Flying Squirrels, Jumping Monkeys, & Gabby Douglas
There isn’t anything remotely close to London Olympic gold medalist, Gabby Douglas, being a squirrel—be it flying, scurrying or smashed like roadkill. Gabby is the quintessential American hero who has risen like a graceful Phoenix—dark skin, thick lips, broad nose, coily hair and all.
Gabby is not a mascot that you pat in sympathy with white patronizing sentiments like a Pickanini slave child dancing for watermelon seeds.
Her father is serving in the military with an overseas deployment, while her mother pooled all of her resources so that she and Gabby’s siblings could be there to support. They may be cooking dinners on hotplates at the hotel, but they are there by hook or crook.
That is the black family template I know. We make do when the can’t do is staring us down in the face.
So let me give this PSA to the world: The name, ‘The Flying Squirrel‘ is not cute nor is it endearing.
And though I am sure Gabby laughs at this ‘nickname’, and wears it proud, I am quite disgusted. And I know I am not alone. As a result, I will take the role as her elder, and defend her, even if she isn’t quite clear how historically demeaning and racialized it is to be reduced to a furry, disease-infested, buck-toothed critter.
She was thought to not have “what it took to be an Olympian” because ‘experts’ believed she “lacked confidence and focus”. Commentators emphasized these ‘doubts’ with implications that she had fell short on maturity, competition experience and an understanding of what it took to be a victor.
It seemed as if her only skill was to smile like a 20th century Amos N’ Andy caricature. But we who have been there knows that Gabby, whether consciously or not, understands the true meaning of “grin and bear it” or to smile, even when they are the meanest.
Juxtaposed against Gabby was her teammate Jordan Wieber, who was touted consistently as America’s real “darling”. Unlike Douglas, Wieber was framed as effortless and destined to win. But when she failed, the commentators showered reports with endless, acceptable excuses as to why and how she wasn’t performing up to par.
I almost spit out my smoothie when a news report said, “the world watched in shock as Wieber shed heart-wrenching tears—she wouldn’t be competing in the all-around competition.” NOT. I wasn’t stunting Jordan Wieber, and I question what world that, that reporter belongs to—perhaps white Suburbia that orbits around asinine.
But the one-sided outrage of the individual finals being Wieber-less went as far as an NBC gymnastic commentator stating later that he thought Olympic officials should reassess the rules of how many people can qualify. I have seen this strategy repeated when certain people lose at a game of which they created the rules—they simply change them when they are no longer the game-changers.
And although Gabby scored highest during the team finals, it was projected that Wieber’s leadership and emotionally evolved, selflessness is what actually got the job done for the win.
Even up until the final event leading to Gabby’s individual gold, while the world was cheering, the privileged and supremacist eye kept disbelieving. When Gabby won, it was so antithetical for the biased commentators who were edging for any white girl to win by the end, that folks took to twitter and Facebook to celebrate what wasn’t being acknowledged on air.
So uncomfortable with Gabby’s domination and being the current face that represents the United States as a champion, those who have absorbed the ideologies of privilege and supremacy threw jabs like the alleged “ill-timed’ monkey commercial following the ceremony.
It is as if Gabby is like Obama in 2008.The results are in, and they will never admit, that they were all dead ass wrong, upstaged by and underdog and still soak in their racism.
What in the world are you smoking? What an imaginary world of hate you create. Everyone I knew of was watching an American compete, not like you watching a war between the worlds blacks and other races. You are of the persuasion that went on twitter and dissed her hair. Other races didn’t even notice. Do you have to create hate and divisiveness? Do you feel empty or less than adequate without it as a crutch for your feelings of inferiority? So they aired a commerical with a funny little monkey after airing Gabbys win, so sad that you thought the comedy commercial was about you and that you identify with that monkey. Trust me, you are a lot uglier.
Oh yes, and please overdose on Tim Wise. If a black woman can’t articulate it for you, then maybe a white man can.
What in the world are you smoking? What an imaginary world of hate you create. Everyone I knew of was watching an American compete, not like you watching a war between the worlds blacks and other races. You are of the persuasion that went on twitter and dissed her hair. Other races didn’t even notice. Do you have to create hate and divisiveness? Do you feel empty or less than adequate without it as a crutch for your feelings of inferiority? So they aired a commerical with a funny little monkey after airing Gabbys win, so sad that you thought the comedy commercial was about you and that you identify with that monkey. Trust me, you are a lot uglier.
RhesusPieces, you are probably three peanuts short of sense, and that is why I will have no mercy on your soul. It is the very danger to think that America, instituted in a race-based society, and rooted in a history that has used race as a validation of global domination is raceless. Oh, I’m sorry, thank de Good Lawd Obama got into office because surely, we are post-racial. However, I am sure you are kin to Clayton Bigsby, acting like you are blind, but filled with some internal racial issues. And in the words of my homegirl Celie, “I’m poor, black; I may even be ugly. But dear God! I’m here! I’m here!” Teehee, cheers to America, my home sweet home! In bestest liberal voice.
give Gabby her banana..
http://i47.tinypic.com/2w3ce3s.jpg
You are dead on. I’m a white woman but it blew me away that nobody commented on that nickname, Jesus! Honestly, I don’t know if nobody noticed, or if the network would have steered them away from doing so (if you watch this vid around the 37:07 mark, you hear the commentators talk a tiny bit about that label, and, to me at least, it seems like they’ve discussed it among themselves a little…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLWd1HRBbmA). Jordyn Weiber was frequently compared to “a chiseled piece of steel” all throughout the buildup to the Olympics, while Gabby Douglas gets called a Flying Squirrel. I did not hear any of the other women’s gymnast being saddled with a trivializing, dehumanizing, animalizing nickname (it’s one step away from “Jungle Bunny” basically), and I think it’s kind of similar to what happens with Black Women a lot in women’s fashion mags too–when they are objectified as women, they’re also often placed in jungle scenes or painted with some kind of Wild-cat stripey makeup–implication being that Black women are more “primitive”, and that’s racism, though nowadays unless somebody frigin’ comes out and yells “I hate Black folks!” nobody would dare critique it as such. Bottom line, we live–STILL–in a white male supremist culture that’s just about as riddled with racism and sexism as it’s always been (actually, now that I’m thinking this over via your piece, it’s also interesting that John Orozco didn’t get any animal nicknames–probably an example of sexism and racism working hand in hand to make things shittier for women of Color; was it more acceptable to subject Douglas to more overt forms or racism because she was not only Black but also female? Anyway, good piece, and obviously most folks who spew out all this, “I don’t see race, she’s just an American!” are probably white dudes who’ve never had to experience a day of oppression in their lives.