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Olympic Diversity
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2024
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I understand that the Olympics is very diverse and that's fantastic. But for people who think diversity isn't our strength, would watching the Olympics really challenge that idea for them? In other words, would they actually think that the Olympics being diverse makes the Olympics "stronger"?
I think this tweet is missing the fact that these people would prefer the Olympics if it wasn't diverse, and it would be better in their eyes if it wasn't. In their eyes, its strength doesn't come from diversity.
I can see someone making some dumbass argument like "oh yeah if diversity is our strength why are all the runners black?" or something like that. Racists aren't squirming in their seats while watching the Olympics like this tweet suggests, even if I wish they were.
Hitler was pretty fucking pissed off when Jesse Owens won gold. Racists haven't really changed since then.
That's a good point. Though I'd say at least part of that was nationalism. I think today's racists are a bit more desensitized to Olympic diversity since it has been the norm for so long (which it hadn't been back then). The people I know that think like this understand that some people are better at some things and that naturally breeds diversity, but they'll use that as an excuse. For example they let it reinforce an "all brawn no brains" stereotype of certain ethnicities. Whereas I think Hitler wanted to believe or push the idea of complete superiority in all aspects of one race.
But it's not just that one example, they will find any amount of reasons and excuses to accept the current reality while also accepting their anti-diverse beliefs. And they'll believe there is no contradiction. At least, a lot of them will.
America became an Olympic powerhouse largely because of its diversity. People of all colors and creeds show up wearing the stars and stripes and bring home medals.
Even during times of overt racism, diversity was a message we carried to the Olympics.
When Hitler said it was distasteful to have black people and Jews at the Olympics, the US nearly boycotted the 1936 games. But instead we sent Jesse Owens over to win 4 gold medals.
Interesting fact: Hitler was asked to treat all winners the same, so after Owens won the 100m Hitler stopped congratulating any winners for the rest of the Games.
No, because we already have to have diverse skillsets just to keep the world turning and average corporations moving. If they can't look at their own bloc and see the diversity needed, they can't scale that scope to the world. Diversity isn't just a strength, its a necessity.
... Yeah especially when the medal list is dominated by countries like China and Japan.