Today We Learned: Americans Are Still Biased … Good Riddance Sha’Carrie

By Shawn B

This article was published in 2021 on an earlier version of DibbSpot.com. It is being republished here for continuity. 

So I came across a YouTube video from the channel Brother From Another where one of the host, Mike, was FURIOUS that Sha’Carri Richardson ‘shaded’ Allyson Felix after Felix showed her support for her last-place finish in the Prefontaine Classic.  Fury – justified?  Maybe so.  The other host, Michael (yeah, weird) was more in an ‘I told you so’ mood.

I haven’t got much to say to Michael, as he was right all along, but Mike … Mike, buddy … well you’re just plain old biased Mike – and quite short-sighted.  You’re OK when she disrespects Jamaicans but you draw the line when she disrespects an American. Your and her principles should be consistent across the board. She should respect everyone – not just Allyson Felix. Point is, she is not humble, and she has no sportsmanship.  The buck shouldn’t stop at Felix – there should be no buck to begin with.  The fact that anyone thinks it’s OK to act the way she has, they’re sticking their head in the sand to pretend there isn’t a problem.

It’s not me, it’s you

And just to emphasize, if so many people are seeing and saying there is a problem – you should ask yourself if assuming they’re all wrong isn’t an asinine position to take.  Obviously there is some truth to it – not just them hating her.  And to be clear, I don’t hate her – I think she’s talented – but if she’s a talented, nasty-attitude person, I’m gonna skip the talented part. I cannot support that.  There are plenty of talented, non-nasty-attitude athletes out there that need that support.  

Sadly, I don’t think you’re furious just because she shaded Allyson Felix, I think you’re hurt because you blindly supported her indecorous, insolent, uncouth behavior, her unchecked waywardness and shenanigans. I think you’re pissed because you wanted to attribute those traits to confidence, but you got proven wrong that as Shakespeare put it, “that which we call a rose, by any other name, would smell just as sweet.”  In her case, nastiness, cloaked in so-called confidence, is still plain old nasty.  You got got buddy – you fed her and she bit you! Don’t be mad, own it.

Slippery slope

Principles matter. Sportsmanship matters. These are the fabric that imprint on us and teach those that come after us. If you can condone that in the name of “confidence”, it’s no wonder the American social fabric is disintegrating before the world and the only ones not to see that are those said Americans with their head in the sand.  This shouldn’t be the type of behavior we teach our youth is acceptable.  You can be competitive and still keep the spirit of the sport.  Competitions have been around for as long as we have been who Homo sapiens – albeit some more fierce than others.  However, it is still our responsibility to ensure competition without friction, competitiveness without pettiness remains the cherished human behavior – not what we have seen from treacherous Sha’Carri.  You must also realize this is a slippery slope.  If we can’t reasonably draw the line, what happens when we start ‘moving the goalpost’?  What happens when it slides from dangerous disrespect to the physical realm?  Not to be alarmist, but these competitions are on a world stage, and we should all be reminded that a lot of powerful countries can be real petty too … and next thing you know …

Frankly, if Americans had any morally upstanding bone left in their bodies, they would support dropping this uncouth loser from their team.  I’m not surprised she got dropped from the Olympic relays even though her suspension was over.  It was probably the coach taking his/her one chance to rid themself of Sha’Carri’s shitty attitude and I do hope he/she goes further.

And just to stem the inevitable assumptions – I am a Jamaican, I am an American. I am not a Jamaican-American and I am not an American-Jamaican.