Eugene Kane Endorses Bryant Gumbel’s Racist Remarks

Via Ask Me Later:

. . . the fact that the Journal-Sentinel’s race columnist tried to excuse a racist comment from Bryant Gumbel on HBO. Gumbel said:

“Finally, tonight, the Winter Games: Count me among those who don’t like them and won’t watch them … try not to be incredulous when someone attempts to link these games to those of the ancient Greeks, who never heard of skating or skiing. 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.”

Of course, the ancient Greeks never heard of basketball either, but that doesn’t stop it from being an Olympic sport. He continued:

“And try to blot out all logic when announcers and sportswriters pretend to care about the luge, the skeleton, the biathlon and all those other events they don’t understand and totally ignore for all but three weeks every four years.

“Face it: These Olympics are little more than a marketing plan.”

Gumbel, quite simply, is deriding certain sports because virtually all of the participants are white.

What would he say if somebody derided NBA basketball because virtually all of the participants are black?

Is the value of a sport determined by the skin color of the people who play it? Would Martin Luther King endorse that notion?

Interestingly, NBA basketball is vastly popular with white Americans — the vast majority of whom are apparently more racially tolerant than Gumbel.

If the Winter Olympics somehow excluded blacks, that would be a real grievance demanding some action. But the simple fact is that the sports that make up the winter Olympics are cold weather sports, which is why countries like Canada and Norway (as well as Alpine nations Switzerland and Austria) are doing so well.

And black people are scarce in far northern latitudes and Alpine nations.

Just as black people are plentiful in urban areas with playgrounds that have basketball hoops.

Kane’s defense essentially endorses racism.

Also, what’s so wrong with what he said? It’s actually a very pointed but somewhat sarcastic critique of the Winter Olympics, which are apparently so bland, even “Dancing with the Stars” and “American Idol” are beating the Games in the ratings.

Some folks are so caught up in this “reverse racism” game, they don’t even make sense. Have you ever watched the GOP convention when the camera pans the audience?

Well, then you know what he was trying to say.

Of course we know what he was trying to say. He was trying to say something racist.

If blacks are scarce at the Republican Convention, does that speak badly for the Republicans, or badly for black people? To assume the former is racist, making black people the arbitors of political correctness. That’s no better than completely dismissing the beliefs of black people.

And if “American Idol” should beat NBA basketball in the ratings, would that justify deriding the sport on the grounds that black athletes are so bland (or dumb, or immoral or whatever racist notion you want to wheel out) that they can’t win the ratings race?

This sort of casual racism is the norm among the politically correct. Things “white” may be derided and scorned with impunity.