The history of white people hating LeBron James. If you follow sports even a little bit, you’re probably already well aware that LeBron James recently made the decision to return home to play for the Cleveland Cavaliers. But whether you follow sports at all, you probably at least know who LeBron James is, and, more importantly, that there a lot of people out there who hate him. More than ten years into his career, the hatred that many have for LeBron James burns with a strange impasse; he’s not a universally hated athlete, but the hate that he has received overtime has been more vitriolic and impassioned than most. The exact reason James attracts all this hate is hard to pin down. Some seem to hate him just because they do. A couple years ago, Andrew Unterberger at theScore wrote, “Trying to defend my hate of LeBron James and base it in some kind of moral objectivity is ultimately as purposeless as defending my love of Kobe Bryant.
But more than anything else, the hatred for LeBron James comes down to one word: ego. At London's Olympics, The Female Athlete Triumphs. By Travis Waldron on August 3, 2012 at 5:17 pm "At London’s Olympics, The Female Athlete Triumphs" Gabby Douglas The 2012 London Olympics were destined to be notable for female participation when, just weeks before the Games kicked off, three countries added women to their national teams and ensured that this would be the first time every country represented sent at least one woman to the Games.
Female participation in the Olympics has increased steadily in recent decades, but even accounting for that, the sheer amount of women punching holes in the barriers that once existed is breathtaking. The barrier-breaking began with star American soccer player Megan Rapinoe, who came out as gay before the Games began. Then there’s Gabby Douglas, the affable gymnast with a trillion-dollar smile who became the first woman of color to win an individual all-around gold medal. The stories of the Olympic woman hardly stop there. Can Claressa Shields Remake Women’s Boxing? There is a yellowed newspaper clipping taped to the wall in the basement of the Berston Field House, in Flint, Michigan, that shows Jason Crutchfield with his arms in the air, winning the city boxing championship in 1983. He was nineteen years old, a hundred and twenty-five pounds, and uncommonly handsome.
“I was pretty good,” he said; his professional record was eight wins, one loss, and one draw, with six knockouts. But he got distracted. “Women,” he explained, with a snort. For a while, he was training one of his sons to be a boxer. The girl’s name is Claressa Shields. The other fighters had heard about Shields before the tournament, which is perhaps why, when she and Crutchfield were backstage on the night of her first match, waiting to walk out before the hundreds of fans, their opponents started in on them early. After the bell, Shields plowed through her opponent. Joe Zanders, who had recently been named head boxing coach for the U.S. Shields was inconsolable. “I wasn’t up!” Does Serena Williams deserve to be criticized for 'Crip Walking' The Power of Gabby Douglas. Share (AP Photo/Jae C.
Hong) There are two kinds of political athletes. The first, and most memorable, are athletes who engage in the explicit politics of protest. This tradition is marked by Muhammad Ali saying, “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Vietcong.” Whether or not these athletes embraced the burden, they carried the aspirations and expectations of countless others.
Douglas’s journey is as unique as her triumph: one marked by having to navigate the racial segregation that defines so much of the United States. In Iowa, Douglas lived with a host family of strangers in a nearly all-white community and thought she might be the only black person in the state. But Douglas was indomitable and developed a reputation for the ability to actually seem like she was flying on the uneven bars, earning the rather unfortunate nickname “The Flying Squirrel.” As she said to the New York Times in June, “I have an advantage because I’m the underdog and I’m black and no one thinks I’d ever win. If Gabby's Got The Gold, Why Flip Over Her Hair? : The Torch. Hide captionGabrielle Douglas performs Thursday on the beam during the artistic gymnastics women's individual all-around final.
Some people are focusing on her hair rather than her skill. Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images Gabrielle Douglas performs Thursday on the beam during the artistic gymnastics women's individual all-around final. Some people are focusing on her hair rather than her skill. Gabby Douglas, the 16-year-old gymnast from Virginia Beach, Va., won another gold medal Thursday. Never mind how she flies like a raven on the balance beam. On Twitter and Facebook, black women shared their disapproval of Douglas' ponytail, the same hairstyle all of her teammates sported. The criticism started on social media, but hair bloggers and even Jezebel defended the gymnast. Make no mistake, though, the matter of hair is as serious to some in the black community as losing a tenth of a point on the balance beam. But Douglas is a gymnast. What she is is a role model. The Media's Gabby Douglas Problem. Reports of Black women hating on Gabby Douglas's hair have been greatly exaggerated.
Articles claiming that Black women have fixated on Gabby's hair have sparked the usual discussion about White beauty norms, hair politics, and internalized racism. But is it really Black women who are obsessed with Gabby Douglas' hair, or the media? The idea that sisters are paying "more attention [to Gabby's hair] than her gold medal[s]" is exactly the image of dysfunctional, belligerent Black women that the media loves. In the understandable rush to defend Gabby from critics, we've overlooked that this narrative is being pushed by racist, sexist media that can't be trusted to report accurately on Black women's opinions on just about anything. There's very little evidence that hair is a priority when it comes to Black women's feelings about Gabby Douglas. So why has American media so eagerly seized on hair anxieties as a major part of Gabby's story? Coverage of Gabby's family has been even worse.