WTF? Costas thinks racism is imaginary????

[Scuba]

http://news.yahoo.com/the-white-world-of-sports--what-gabby-douglas%E2%80%99-vault-into-olympic-history-means.html

"You know, it's a happy measure of how far we've come that it doesn't seem all that remarkable, but still it's noteworthy, Gabby Douglas is, as it happens, the first African-American to win the women's all-around in gymnastics," Costas intoned, his besuited left elbow resting comfortably on the anchor desk. "The barriers have long since been down, but sometimes there can be an imaginary barrier, based on how one might see oneself."

Bobby, you must be insulated from real life. I'm an old white guy and I hear racist speech almost every day. And no, I don't live in some shithole where they think barring a black couple from marrying is "unfortunate".

Get a clue you pampered ass.

[MADem]

1. Imaginary barriers? Oh please.

This is a bit insulting. Clueless, certainly.

[Archae]

2. Costas is partly right.

Official racism, (like the "white" and colored" drinking fountains) are gone.

There used to be racists who took books out fo libraries, since they were written by "coloreds."

Racists prevented "colords" from voting, even from competing in sports.

All those are gone.

[Curtland1015]

3. Eh, I dunno... I don't think he was implying racism doesn't exist.

I could be wrong. But it just seems more like he's saying that, decades ago, the big deal about her winning would have been that she was black. Now it's not seen as the sole defining thing about her as a person.

It might have come out wrong, but I don't *THINK* he meant anything as crazy as "racism doesn't exist".

[GoCubsGo]

4. He is speaking in terms of sports, not in general terms.

And, with regards to sports, he's pretty much correct.

[Brewinblue]

5. I heard the piece live last night, and your interpretation never occurred to me,

and I am both Jewish and Latino. I am pretty sure he was referring to the overt racial barriers in sports that have slowly but surely been put to rest. For example the notion that blacks are not qualified to be NFL quarterbacks, or Al Campanis's statement a few decades ago that the reason there are few if any black managers or baseball executives was that they lacked "the necessities" for such roles.

In sports such as golf, tennis, ice skating, swimming, and gymnastics, African Americans have begun to enter and succeed wildly where they previously were unlikely to tread. For example Tiger Woods and the Williams sisters, to name the most visible cases.

[Major Hogwash]

6. He's no Howard Cosell, that's for damned sure.

He's whiter than white, and remains clueless to this day.

[HughBeaumont]

7. Gee, I guess Bob hasn't lived on this continent for . . . what . . . 405 years?