Photo via thefashionbomb
Why Gabby Douglas’ gold medal win transcends the Olympics.
You’re not obligated to win. You’re obligated to keep trying to do the best you can every day.
-Marian Wright Edelman
Blazing the trail set by Dominque Dawes; today Gabrielle Douglas made history as an African-American female gymnast by becoming the first Olympic Gymnast to win a gold medal in both team and all-around gymnastics. Now hopefully the conversation can move from Gabby’s hair and onto her momentous achievement. From First Lady Michelle Obama to former Sectary of State Condolezza Rice to Serena Williams we continue to see more diverse and positive images of American Black women in the mainstream media.
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My wife, Kijan Maxam, sums up Gabby Douglas’ achievement perfectly below:
Gabby’s win is an achievement for all Black girls. She represents that little brown girls can excel at anything with the right support and love from family and community. Her mother’s choice to allow her to train miles away from home reflects her family’s belief in her ability to succeed and their encouragement in helping to fulfill her dreams. It takes a village and Gabby’s success demonstrates what’s possible when we put our children first and provide safe spaces for them to flourish.
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Image via everthorne
Congratulations to Gabby Douglas and her mother Natalie Hawkins. Congrats to Missy and Travis Parton also known as Gabby’s second parents. Gabby Douglas lives with the Partons while training in West Des Moines, Iowa with her coach Liang Chow. Takes a village indeed.
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Thanks for reading, sharing and commenting!
R.I.P. SKH
About S. Maxam
I think gabby,s great.
The girl was clearly head-and-shoulders above the rest of the competition—seeing her bring home the gold was definitely a proud moment.
But something else disturbed me besides the talk about her hair—and that was the chatter about her identity. I read more than one comment where (white) people would deem it unfortunate that she was labelled as “African-American” instead of just “American”.
/rant/
Part of the reason black people find it so difficult to identify as just “American” is because we’re never really seen that way by the majority. One of the core thrusts against Obama is that he’s not really “one of us”, that he was born elsewhere, and doesn’t have American values. In some ways, he’s the best of what American black culture has to offer and he’s still deemed an outsider by large swaths of the electorate. But when we embrace that outsider status by openly identifying ourselves as people of African descent, or black, we’re then told that we should be “American” without any additional qualifiers. The hypocrisy is as mind-boggling as it is damaging.
/end rant/
In my branch of the family my sisters never get married except one and she left her forst two children for over 16 w/o support or visits. My boyfriend has broken my jaw and has beat my constanly but the rest of the family only blames whites. Too bad underground RR families have their grave stones stolen in Ohio while blacks laugh at the help they get from rebs to disrespect everyone.