"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!"