Controversial Comments

“Johnson Puts Foot In Mouth” was the headline. “Says slavery has benefited athletes” was the byline. Gee whiz, this makes it sounds like Michael Johnson says slavery had a good side? No, no, NO! Of course that’s not what he meant. Slavery is wrong, period. Any right minded person knows that. But is Johnson saying anything out of line? You be the judge.

Four time Olympic gold-medalist sprinter Michael Johnson was quoted as saying he believes slave descendents make superior athletes – and that such a controversial topic shouldn’t be avoided but discussed openly as the world begins to turn its attention to the London Olympics. “All my life I believed I became an athlete through my own determination, but it’s impossible to think that being descended from slaves hasn’t left an imprint through the generations,” he was quoted as saying in an article in the British newspaper the Dailey Mail. Now how could being descended from slaves have anything to do with superior athletes? Simple. Survival of the fittest, selective breeding. “Difficult as it was to hear, slavery has benefited descendants like me – I believe there is a superior gene in us.” Maybe it’s that word “superior” that makes people uncomfortable. At any rate, Johnson caused quite a stir.

I have two thoughts that come to my mind. First of all, isn’t this what we teach in our classrooms of our public schools, Darwin’s theory of evolution? Heck, here in Illinois science teachers MUST teach evolution and survival of the fittest. Creationism can’t even be mentioned. So Johnson brings up a point that we teach to our youngsters and he gets ripped. Well then, don’t we believe what we teach? Secondly, when I was in high school way back in the 60’s we used to throw around this idea. We were a multi cultural community and we were comfortable discussing this idea with all races. None of us, white, black, or Hispanic thought it was a big deal to speculate why the black athletes were so fast and athletic. We never came up with a definitive answer, we just discussed it.

That’s all Johnson is asking. Can we discuss it? Or is this too touchy of a subject? Maybe it is. I’ll be watching the Olympic track and field games because Johnson will be an analyst. I’m curious to see if anyone brings it up to Michael or will they just ignore it? I do enjoy the Olympics and good luck to all the athletes as the games begin this weekend. Chiefpigskin.com