this was the story i was posting before that “contact(mi)” story.
so everyone meet simone biles.
she’s a 19 year old gymnast vixen,
who has won 14x worlds medalist,
currently performing at the 2016 olympic games,
and some of “our folks” have a problem with her.
well it started when she admitted she was a huge kim kardashian stan.
you know that was strike one.
word got to kim and she sent love to simone like so…
.@KimKardashian wishing @Simone_Biles good luck in Rio is ???? #Rio2016https://t.co/A7DYi3B5Gp
— NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) August 5, 2016
i won’t get on her for who she likes.
i like artists that others don’t like.
it is what it is.
she is also a huge “justin bieber/zac efron” stan as well.
my issue was this statement she made to the “atlanta black star”.
they asked her if she saw herself as a “racial pioneer for gymnastics”.
this is a quick snippet from the article:
The 19-year-old athlete told The Undefeated she has never faced problems because of her race. Her grandfather Ron – who with her grandmother Nellie adopted Biles and her sister when she was 6 – revealed that some see her as “an inspiration for the African-American community. I’m not sure Simone sees it that way.”
Biles says she is happy that she inspires other girls of color, but admits “to me, I feel like I’m just Simone.”
“I never think of it as, ‘Oh, I’m the first African-American to win [the world championship],” she continued. “Everyone just shoves that in our heads. I never think, like, ‘Oh my gosh, I am the first this, I’m the first that.’ I just do my gymnastics because I like to have fun. I don’t bring race into it.”
Race may not have been a factor to Biles when she won a bronze medal at the 2013 world championship on the balance beam in Belgium, but it was a factor for Italian gymnast Carlotta Ferlito. The Italian gymnast told a reporter at the time, “I told [teammate Vanessa Ferrari] that next time we should also paint our skin black so then we can win too.”
The comments were later poorly clarified by the Italian federation. They claimed the gymnastics trend was “going toward a technique that opens up new chances to athletes of color, well-known for power while penalizing the elegance typical of Eastern Europeans.”
Though they both apologized later on, word reached Biles on Twitter. Initially the Columbus, Ohio native thought the story was made up. Then she ignored it. She said the media increased the controversy, but she gave it no thought.
that is where i think she sorta lives in a bubble.
yes,
simone is a young gymnast,
but she is also a successful black young gymnast.
the color of her skin will always come first before her talent.
the fact she ignored those blatant racist statements shows her mindset.
it seems to be very “plays in the snow” as well.
there is a good and bad news about these types tho.
the good news is her wake up call is coming.
i think it’ll be from a snow wolf.
that stings worse than snow bunnies.
the bad news is,
it will probably devastate her.
i just hope her parents have at least taught her the “racial” ropes,
but sometimes,
you need to get burned in order to learn the lesson.
lowkey: i don’t think we should crucify this vixen.
she is still out there representing “us”.
she is just very young and awfully naive.
give her time.
article credited: atlanta black star
I totally agree with aj2fly. Her statements do not necessarily mean she is distancing herself from the common struggles black people face in America. Whilst the ‘I am black and I am human’ voice in the form of the Black lives matter movement and the like, rings out, I think the ‘I am human and I am black’ (which is what I think she was saying) narrative must also run side by side there if there needs to be proper progress.
By the way, because she likes Kim K, Justin Bieber and Zac Efron doesn’t mean she doesn’t like black artists or artists of other races.
Another foxholer said it before. We need to stop putting certain people on pedestals and stop being upset when they don’t live up to it. Not everybody’s gonna be down for the cause and those people just want to make money, eat, shit and go to bed comfortably.
She’s old enough to know better and her grandfather should’ve taught her better.
She’s a successful black gymnast but I wouldn’t consider her to be a trialblazer or pioneer. That honor goes to Dominique Dawes. And her comments reflect the feelings of a lotta people her age…they are so far removed from the civil rights movement that they don’t understand or see the struggle.
I actually get where she is coming from. It’s not a thing of not acknowledging that you are black or even not knowing that it’s a factor, it’s about you not personally inserting race into things. She was doing her and at 19, it’s not always your mentality to think about how race might factor into it when you win. Sure we always hear about it when people lose, but it’s a sense of personal achievement once someone has won. Perhaps in time she will see how much bigger her accomplishment actually is and what it means, but for someone who has not really had their ethnicity be an issue for them, it’s not surprising or wrong for her to say that.
As for her ignoring the comments, she’s getting a lot of attention now and will have many negative things said about her for no reason. She has got to learn to brush them off, you yourself have criticized celebrities for not having thick skin and letting things bother them. And with how much fake rumors and all this tabloid journalism that people love to hear, it’s not unbelievable that she might have thought that the comments were fake. You know how people love to take one thing that someone says and misconstrue it into something more scandalous.
Yeah, reading her comments I didn’t get anything that translated to Raven symones “I’m not black I’m American” or that she doesn’t identify as black.
+2
Well said aj. What she said wasn’t bat at all. It’s not always that serious…
I hope she never learns and that her bubble stays intact. It has to happen eventually. Why not now? I don’t think she will stay safe in her bubble for long. But, I really wish she, and everybody else, could.
She not the only one and their have been many more before her that have made similar statements. The Indians talked about this centuries ago, about how their people were losing their heritage, pride, and would come back weaker when they would assimilate with the whites. Our people are going to have to focus on the ones that love being black, support each other, educate, build together, unite and generate wealth within our communities. Also, the white men are not checking for her because you should see some of the meme that they have made of her and when she does get a white man if she doesnt have one already, he will only be with her for her accomplishments.
I remember meeting a black bisexual guy a few years ago and he made the statement that he is an American before being black and doesn’t acknowledge his color and I asked him why? He proceeded to say that “It holds us back and that we continue to hold on to the past and white people are not like that anymore. I responded and said “I can respect your point of view but what about the many blacks that are given harsher sentences or punishment in the criminal justice system, racially profiled, or discriminated from jobs, or get predatory loans that have similar credit to whites, or college admissions?” I said “I can continue to go on about how color is still considered an issue in this society and although our history was stripped from us, we should still keep our heritage and traditions in tact, and that Jews, Asians, and middle easterners keep their traditions going and are proud of their heritage.” I got a pause and a blank stare, but after breaking his back in, I would later stop communicating with him because he would change his character around white people and look down on fellow blacks.