Most of the Olympics is elitist, almost strange sports like kayaking, badminton and Greco-Roman wrestling. What I’m saying is, the vast majority of roots black youth all over planet earth do not play the vast majority of sports which hand out gold medals at the Olympics. Actually, we don’t even swim. There were none of us who competed against Michael Phelps either at the individual or team level.
For a man to win eight gold medals, as Phelps did, is a spectacular performance. Not only do you have to be very good, and have worked very hard, but a lot of things have to go right for you. This is a record, as they say, for the ages.
Nevertheless, for a lot of us black folk all over planet earth, the Olympics come down to one thing – the 100-meter dash for men. This is the most ancient and visceral of sports. I can beat you from here to there. “Come test mi, no?”
Some years ago, the local television stations had a Caribbean feed for the Olympic Games, but for the Beijing Games we’ve basically fallen back into the clutches of the Americans. So, in Belize we’re watching NBC and MSNBC to see the Games, and they are, of course, catering their production for the majority American audience, which is white. It’s Michael Phelps for breakfast, Michael Phelps for lunch and Michael Phelps for supper. If you’re a snacker, then there’s Michael Phelps for that too.
Saturday morning they fed me some kayaking), some horsemanship and a little badminton. Around 3 in the afternoon, my brother Nelson and I had to go see somebody. That’s how I found out Usain Bolt had already behaved like a real lightning bolt. Nelson had seen the race on a Spanish language station, and recounted to me how Bolt looked right, then left and beat his chest as he crossed the finish line in world record time.
Nelson apologized for having ruined the suspense for me, but I didn’t really care. I was disappointed that Tyson Gay had not qualified, but the hamstring is the largest, most important, and most delicate muscle in sprinting. Gay had experienced hamstring discomfort a few weeks ago. He refused to make excuses after running out of the money in the semi-finals, but he could not have been at his best.
All I wanted now was to see the Bolt replay against Asafa and whomever. Around 6 in the evening, which is 8 p.m. Saturday night coming on prime time for the United States East Coast (read New York City, Boston, Washington, Miami, etc.), NBC handed me the women’s marathon. I enjoyed that. I do a little jogging myself, so I could summon up the greatest of respect for ladies running 26 miles and 385 yards, running for two and a half hours non-stop. Amazing.
Still, this was only “previews” for me. Even on tape, the 100 dash would make my night. At least, that’s what I was thinking. I am a man who goes to sleep early in my old age. Eight, eight thirty, even on weekend nights, then I wake up around four, four thirty. I would say between 7:30 and 8:00 p.m., which is 9:30, 0:00 in New York City, NBC whetted my taste buds with the two semifinal 100-meter heats, which produced the eight qualifiers for the final. So I saw Gay finish fifth in his heat, and heard his gallant interview.
NBC then gave me more than an hour of the women’s marathon, one Dara Torres (41 years old) in women’s swimming, and the epic Phelps eighth gold medal race. Coming up on 9 p.m. (11 p.m. in New York), I began to get a little angry at being manipulated by NBC. I stayed up past 9 to watch the eighth gold medal race. I owed Michael Phelps his respect. But NBC’s playing around with the 100-meter finals p—ed me off. If it was the American Gay who had won, they would have been showing that race in prime time over and over. But, America is for Americans, not for Jamaicans. Do you understand now why Mexico is for Mexicans?
After the Phelps’ race, in a kind of personal protest, I went to bed. I got up about 3:30 a.m. and went television. I knew ESPN would be showing the Bolt race. But the set had been on NBC, so that’s how it came on, and quickly now, NBC showed the incredible Bolt explosion. An awkward Bolt interview with an NBC announcer followed, and then, quickly, NBC gave us their star guy, Bob Costas, for this drooling sit down with, you guessed it, Michael Phelps.
I, personally, still don’t know who Usain Bolt is. I only know he is from Trelawny, Jamaica, and that he is absolutely the world’s fastest man on land. But NBC’s American audience does not want to hear about Bolt. They say the world is global, but only when they can make money off you. The rest of the time, it’s just America, America, America … Phelps, Phelps, Phelps …
I’m not really happy with the Jamaicans, because they dumped all over Marion Jones when her troubles became public and she was sentenced to jail. But NBC made me a Jamaican last night. Big time. Last night was classic how the power structure does it. That’s why Ashcroft wants to control Belizean media. He wants to tell us what to think, the same way NBC is telling us whom to like. Understand how the game is played. For us, the fastest man on the land is bigger than the fastest man in the water. Not for NBC, mind you, but for you and me.
All power to the people.