a lot better than that awful Matt Lauer. :puke:

[Donald Ian Rankin]

40. Nothing to do with the OP, but point of order:

Everyone *has a right* to hold whatever opinions they choose. That doesn't mean that it *is right* to hold most opinions, just that you shouldn't be sanctioned by the state for doing so.

"I have a right to my opinion", offered as though it were a defence by someone whose just been challenged on bullshit they've been spouting, is a line that always makes me wince.

[KingFlorez]

6. How is that racist?

I think he's talking about how the Winter Olympics are not really diverse

[Ovett]

14. ummm, its racist because

he is using the racial makeup of the games to point to its illegitamacy as a sport. There are some obvious reasons for the lack of racial diversity, that doesn't make the athletic accomplishments less impressive. In Gumbel's world if a sport isn't made up of his race, its must not be a "real sport." He is an idiot.

[bilgewaterbill]

7. Gumbel is a pompous ass. He's right about one thing, though...

"the dreary days of February"

[AspenRose]

8. Oh, brother....

:eyes:

(King Florez, I feel you)

[Dunvegan]

13. Just working deep background on his new book:

If African-Americans Were Freepers
by Braying Gumball

[marmar]

15. I think the remarks were prejudicial...

but if Bryant Gumbel is a racist, he has a bizarre way of showing it. Have you seen his recent girlfriends?

[Ovett]

16. good point... maybe he's not a racist.

but he is certainly a pompous jackass.

[AngryAmish]

43. If a white man dates a woman of color...

it is impossible for him to be a racist?

I neither defend nor villify Bryant Gumbal. All I know if that Wayne Grady makes him look like Malcome X.

[Jug Or Not]

17. Olympics

I thought blacks WERE allowed to participate in the Olympics. They should be allowed to take up any sport they choose, become good at it, and try out for the Olympics no matter where they are.

Who has been stopping them from doing this? That person should be stopped.

[Ovett]

19. precisely. n/t

[Roho]

32. did skinner leave town or something?

how many ski jumping hills are there in ny state?

how much does a ski pass at killington cost for a season?

how many scholarships in 2 man luge did harvard hand out last year?

[phylny]

37. Well, there's at least one in Lake Placid, I would imagine ;) n/t

[Solo_in_MD]

20. Rascism has never been just a white male flaw

A test I find useful is to substitute white for black etc. If the statement is then unacceptable, so was the original version.

[Ovett]

21. yes, can you imagine if

a sportscaster had denigrated March Madness because racially it looked like an NAACP convention? They would be fired on the spot, but this is equivalent to what Gumbel said.

[JI7]

22. Gumbel is a jerk, but he makes a good point here though not in the best

way.

there is a reason there is a lack of minorities in winter games which often require more money than summer games. summer games involve a lot of sports which can be played almost anywhere starting at a young age and without too much money.

he is not racist but he is a jackass.

[Ovett]

24. I don't think that was his point.

If he was making a point about the lack of opportunity for blacks in winter games he would have said it. He was really just taking a shot at the Winter Games.. this was obvious with this comment about announcers pretending to be interested in obscure sports like the luge. Do you really think Gumbel is upset that more blacks don't luge? Please. He just thinks the Winter Games are a joke, and showed his racism by using the mostly white racial makeup to undermine their legitimacy.

[JI7]

26. i still don't think he is racist

his bringing up the GOP convention as a comparison indicates he might feel race is why minorities are not that prominent in the winter games. he just didn't express it in a good way. and he is known to be a jerk so it's not surprising.

[malaise]

38. Gumbel is correct

just check how the Federation of WInter Games changed the rules to make sure that the Jamaica Bobsled team would not shame the favourites again.

[fishwax]

28. Sorry, I don't buy it

There are plenty of people--sports fans and sports commentators alike--who don't really care about the winter olympics. The fact that Gumbel states his opinion after a piece about the 1966 NCAA championship makes him a racist?

The fact that he mentioned the racial makeup of the games makes him a racist? Was this the extent of the "racist screed," or just the grand finale? How strong was the "implication" that he preferred March Madness b/c of the racial makeup?

This all sounds specious, in my opinion. I don't have HBO, so I didn't see it, but perhaps I'll get a chance to catch the video or read the transcript at some point.

[Ovett]

29. screed was too strong a word

but there was no reason to mention the racial makeup of the games except as a reason to make them seem less legitimate, in contrast to March Madness. Thats how I interpreted it. I was also angry that he would demean the winter games in general.

[fishwax]

30. but making you angry does not a racist make

there's quite a leap between "i am angry that he demeaned the games" and "he is a racist because he demeaned the games."

There are any number of reasons to mention the racial makeup in the games other than to make them seem less legitimate. (For one, coming on the heels of a story about an event that fundamentally changed the racial makeup of a sport, he could just be pointing out that the winter olympics have had no such event.)

I like the winter games, too, though :)

[Ovett]

31. Gumbel stated mockingly and I quote:

Announcers will try to claim that these are the best athletes in the world "despite having as many blacks as a GOP convention."

Therefore, he is stating you can't have great (or the greatest) athletes without black representation.

[Roho]

33. and he is correct

you are wrong.

you can't call the the mlb final the world series because only american teams participate. does that stop you guys?

hell no.

do you remember when the usa flirted with the idea of bringing in track stars and running backs to power the bobsleds?

never drive them of course. just raw horsepower.

[Ovett]

60. he is incorrect

he is stating that you can't POSSIBLY have great athletes without more blacks involved. that was the clear intent of his comment... not that the games don't represent the world's athletes (after all, there isn't winter in many countries so why would we expect them to send many participants to the winter games?).

[fishwax]

34. that doesn't strike me as a racist comment at all

I mean, he's got a point. And it seems to me that the parenthetical in your last sentence makes a huge difference. He's certainly not saying you can't have great athletes without black representation (based on what you quoted). Rather, he's saying it's absurd to argue you've collected the "best athletes in the world" when there is virtually no black representation, (just as it was foolish to imagine that the overwhelmingly-white pre-Texas Western college basketball world reflected the greatest college athletes).

Various cultural and socioeconomic factors have created a winter games with relatively little (miniscule) participation among African Americans, just as various (though different, in some of the ways pointed out in this thread) cultural/socioeconomic factors kept African Americans from participating widely in major college basketball before '67, or, for that matter, Major League Baseball before 1947.

And it doesn't strike me, based on what you've quoted, as being particularly belittling to the olympic games, any more than it would be belitting professional golf to scoff at the suggestion that "the best athletes in the world" are playing in the final round of the U.S. Open.

[Ovett]

48. I disagree

Look, if you were to flip his statements around and replace black with white it would be outrageous. If I were to criticize the NBA because it has not enough white people and compare it to an NAACP convention would that be construed as racist? Whatever reason there is a small percentage of black participants in the Winter Games (climate/geography, socioeconomic, cultural) is irrelevant... For the events at the games, these are the best in the world, ergo, these are the best athletes in the world. Now if you want to pick apart individual events as not being real sports, thats something we can do with the summer games as well--but there are many events that are unquestionably worthy Olympic events like downhill skiing or cross country skiiing (which by the way, had a Kenyan participating last year) or speed skating.

I'm sorry, but stating that the racial makeup of the games delegitimizes them is racist, period. Does he also think Hockey is not a real sport because there aren't enough blacks? Probably. My guess is that this idiot thinks blacks would dominate any sport they tried which is just as racist as the old notion that blacks couldn't compete with whites.

Also, Gumbel called the Winter Games a made-up marketing distraction, totally demeaning the hard work these athletes put in to become the best in the world-- for a so called sports journalist he is clueless. Just because a sport is not paid any attention for four years doesn't mean it isn't a real sport. That also happens to be true for the Summer Games.

[Peter Frank]

35. Fuck anyone in the public eye..

...who doesn't have a sense of propriety.

[phylny]

36. This doesn't surprise me at all. Many years ago,

I wrote a letter to him when he was on Today, because he was speaking to a book author, I think, and asked a question that included the word "rednecks" in it, as in, "Won't the rednecks in this country have a problem with this?" or some such thing.

He's a jackass. Always was.

[KyuzoGator]

39. Kinda weird, especially since there is lots of racial diversity there.

I'm not a huge winter sports fan, but I know that there are lots of Asian people who excel. Wasn't Herschel Walker once on the U.S. bobsled team?

[Scout1071]

55. Yea, that's it. Didn't we have that one black dude like 2 decades ago?

Come on. By and large there is ZERO diversity in winter sports.

[Brewman_Jax]

41. Not allowed to have an unflattering opinion?

just because he's black? Who's the racist here? :eyes:

[Ovett]

50. No idea what you're talking about. n/t

[Stephanie]

42. Why should I believe you?

I don't.

[Ovett]

46. uh, ok. I'm so lying. n/t

[DemonFighterLives]

44. Much hub-bub over nothing

Let the games begin!
:popcorn:

And he can slap up the stupid GOP anytime he wants.

[BushOut06]

45. I don't think it was racist at all - just stating an opinion

Seeing a bunch of white athletes in one place might actually look like a GOP convention to him. Was it a very smart thing for him to say, probably not.

But he is dead right about one thing - for a few weeks, announcers will try to look interested in sports that otherwise they woudln't give two shits about. Oh yeah, that curling sure is an exciting sport! And that biathalon - now there is some opportunities from some great commentary.

[Ovett]

53. He is wrong about that because the announcers

getting excited about these sports are typically former atheletes in those sports who are genuinely excited.

[alcibiades_mystery]

47. Whitey is so oppressed!

Just becausae most black folks can't afford fees for ice rinks and ski tickets, doesn't mean whitey can't celebrate white-itude! Waaaah! Those mean black folks are making me feel bad! Waaaaah!

:eyes:

[Ovett]

49. So I can't criticize a black commentator

making racist comments because I'm white... that makes sense. I realize this issue is trivial compared to real racism but I thought it was interesting that Gumbel is such a moron.

[mtnsnake]

51. I doubt it. His show has done much to expose racism, not promote it.

I admit I haven't seen this particular segment yet, though.

Personally, HBO Real Sports is one of the best shows on TV. It's the exact type of show that repukes tend to hate.

[Ovett]

52. I like the show, I was just shocked

by his remarks about the Winter Games. He may not be a racist per se, but he is at least got some prejudice going and is pretty ignorant about sports that aren't the standard American favorites.

[Solomon]

57. Aw you're just a guy looking for some shit that don't exist to complain

about. You just misinterpreted something he said 'cause you're looking for something to prove that blacks are racist too.

[Ovett]

59. Why would I do that?

I think Gumbel is pretty prejudiced if not racist based on his remarks. I have no interest in proving blacks are racist too. I'm sure there are plenty of racists of all races. I do think his remarks were irresponsible for a professional journalist and revealed that he is pretty ignorant.

[Scout1071]

54. I want to correct you on the Texas Western team.

It wasn't "rare" that a team started 5 black players...it had NEVER been done before.

And I don't think that Bryant Gumbel is racist. Arrogant? Yes. Racist? No. He's simply stating the facts. And the facts are that there are very few black winter athletes and it wasn't until the 2002 Olympics that a black person had ever won a medal in any winter sport.

[Ovett]

58. I stand corrected on that.

However, stating the facts is one thing, using them to diminish the sport is totally another--as has been discussed in this thread, there are many reasons for low participation by blacks in the Winter Games. To turn around and use that as a reason to ignore the games or demean them is wrong in my opinion.

I repeat what he said, "commentators will try to deceive you into thinking these are the best athletes in the world, despite having about as many blacks as a GOP convention." (thats not exact but close)

What conclusion do you draw from this statement?

[ryan_cats]

56. OK, reminds me of Dave Chappell.

OK, reminds me of Dave Chappell.

"White people like Wayne Brady because he makes Bryant Gumbel look like Malcom X".

[Avalux]

61. Locking.

This post is inflammatory.