Shame on NBC and in praise of Simone Manuel, Gabby Douglas, Simone Biles & Laurie Hernandez
Last night, as Simone Manuel stood on a podium to be the first black woman to earn an individual gold medal in swimming, NBC decided it was more important to cover Russian gymnastics from several hours before…
Dear racists of America, we are coming for you. Coming for your pools and your balance beams. We’ve already come for your NBA, NFL, National Leagues (yes, Dominicans & Puerto Ricans count). We been done came for your Pulitzer Prize, your Nobel, your White House.
We, people of the African diaspora, have proven that we are some of the baddest folks on land, but now we came to claim air and sea. Watch us fly through the air on the floor, the vault, the uneven bars. Watch us glide through water so fast, even your shit talking about our hair can’t stop us. NBC, you can cut away to something else—
We interrupt this program to bring you a special bulletin: BREAKING: black people are phenomenal. In spite of slavery and Jim Crow, centuries of subjugation, separate but unequal, white and colored water fountains and pools; decades of all white gymnastics teams; in spite of scales totally unbalanced, uneven and unparalleled opportunities we were barred from. We’ve managed to vault over these racist hurdles and submerge ourselves in excellence…
And now, we return you to your regularly scheduled program on NBC—with hours old coverage of Russian gymnasts while history is being made and Simone Manuel is the first black woman to win gold, but this is not nearly as unprecedented as you might imagine. In our diaspora, we have always done better on the open water; Caribbean colonies where maroons escaped slavery, Simone is but the latest of our lineage. Early African American folktales speak of people who could fly—why not underwater?
Whether or not NBC feels the shame it’s earned by refusing to televise its own breaking news, be on notice, racist America, we are coming for you. We look all the way back to 1491, when king and queendoms of Africa and the new world still stood strong and this is how we plan to make America great….again.
7 comments on “Shame on NBC and in praise of Simone Manuel, Gabby Douglas, Simone Biles & Laurie Hernandez”
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Aya wins first place Independent Publisher Awards for UPTOWN THIEF, THE BOSS, THE ACCIDENTAL MISTRESS
Aya de Leon 
YES!!! All the yes on this!
Reblogged this on and commented:
This post right here!
I love it when a great writer posts what I was thinking. Here’s an example. Especially during this election season, stuff like this needs to be said and often.
They did air it and she had tears streaming down her face at the end.
I remember vividly seeing her medal ceremony on NBC. As the comment above said it, I also saw the tears running down her cheeks, as she so proudly represented her country during the ceremony. Did you not see the same ceremony that I did on TV and the NBC channel? If you missed it, it was very moving and historical and it is certainly sad that you didn’t see it.
Sick Racist comment! You want equality but you separate each other by skin color. An American won, period! Quit checking skin color. That is what a racist does!
I agree whole heartedly with all of the statements made above! The folks I know & love have triumphed over so much & that has made them amazing! Trumpians beware! We now know who YOU are!
You’re very small-minded, racist, bordering on mentally disturbed, & oh, by the way, so wrong on your history. Sadly, you probably sincerely believe you’re doing our black community good. You’re actually doing more harm to us than any imaginary so-called white supremacy as you put in chains every black mind that hears your toxic ideas by lying to them. Your lie? That black people are victims everywhere, always & in every situation. You keep them on the mental plantation & you & your self-deceived BLM friends are the plantation owners that lash your slaves with the whip that says everything that happens to a black person is someone else’s fault. Unlike every other racial group that knows that their own decisions empower them to control their own life circumstance way more than anything else.
Children think like this not adults.