Joannie’s a little too white for some people’s tastes. Photo: Hannibal Hanschke
Joannie Rochette won bronze in women’s figure skating not by talent, determination, and as a tribute to her recently deceased mother, but because of “racism, nationalism, pity, and politics”. So writes Orville Lloyd Douglas in the leftcoast freebie street paper.
Later realizing the paper stepped in a great big dino-sized pile of excreta, editor Charlie Smith tried to clarify why he published it. To no avail.
You can read all of it, or you can just look at his main thesis, presented in the first few paragraphs:
However, some critics on the Internet are suggesting that the judges are racists and they did not want an Asian female sweep of the Olympic medals in figure skating. I agree with this cogent assessment.
Since Joannie Rochette is a white Canadian woman, the judges made sure a white female slipped into third place to prevent an Asian sweep.
Some people are watching the Olympics in order to see the red and white. Others, like Orville and Charlie, just see the white.
Previously
The opening ceremonies were filled with too many white people. Georgia Straight, February 13.
There’s no sense in responding to this kind of stupidity. It just gives the ignorant bastards a platform.
Well the other thing here is that figure skating isn’t really a “sport”, since it’s entirely based on subjective performance. One could make an argument that the winner didn’t deserve to win because of numerous subjective factors.
Whereas last night, Canada undisputedly put the puck past the Slovakian goaltender once more than they did ours.
Oh where to begin?
“leftcoast freebie street paper”
The fact they have to give the paper away tells you something about its quality.
“Ando was robbed! She is the sexiest woman in figure skating, and she was treated very harshly by these judges.”
That says a lot about the author.
“Maybe, Rochette’s dead mother deserves some credit for allowing her daughter to win a medal as well.”
What a mom! Dying on time to help her daughter win a medal. Planned ahead of time no doubt.
From the editor:
“On the whole, Canadians are a little too blind to discrimination. This will become clear next month when the UN expert on minorities, Gay McDougall, issues her report on Canada to the UN Human Rights Council.”
Oohh. The UN Human Rights Council, I can hardly wait for those beacons of human rights like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Nigeria, China, Bangladesh et al to lay into Canada.
“Even a former Canadian world champion, Elvis Stojko, condemned the judging”
IIRC, Stojko condemned the marking system which doesn’t place enough emphasis on athleticism in his opinion.
Anyway, thanks for my laugh of the day.
That says a lot about the author.
Yeah, that comment kind of said a lot to me as well. Saying she’s the sexiest woman in figure skating doesn’t sound entirely objective.
Dying on time to help her daughter win a medal.
Yeah, no doubt Joannie was quite fortunate to have such an aid in her Bronze medal performance.
I was around Vancouver when that smut paper
was started. Those were the days of the Marxist
Leninist causes. Not much has changed with that gang so ignore them.
Betcha they hated their Mom’s as well!
sick crap!
The Georgia Straight is worse now than it was in the late 1960,s when it was an underground rag dedicated to guys advertising for women in the personals column. That’s how it made it’s name,through tawdry sex ads, with the advice that,”men seeking women seldom receive replies”. Guys used to read the GS at coffee break on the construction sites,just to laugh over the Personal ads.
Now I see it’s more “respectable” with columns by David Suzuki,Bill McKibben and Gwynn Dyer,the world’s foremost expert on matters military unless you count all the others.
This attack on Ms. Rochette appears motivated by the columnist’s lust for the Japanese skater.
Whatever the reason,it’s tabloid sensationalism at it’s worst.
Bravo to the young lady for winning Bronze!
“Well the other thing here is that figure skating isn’t really a “sport”, since it’s entirely based on subjective performance. One could make an argument that the winner didn’t deserve to win because of numerous subjective factors.”
Something cannot be a sport if it is judged?
It is not judged “entirely” based on subjective factors. The judging system is complex but was designed to remove most of the subjectivity of the judges.
“Whereas last night, Canada undisputedly put the puck past the Slovakian goaltender once more than they did ours.”
Sure, but you don’t think the reffing has any impact on what happens on the ice? Penalties called or not called? Penalty shot v. penalty?
I am afraid there are subjective factors here too.
Gayle:
Sure, but those are fairly clear cut rules that can be judged on a mostly impartial basis. If a speed skater touches another athlete that is against the rules. If a sprinter runs out of their lane that is against the rules. Same as in hockey.
In hockey you can go back to the replay and see if the ref made the ‘correct’ call or not. And they have. With sports that require judging like figure skating there is a far greater deal of subjectivity. You can’t simply replay the video and see if one person ‘deserved’ a higher score than another.
Sure there is a vast gulf of difference between a ‘good’ ice dance skater and a ‘poor’ one. But how do you judge between two ‘good’ skaters? What is the difficulty for each jump? How well was it executed? How much of a penalty should be applied? These things all make it very subjective.
I was not aware they use replays in order to determine if a penalty should be called in hockey. In fact, I am pretty sure they don’t. I know those of us watching see the replays and then complain that the ref did not make a call. A good, recent example would be the “too many men” call that should have been made when Canada played Russia, and the Russian player who was leaving the ice deliberately kicked the puck.
They do use replays in speed skating – and many of the skaters complain about the rulings. You can hardly say there is nothing subjective about making rulings based on replays.
The scoring in figure skating is designed to be objective. Each skater gets x points for x element. They use replays to ensure the skater did the full rotation on each jump, to ensure the skater did not “two foot” the landing and to ensure the skater did not put his or her hand down, amongst other things.
It is not perfect, but it is way better than before and most certainly is not “entirely based” on subjective judging.
I am going to suggest the reason you do not know how to judge between two good skaters is because you do not know how to judge good skating. The judges in figure skating are very experienced and are trained. They know what to look for. You don’t.
Gayle,
Feel free to go off topic here, but the main point is that the only racist in this equation is the writer of the article.
Adrian – if skating’s not a sport because of the judging aspect, then you’re going to have to remove a lot of other competitions from that category, including a lot of snowboarding (moguls, half pike) and skiing events. Problem is, a lot of these events are extremely popular because of the moves the athletes make – precisely the moves that are judged.
Frances,
I don’t mind if we have these subjective sports in the Olympics. I just think that if you’re going to criticize a subjective sport, such as this racism accusation, you’re already arguing something that can’t be objectively proved.
“Feel free to go off topic here, but the main point is that the only racist in this equation is the writer of the article.”
Actually, since I responding to your comment, I suggest it was YOU who went “off topic”.
Okay, Adrian, we’re agreed. Actually, I often prefer to watch the ‘judged’ sports. Let’s face it, aerials on snowboard or skis, half pike, or figure skating can be a lot more interesting than watching a series of bobsledders go down the course. And I watched the sledding and was cheering the women on as well. It’s just that there’s a sameness about skiing or speedskating or sledding that there isn’t in the judged sports.
Frances,
I think the reason that judged sports are so enjoyed is that it more of an interactive experience. For instance, I like boxing because you watch the match and try and decide who is winning. With hockey or baseball you have less feeling of control [except with the umpires and refs] over what’s happening.
There are some Olympic sports I don’t think I’ll ever understand though. Like diving. Every single one of them looks good to me. So you kind of have to a pro to know what’s going on. Whereas with swimming, it’s easy to see the first guy to the finish and cheer along.
I make no apologies for going off topic as this one is hardly worth commenting on. I can’t wait for “darts” to be included in the Olympic games.
Figure skaters are fabulous athletes capable of incredible physical feats, but the sport is judged and, therefore, open to abuse.
If the result cannot be timed, physically measured, or determined by objective point scoring such as balls in the net, the sport does not belong in the Olympics. Period. Objective “judges”, like unicorns, do not exist.
Personally, I stopped reading after this:
“But I’ve got say, other than our beloved Governor General Michaëlle Jean, the incredible display of aboriginal culture, a lightning-quick shot of Patrick Chan, a few Asian-looking dancers, the performance of Measha Brueggergosman and Portuguese-Canadian Nelly Furtado, and a black Mountie…this was by far the whitest-looking opening ceremonies.”
Except for all of that, it was totally white out there.
This guy reminds me of the episode of Duckman where Ice T tells all of American’s white people that they have one week to settle their affairs then kill themselves.
(We have to decide who gets our Celine Dion CDs.)