Fox News published an op-ed by John Moody, executive vice president and executive editor, Wednesday titled “In Olympics, let’s focus on the winner of the race — not the race of the winner,” only to pull the piece under pressure from identity-politics lobbyists and left-leaning media.
By Friday, Fox had removed the editorial – which criticized the heavy focus on the racial and sexual “diversity” of the American team at the upcoming Winter Olympics at PyeongChang, South Korea, to the detriment of the traditional emphasis on athletic prowess – from their website without an explanatory note. When asked, a Fox News representative told Breitbart News only that “John Moody’s column does not reflect the views or values of FOX News and has been removed.”
In his op-ed, Moody slammed Jason Thompson, the U.S. Olympic Committee’s (USOC) “director of diversity and inclusion” for insisting on a Winter Olympics team that “looks more like America.” The Washington Post’s Rick Maese, who wrote up his interview with Thompson, openly admits this, in large part, merely means a team with fewer white people on it. “[T]his year’s U.S. Olympic team, not unlike those of most other nations gathering in PyeongChang this week, is still overwhelmingly white,” he laments.
“We’re not quite where we want to be,” the USOC’s Thompson told Maese about the racial makeup of the American Olympic team, adding later, ““We still have some work to do. … We’re not quite there yet.” – READ MORE
[divider][/divider]An African American skater on the U.S. Olympic team is angry about the results of a coin toss that was used to decide whether he, or a white female skater, would represent the U.S. in the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics this week in Peyongchang, South Korea.
In a Thursday tweet, champion speed skater Shani Davis — who is black —injected race into the coin flip decision over which athlete would carry the U.S. flag during the opening ceremonies.
Earlier this week, U.S. Luger Erin Hamlin — who is white — was chosen to carry the flag from among a group of U.S athletes. However, Davis, who was also one of the finalists, included the hashtag #BlackHistoryMonth2018 in a tweet. After listing several of his accomplishments, which he believes, should have made him the flag-bearer.
“I am an American and when I won the 1000m in 2010 I became the first American to 2-peat in that event. @TeamUSA dishonorably tossed a coin to decide its 2018 flag bearer. No problem. I can wait until 2022,” he wrote on February 8.
Davis’ status as an American and his accomplishments as an Olympian, are not in dispute. Though, one has to wonder why he included the Black History Month hashatg, in his tweet. Unless of course, Davis is alleging race played a factor in the decision. – READ MORE
[give_form id=”79809″] [divider][/divider]With the opening ceremonies for the 2018 Winter Olympics just three days away, the United States Olympic Committee worries the U.S. team is not diverse enough.
The U.S. is sending the largest team ever to a Winter Games: 243 athletes. It’s the most diverse team the U.S. has ever sent to a Winter Games, but it still isn’t enough.
In all, only 10 members of this year’s team are black and 11 are Asian, according to USA Today. The team also includes the first two openly gay American athletes.
In 2016, 23 percent of Team USA was black while just 4 percent of this year’s team is black.
Jason Thompson, the Olympic Committee’s director of diversity and inclusion, told the Washington Post the Olympic Committee is committed to ensuring Team USA is as diverse as possible.
“We’re not quite where we want to be. I think full-on inclusion has always been a priority of Team USA. I think everybody’s always felt it should represent every American,” he said. – READ MORE
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