Project 21 Chides Gumbel’s Racial Comments
Project 21, a self-proclaimed moderate and conservative civil rights group, has criticized Bryant Gumbel’s racial comments at the Turino Winter Olympics.
While covering the games from Turino, Italy, Gumbel mused:
“Count me among those who don’t care about [the Olympics] and won’t watch them… So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world’s greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the winter games look like a GOP convention.”
In a statement issued Friday, Project 21’s Mychal Massie said the former “Today” show host was out of line:
“For Gumbel to castigate an entire field of athletes who have worked a lifetime in pursuit of a dream, and then injecting race into it, is unforgivable.” Turning the tables on Gumbel, Massie added: “Should he be condemned for only having one other black on his news team? Following Gumbel’s rationale, I would expect the answer to be yes.”
Project 21 member Deneen Moore accused Gumbel of trying to score “cheap racial political points,” explaining: “Accessibility, affordability and motivation are key requirements for individuals to excel in sport activities, not the color of one’s skin. Mr. Gumbel should be aware of these obvious facts and not try to score cheap racial political points.”
It’s great to see Republicans fighting back in this arena of politics. It’s long overdue. People like Bryant Gumbel and others were given a free pass on this type of comment for far too long.
Follow this link to view a history on Project 21.
Cross-post at LetFreedomRing
February 21st, 2006 at 6:19 pm
What, me worry? Why should anyone care about Bryant Gumbel’s opinion about anything? For that matter, who is Bryant Gumbel? Some kind of talking head, I think.
February 21st, 2006 at 7:34 pm
[...] For more info, check out the great post at California Conservative (it’s also cross-posted at Let Freedom Ring). [...]
February 22nd, 2006 at 6:24 am
Typical of the left.
The left tried to hold that Justice Thomas isn’t really black because he is conservative (same for Dr. Rice, Gen. Powell etc.) If you don’t fit their idealogical bent, then your race, sexual orientation, religion don’t count toward diversity.
Dumbell - er Gumbel - is applying the same idea to sports. If it isn’t a sport African Americans are interested in, then it isn’t really a sport. (Or not one worth caring about.) I wonder how he feels about golf, and how he felt pre-Tiger Woods?
And Don S - you say why care about what Gumbel says, because if the media ignores what he says, then it is another instance of the double standard in reporting. If a white person made a similar remark about a mostly black sporting event, he would have been fired before the end credits of the show finished running.
February 22nd, 2006 at 6:53 am
Last time I checked, blacks overwhelmingly choose to vote Democratic, therefore a GOP convention would be expected to be a bit whiter than Death Row. Is Gumbel against blacks making this choice? If a GOP convention was chocolate city, as they say in Nawleans, wouldn’t Gumbel blast that as tokenism?
Cheap racial demagoguery, the sport where you get to have it both ways!
February 22nd, 2006 at 5:12 pm
I was in Sierra Tahoe last month and there was plenty of multiculturalism. Asians, Russians, etc. Sure the black population was slim, but whose fault is that? It’s not like black people have physical imperities that give them a disadvantage on the slopes. Quit whining Gumbel and suit up, if you’re upset about not enough chocolate on the powder, then break the stereotype, not reinforce it.