Straight up truth about Simone Biles and those who have the nerve to criticize her

[sheshe2]

34. This was posted sometime ago... here.

It is a long article and I can only post a few paragraphs that will not complete the thought.

Posted here. https://www.democraticunderground.com/120484131

Simone Biles Made Gymnastics History. Now a Different Kind of History Is Repeating Itself.

Biles recently became the first woman ever to attempt the Yurchenko double pike in competition. By nailing the remarkably difficult maneuver, she not only expanded the boundaries of her sport—she ignited a controversy that feels all too familiar.

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For as much as the maneuver itself sparked a frenzy, the optics of the judges’ decision ignited a storm. Biles—by virtually any measure the greatest gymnast in history, and a Black woman in a sport with the racial variance of a tall glass of milk—entered her first competition in more than 18 months, landed the most impressive and difficult move imaginable, and was given a score that not-so-subtly told her not to do it again.

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The thing to remember about American beliefs is they’re never really new. There have been myths, for instance, as to whose claims to humanity are rightful and whose are not for as long as white people have been on this continent. John Lining, a colonial physician who lived in South Carolina, is cited by historians as an early peddler of the idea that there are innate physiological distinctions between people of different races. In Lining’s most famous text, which included his notes on Charleston’s 1748 yellow fever outbreak, he wrote, “There is something very singular in the constitution of the Negroes, which renders them not liable to this fever.” The implication in Lining’s message spread like wildfire.

Throughout 18th- and 19th-century slavocracy, similar theories were extolled as a means to justify bondage and its attendant violence. Myths of unlimited pain tolerance, unique muscle groupings, and increased physical prowess were seared onto Blackness, with those fictions propagated as fact. There is no way to understand modern perceptions of the human body—its limits and abilities, depths and promise—without first grappling with the legacy and outgrowth of these doctrines, both inside and outside of the United States.

And there is no way of separating athletics from this culture. For as much as the history of sports has been defined by advancements in athletic greatness, it is equally defined by an inherent distrust of Black physicality; a subtle but unshakable fear of the types of unbridled dominance that expand the confines of a given game or event.

So much more here. https://www.theringer.com/2021/5/28/22458616/simone-biles-yurchenko-double-pike-us-classic-scoring

I truly hope she finds the peace she seeks. Her body/mind, herself....HER CHOICE.