One last point about the SI article by Tim Layden. I quote "(among the names attached to Boling's by breathless observers of the sport in the last three months: Usain Bolt and Carl Lewis)."
He quickly follows that with this I quote "And into which the wider culture has poured its fascination with any athlete who doesn't look quite like the other athletes, a phenomenon that runs from the vaguely comical to the very ugly."
This precedes a later comment which I posted earlier but will post again. Layden wrote. "Websites devoted to white nationalist and neo-Nazi voices adopted Boling. It was obscene."
I would
love to question Layden about these two passages. They defy logic to a certain degree.
Wittingly or not by using words like "obscene" and "ugly" in the context of the article he is suggesting, at some level, that for a white athlete to upset the applecart where common opinion believe that blacks are
superior athletes and clearly
faster than white athletes, is in the end an obscene and ugly turn of events.
This is striking. When you consider the blacks are faster and more athletic narrative, that often feels like it is being protected (lack of white CFs in baseball, lack of white deep threats in football, lack of guards in the NBA etc.), you get the impression that the media or perhaps even the sports world at large doesn't want white athletes to beat black athletes in events that are considered taboo like the 100 meter dash. The narrative is very comfortable with the idea that blacks are faster than whites. Turn the tables and suddenly the media is in a panic. And all of a sudden things are
ugly.
But back to Layden. If he is referring to this site in any way he doesn't show his hand. We haven't suddenly
adopted Boling. He is just another name Caste Football publicizes and cheer on. Something this site has done since it started. And since Caste Football is the most consistently vocal on these matters why didn't he just mention this site in his article? Why the vagueness about "websites."
Admittedly being totally ignorant when it comes to neo-Nazi sites, even a quick search led me nowhere on this issue. And white nationalist sites adopting Boling? Breitbart is a bit of a nationalist site but I couldn't find anything beyond the ordinary regarding Boling?
So who the hell is Layden referring to when he uses words like obscene and ugly? Why did Layden find it necessary to spoil an otherwise OK but not great piece on a young white rising star in Track and Field by inserting such negative connotations.
In the scheme of things notating that Boling is somewhat a rarity in modern day sprinting due to his whiteness is to be expected. But to conjure up the shadowy forces of devils and depravity he ruins what should have been a simple celebratory article.
......there's some very relevant and nice pieces about white athlete on www.iaaf.org .....including the " spikes " section which has a nice piece on tortu breaking 10 ....