Larry Brown Sports

Caroline Wozniacki was accused of being racist when she stuffed her chest and behind in an attempt to imitate Serena Williams during a recent exhibition tennis match.

Williams, who calls the Danish tennis player a friend, has responded and indicated she did not find the imitation to be racist.

“I know Caro and I would call her my friend and I don’t think she (meant) anything racist by it,” Williams told USA Today over email.

“(Roddick) and (Djokovic) do it all the time and Caro does (it) and now it’s racist.??” she wrote. “At the end of the day I spend my time focused on things to become better and not bring me down.”

Though Williams does not believe the imitation is racist, she thinks her impersonators might be wise to shelve the act given the backlash.

“I must add if people feel this way she should take reason and do something different next time,” she said.

Maybe Serena’s comments on the matter will serve as a cue for people to drop the racism accusations. Like she referenced in her emails, nobody called it racist when Andy Roddick did the same thing last year, or when Wozniacki did it last time.

Olympic gold medalist Gabby Douglas joined Oprah Winfrey’s “Oprah’s Next Chapter” and opened up about the bullying and racism she faced in gymnastics.

Douglas, who became the first American gymnast to win gold in the all-around and team competition at the same Olympiad, wanted to quit the sport because she felt so uncomfortable training at her Virginia Beach, Va., gym.

“I felt being bullied and isolated from the group,” Douglas told Winfrey. “They treated me not how they would treat their other teammates.

“I was just, you know, kind of getting racist jokes, kind of being isolated from the group. So it was definitely hard. I would come home at night and just cry my eyes out,” Douglas said, per the NY Daily News.

“One of my teammates was like, ‘Could you scrape the bar?’” she remembered. “And they were like, ‘Why doesn’t Gabby do it, she’s our slave?’

“I was the only African-American at that gym,” Gabby went on. “I definitely felt isolated. Why am I deserving this? Is it because I’m black? — those thoughts were going through my mind.”

Douglas says she felt these ways when she was about 14. It was also revealed in July that the 16-year-old came close to quitting gymnastics months before the Olympics. It’s a good thing the best all-around female gymnast in the world didn’t get too discouraged and that she managed to stick with it.

Hopefully Douglas’ success will inspire many young African-American children to compete in gymnastics, and hopefully the new generation of athletes won’t feel out of place in a gym thanks to Gabby’s success.

Ryan Lochte has received plenty of notoriety since returning to America from the London Olympics, but it’s his sister, Megan, who is receiving the attention this week.

Megan Lochte came under fire on Friday when a 2008 video featuring her making several racist remarks went viral. The video, which was first posted by Jezebel (warning: video contains explicit language), is from Lochte’s 2008 appearance on a Maryland late-night comedy talk show called “Closing Time,” hosted by Baltimore-based comedian Mickey Cucchiella. The show took place shortly after Lochte returned from watching her brother compete at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.

“Let’s talk about China. How long were you there?” the host asks “field correspondent” Lochte.

“We were there for a little bit over a week. China was ch—ed out,” she says to much laughter. “Like, it was totally Chinese. Everything.”

“The nerve of those people to be …” Cucchiella began, before being interrupted by Lochte.

“Ch—s everywhere,” Lochte continued.

By that point, Lochte had used the racial slur three times, and Cucchiella was looking uncomfortable.

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ESPN talking head Skip Bayless is paid to say some of the most extreme, ridiculous things possible in order to generate controversy, but he went too far on Monday when he accused Redskins fans (and white and black fans) of racism.

Discussing the Redskins quarterback situation, Bayless said white fans would want fourth-round pick Kirk Cousins, who is white, to succeed over first-round pick and Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III, who is black.

“Some foolish Redskins fans – fans, foolish, doesn’t that go together, right? – they’re gonna sit back and say, ‘God, RG3 was struggling. He fumbled, he threw a couple of bad passes. Maybe Kirk Cousins is better right now. Maybe we should go with Kirk.’ NO! No, I don’t want to see that! I don’t want to set up that dynamic!” said Bayless.

“I’m going to throw it out there,” Bayless continued. “You also have the black/white dynamic and the majority of Redskins fans are white and it’s just human nature if you’re white to root for the white guy because it just happens in sports. Just like the black community will root for the black quarterback.

“I’m for the black guy. I’m just saying I don’t like the dynamic for RG3. It could stunt his growth in the NFL.”

While I do agree that racism still exists and that some white fans are uncomfortable with black players or black quarterbacks and vice versa (believe me, I got the phone calls and emails as a national sports talk radio host to prove it), that is a minority opinion. The majority of sports fans would want their team to succeed regardless of the race of their players. The Washington Post even wrote a story about that subject matter last year as it pertains to Redskins fans.

Generalizing is a dangerous thing, and it can often lead to trouble. Maybe Skip Bayless would learn that lesson, but unfortunately as long as he drives ratings for the network, ESPN is unlikely to discipline him for accusing all white and black fans of being racially biased.

H/T D.C. Sports Bog
Audio via Business Insider

Swiss soccer player Michel Morganella has been expelled from the Olympics for sending a racist tweet following his country’s 2-1 loss to South Korea on Sunday.

“I want to beat up all South Koreans! Bunch of mentally handicapped retards!” his tweet said in a garbled form of text message/slang, according to 101 Great Goals.

Below is a look at the message:

It didn’t take Morganella long to realize how much he screwed up. He sent the following apology note on his Twitter account, which has been deleted:

“I wish to apologise to the people in South Korea and their team, but also to the Swiss delegation and Swiss football in general.”

After being expelled from the Games, Morganella released the following statement through Swiss Olympic:

“I am sincerely sorry for the people of South Korea, for the players, but equally for the Swiss delegation and Swiss football in general. It’s clear that I’m accepting the consequences”.

“After the disappointing result and the reaction from Korea that followed, I made a huge error,” Morganella added.

Morganella claimed he was under attack from fans on Twitter when he sent the message.

He is the second athlete expelled from the Olympics for a racist tweet, joining Greece triple jumper Voula Papachristou. Meanwhile, the backlash Lolo Jones faced for a relatively innocuous tweet now seems even more ridiculous.

H/T Black Sports Online for the tweetgrab

Retired Olympic sprinter Michael Johnson believes there is a scientific reason that explains why so many of the top sprinters in the world are black. The four-time gold medalist, now a commentator for BBC, believes slave descendants have genes that make them superior athletes.

“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,” Johnson said on a documentary called “Michael Johnson: Survival Of The Fastest,” according to the Daily Mail.

“Difficult as it was to hear, slavery has benefited descendants like me – I believe there is a superior athletic gene in us.”

According to the Daily Mail, some scientists support that notion. Their report states that only the fittest and strongest African people were picked to board the slave ships. Once aboard the ships, conditions were so terrible that only the strongest/healthiest/fittest people of an already select group survived. Additionally, the Daily Mail says some scientists believe that some slave owners selectively bred to create even stronger and more athletic people, which set the groundwork for dominant athletes decades later.

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NHL play-by-play announcer Dave Strader ventured into a touchy area with his final call of the Predators-Red Wings series on Friday night. Nashville had just beaten Detroit 2-1 to win the series in five games, and Strader celebrated the moment with a questionable, and borderline racist pun.

“Honkytown has taken down Hockeytown,” was his call for the series.

Detroit is affectionately called “Hockeytown” because of the Red Wings’ success and the passion of the fans. “Honky” is a racist term for a white person, though there is a type of music/bar called “Honky-tonk,” which would be less offensive.

Let’s hope for Strader’s sake he was referring to Nashville as a honky-tonk bar/music town rather than a city full of honkys. Next time just play it straight, Strader, and don’t try to say something cute that can be taken the wrong way.