Posted on 06/30/2021 8:15:57 AM PDT by Kaslin
This week, heretofore nearly anonymous hammer thrower Gwen Berry made international headlines when, during the podium ceremony for winning bronze in an Olympic trial, she turned away from the United States flag as the national anthem played. The anthem wasn't played for her, or for the other competitors in the hammer throw; every day during the trials, a pre-scheduled anthem went out over the sound system.
Berry turned 90 degrees from the flag, stood with her hand on her hip, and glared directly into the camera. It was a deliberate provocation and a deliberate attempt to raise her own profile. "I feel like it was a setup," she later complained, "and they did it on purpose."
Actually, Berry just saw an opportunity to maximize her profile, and she seized it with alacrity. In the United States, there's far more money to be made and fame to be achieved by spurning the American flag and the national anthem than by embracing it: Colin Kaepernick makes millions because he failed as a quarterback but succeeded as a self-aggrandizing symbol of supposed racial bravery. Meanwhile, the thousands of athletes with track records superior to either Kaepernick's or Berry's who stand for the national anthem remain anonymous.
That's because America currently rewards an entitled sense of grievance. Most Americans know little about foreign countries; they somehow believe that the United States is inferior, or that the prosperity, health and free lifestyle to which they have become accustomed is the global and historic norm.
It most assuredly is not.
While Berry was protesting the national anthem, the Chinese government was busy arresting the editor of the pro-democracy Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily. That arrest came on the heels of the arrest of one of Apple Daily's columnists for "conspiring to collude with foreign countries or foreign forces to endanger national security." While Berry was protesting the national anthem, the Taliban was busy spreading like a metastasizing cancer over Afghanistan, preparing its new subjects for the tender mercies of brutal Islamist rule. While Berry was protesting the national anthem during an event at which she threw heavy objects for sport, billions of people were living in absolute privation the world over.
None of this means that the shortcomings of America should be ignored. But to protest the flag or the national anthem as particular symbols of grievance is to demonstrate full-scale your own ignorance and ingratitude. "I'm here to represent those who died due to systemic racism," Berry said. But she herself is an excellent indicator of just how much promise America holds for its citizens. She grew up in the home of her grandmother, with 13 people in the house; she had a baby out of wedlock at 15 and then earned a college scholarship. She got two jobs and helped support her extended family. Now, she's going to the Olympics. And presumably, there, she will turn her back on the flag and the national anthem if she makes it to the podium.
In doing so, she'll become a hero to millions. She'll get richer; she'll get more famous. Perhaps, like pseudo-Marxist Patrisse Cullors of Black Lives Matter, she'll buy herself a few houses; maybe, like Kaepernick, she'll make the cover of Sports Illustrated. Like self-declared Marxist Cullors, who currently owns three separate houses worth over $1.5 million each, Berry is in it for the attention and the profit. Yesterday, nobody had heard of her. Today, everybody has. It's that simple.
One thing is certain, however: Those who spend their days championing their own ingratitude at a society that gives them extraordinary opportunities -- opportunities unavailable to nearly all humans for nearly all of human history, and unavailable to most people on the planet right now -- aren't likely to live happier lives. And they're unlikely to make their nations better, either.
The only medal she deserves is made out of lead, or sheet
If America and its white racism is so horrible, why do people of Africa voluntarily choose to come here as their number one emigration destination?
A certain US Rep. can go back to Somalia and enjoy the freedom she deserves. And the athletes (including NFL and NBA ones, not just Olympics) who disdain America so much can leave.
Bye Bye.
IF she doesn’t like the US, I suggest she move to commie China and try turning her back then. Yup!
Let her go to the CCP team!
Yep...and she should be kicked off the team because of it. If she can't openly support the organizations and country that's paying the bills, she needs to be thrown out. Let her promote herself at her own expense.
She represents millions of UNGRATEFUL “AMERICANS” .... they should all go somewhere better.
A third-place-finishing-nobody. Good luck turning professional in the WHTL! (The Women’s Hammer Throwing League).
It is just stupid to do. People here in this country see this female as a jerk looking to upgrade her reputation by doing so. What it really does is prove what an ass she is. People elsewhere in the world see her for what she is except those living under governments that suppress freedom. At any rate, she is an ass!
Does our focus on this encourage such actions? Sort of a law of unintended consequences?
See what happens if you turn your back on the wakanda anthem, “Lift every voice”
The worst thing we can do to her is not give her any attention. That’s what she’s all about.
I’d like to see her kicked off the team followed by no more discussion of her.
Oh, I guarantee you she’s gonna be on the cover of Sports Illustrated. I bet she’s on the next one, in fact, unless they give it to the gay football dude.
Gwen Berry is nothing but a spoiled child. And she should be dropped from the team.
Heck, it will be in the Swimsuit Issue.
There’s a video from a few years ago of Usain Bolt being interviewed shortly after he won a race. As the interview unfolded, a medal ceremony at the other end of the stadium began for another event. Bolt interrupted the reporter and told her they needed to be quiet because there was an anthem playing and then turned and faced the ceremonial flags of the podium finishers.
It was the American anthem. Usain Bolt is all class. This idiot, not so much.
I don’t think so. Better question is why do we play the national anthem at sporting events at all? What’s sports got to do with MIC music?
Seems kinda normal to play it at the Olympics* when the athletes compete as part of Team USA.
*Or the Olympic trials.
Why didn’t she moon the flag???
I would totally support putting the 4th place finisher on the Olympic team.
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