| Wednesday, February 15, 2006 |
| Cultural myth about sports |
White men can't jump, black people can't swim.... Such myths are very strong. I once heard a sort of scientific explanation about the muscle composition of black men that would deter them to be successful in competitive swimming. But, how about sports like skiing, wake boarding and kite surfing? Is there any scientific explanation why for example these sports are white-dominated?
I really don't think so. Robel Teklemariam, the first Ethiopian skier to participate in the winter Olympics, is the proof of that. If one get past the "you're trying to be like a ferenj (a white person" comment, a member of any race could do what they want.
Another, not so successful and famous(yet), example is my brave friend Habtamu - also from Ethiopia. You should see him tackling the waves at Florida beaches on his kite board. Ok, he's mostly either lying on his back trying to figure out what his gigantic kite is doing or flying off his wake board taking a not very elegant dive in the lake, but he's doing great. People approach him for all sorts of questions, and you can see in their eyes that they just don't know how to ask him for an autograph. So find any another excuse but culture for not doing crazy sports. Anything off the trade mill is the definition of 'crazy sport' here. |
posted by Fikirte @ 10:01 AM
 
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