Gabrielle Douglas: Victim of the Pull Her Down (PhD) Syndrome.

"I don't know where this is coming from. What's wrong with my hair?" said Gabrielle Douglas, the first U.S. gymnast to win gold in team and all-around competition. "I'm like, `I just made history and people are focused on my hair?' It can be bald or short, it doesn't matter (about my hair)."

This has been the reaction of Gabby Douglas to the harsh criticism of her hair style all over the internet social media. Some of the critics are not stopping their whines and cries over just the girl's hair. No, they have also resorted to name-calling. While some are calling her a "flying squirrel", others are calling her "ugly gymnast" and doing everything to put her down as if she is some criminal and not a national hero. And all these for what? Her hair! Obviously, this matter goes beyond the caring, constructive criticism of a bunch of concerned experts on hair-styling. Rather, these are the ugly expressions of depression-filled individuals who are also suffering from sheer envy, the green-eyed monster. But guess who the large majority of the terrible critics are? They are African American women!

For God's sake, here is a young lady that sacrificed her usual way of life (including rap music as she had to contend with country music), familiar home environment, missing the love of her family and, indeed, almost everything a girl of her age (and especially in the African American community) would normally cherish and regard as top priority in her life to go live in some far-away state of Iowa with total strangers all in the name of training. None of her critics bother to appreciate this factor and the fact that this is just a 16-year-old girl. They don't even care or be impressed that she is the first African American gymnast to win a gold medal. It doesn't matter to them that she is the first "woman of color" in the history of the Olympics to become the individual all-around champion, and the first American gymnast to win gold in both the individual all-around and team competitions at the same Olympics. Instead of joining the whole world (more so, as fellow African Americans) to laud Gaby's enviable achievements, they are condemning her for...wait a minute...not getting her hair done the way "they" would like her to do it! 

I was not surprised to hear Steve Harvey join in the verbal "fray" while commenting angrily on his radio show this morning. He said, among other things, that many of Gabby's critics are never-do-well, busy-bodies who have nothing important to show for their miserable lives because they never have great priorities in their lives anyway. In conclusion, Harvey said "I'm now saying on behalf of Gabby Douglas, 'kiss my ass' if all you care about is some damn hair!"