The Rio Olympics

My wish as always is for you to have a happy Monday.

I can think up a number of things to do instead of sitting in front of a television to watch the Rio Olympics and I do. It should easy for you to guess that I am neither an avid television fan  nor sports fan. In spite of my best effort I did watch some events at the Rio Olympics. I got royally treated to good doses of American classism and bigotry.

I had the good fortune to have only one television channel carrying the Olympics and the commentators were committed to extolling the superiority of the American team. That was not a fair statement because the American team comprised two classes the Americans and the African Americans. It became clear that the gold medals won at the Olympics made the Americans proud but some would prefer if they had been won by the other class of Americans.

I noted in the past week someone taking offence with being referred to as an African American. My curiosity was once again stirred to a question that I have been pondering for some time. I logged into Google and typed in "Which countries make up North America?".

I was pleasantly surprised when the answer that came up was that North America is the third largest continent and it comprises 23 countries and dependencies. These countries include Mexico,  the US, Canada, Haiti, The Dominican Republic, Cuba, Jamaica, Greenland (the largest island) among others. This answer was not getting me where I desired so I typed "Why do citizens of the US exclusively use the term American?" That question had too many definitions and no conclusion.

The best answer appear to be that American was a term used by the British to denote those belonging to the colonies of the Americas. This seem the only plausible answer to explain the class system that exist in American laws. (Some feared losing the British identity because at some point in the future the Native American will revive and the Africans will sooner or later gain power). Entrenching African American becomes the way to entrenching white supremacy. These guys were smart and foresaw the day when Africans would begin to dominate and sought to preclude it.

As previously mentioned there were two notable classes in the team to the Rio Olympics the superior class that descended from Europeans and you know who.

The African American population comprises 15% of the population of the USA and the US team to the 2016 summer Olympics is approximately 500. This mean that if the US team had 75 African Americans in the team then everything is in a right proportion. If there are less than 75 African Americans in the team then it show discrimination against the African American population and if there are more than 75 African Americans in the team then it shows that the African Americans are superior to their counterparts.

It was interesting listening to the sports commentators at the Rio Olympics. They were not off because the reports online were similar. The US was proud of the gold medals that are won but how dare these African Americans to win gold medals. This was privileges reserved for their superiors. This was why reporters were flabbergasted with Simone Emanuel winning a swimming event. Another fact that the reporters had to contend with was the feats of  Simone Biles. She has done what no female gymnast was able to do in more than one hundred years of Olympic history.

Every mention of these names has to be accompanied by the fact that they are African American.

One of the highlight of the modern Olympic game is the final of the 100 meter sprint. For more than a year the great American hope has been giving off a lot of empty air that he was the best. It may have been fortunate for him that he was not privy to the sports commentators because they did not give him a chance. It is not often that one get to hear American commentators express hopelessness. Maybe if the American hope was in the other class they would have sworn that he would win until he lost.

I  readily  confess that I am no good at math but it would be nice to do some math here based on the population of the US. The US team to the Rio Olympics is 500. The US had the largest team so it should be no surprise that the US won the most medals. Based on the US population if 75 of the 500 are African Americans then it is fair for African Americans to account for 15% of the medals won. So far the African Americans are holding their own. At the end of the Olympics it will be interesting to tally the medals won by African Americans and compare that to African American Americans as a percentage of the US population and the answer will give an idea to their problems in the US.