an event worth noting
3 years ago
In no way do I feel that Lisa Salters is a racist. I feel she is a realist. Please look at the following video of a new ESPN show called E:60. The whole premise of the show is to be sort of a 60 minutes for sports fans. Its basically hard core editorial sports pieces rather than the typical highlight or general sports news. Every episode they have a pitch meeting where the analysts for the show pitch an idea for a story to the rest of the team. Here someone is pitching Parkour to the group. I had no idea there was even a name for this before I saw it. Basically it is jumping, climbing, and running on top of different things and surfaces. Her statement was "Black people dont parkour" that's something that's real... not racist. I dont think she should have made a judgment for all black people, but her statement does not make her racist.
5 comments
"It wasn't so much her saying that black people don't parkour, although I guess her knowledge of eveything blacks do and don't like puts her right up there with Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, it was the fact that she was equating white people with stupid.
She basically said, whites do it and blacks wouldn't so its stupid and uninteresting."
[...]
"So lets imagine for a moment that the subject is double dutch (jumping rope), and Jeremy Schaap throws his hands up and yells out with an angry look, "this is something black people do."
By now he would have appeared on espn, espn2, espn news, espn university, and espn deportes to explain how sorry he was for having made an insensitive remark.
He would have been on "Outside the Lines" to proclaim his love for black people and jumping rope."
http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/2007/11/10/espn-would-prefer-you-not-see-lisa-salters-views-on-race-and-pa/
Spot on. To add further, there's nothing "real" about her ignorant assumption that only white people do parkour. It's ignorance born of racism. She made an assumption and based her entire opinion on it. Hardly what you'd expect from a journalist.
I don't feel that her comments make her racist, but rather, ignorant. I am a black youth that has been doing Parkour for 3 years. It came as a surprise to me, as well as my fellow black practitioners, when we learned that apparently, this is something we shouldn't find interesting.
I just feel that her delivery was wrong. Making the general statement that black people dont parkour, I personally do not feel anything was wrong with that, but in that envrionment maybe shouldnt have been said in that light or tone. We as a people dont parkour, or bungee jump, or sky dive. That's just not something that we do a whole. There are always exceptions so I'm sure there are a couple african americans out there that partake in these activities but as a whole, putting our life at risk unneccesarily is not something we do as a people. It just doesnt happen. But I do understand the anonymous points of view above and yes as a journalist she should have known better.
Look at you Eb!! I feel this subject and I wish this could be a wide discussion. I know some par(crazies) is what I call 'em who are black. Ive seen it in action and these days you can make anything a sport. I agree with the first anon comment - she basically equated white with stupid - it was pretty darn funny though
Her comments are pretty funny considering that one of the founders of parkour, Sebastien Foucan, aka the guy being chased at the beginning of Casino Royale or by a chicken in Nike commercials many years ago, is Black. Sure, not USA Black, he's French so maybe he doesn't count by her definition. So racist, no, but ignorant, definitely.
On the other hand, I think this is just an example of what happens when the general public gets to see the process that goes into a product. The folks in that meeting seem pretty amused by her comments and while they are calling her out, even the woman who proposed the piece is smiling.
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