I always get excited about the Olympics, there's something awesome, something electric about it. Usually, it's a uniting force, as millions turn on their TV's for over two weeks to cheer on our homegrown athletes as they perform amazing feats in sports we might not watch otherwise, like swimming or gymanstics. Unfortunately, our country isn't as united as it once was.
What pissed me off was the rightwing reaction on the internet to Michelle Obama meeting with athletes in London. You may say "Oh, it's just comments on the internet", but comments, and especially Tweets, are a more unfiltered look into the minds of the lunatic Right than you might get from say, Fox News. It's a little closer to what you'd hear at a Tea Party gathering, or at the dinner table in a rightwing-leaning, Fox-watching houshold. From what I've read today, and what I've heard and read previoulsy, it's clear that they HATE Michelle Obama. Here's some gems from a Yahoo article about Michelle Obama going to London to greet our American athletes:
Jeff-
Mean MOOOOOOchelle makes the KKK look like boy scouts when it comes to racism.
Also from "Jeff":
Mean Michelle is such a gross, mean, racist and nasty PIG.
JamesC ⢠1 min 46 secs ago Report Abuse
why would the athletes care what a morbidly obese cow thinks?
jordan ⢠55 mins ago Report Abuse
fatlady there for usa??? is she proud to be an american yet????
Dan ⢠1 hr 33 mins ago Report Abuse
" ...and if you all don't do well, I'll kick you with my hoof".
Dr. Evil ⢠Arnold, Missouri ⢠2 hrs 28 mins ago Report Abuse
Lard #$%$ lady and the Olimpics LMFAO......how ironic!!! Doesn't she have anything better to do than to spend the tax payers money? And by the way Blacks only in my picture.OK.
That last one shows a rightwing meme that is coming out of this:
that Michelle Obama is only talking to and getting pictures taken with black athletes. It's such a blatant lie!
Here's a picture of Michelle Obama being picked up off the ground by USA wrestler Elena Pirozhkova, freaking awesome! (from @ClarissaChun on Twitter)
Here's another one, Michelle Obama with gymnast Shawn Johnson.
And yet another, with Nastia Liukin of the US Gymnastics team!
That stupid Michelle, cheering on American athletes! How dare she, that un-American pig!
Despite obvious evidence to the contrary, I still see shit like:
EJAce ⢠1 hr 26 mins ago Report Abuse
Hey photograhpers! Where all the white athletes at?
yo mom ⢠Boston, Massachusetts ⢠3 hrs ago Report Abuse
a pic of moochelle with a bunch of black olympians... i guess no white people made the olympics for the USA this year.....
RRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!@!!!!!!!! I CAN"T TAKE THIS SHIT!
It's driving me nuts!!
But Yahoo is just one troll-infested corner of the internet, so I dug a little deeper, and this lie is more widespread than just one article on Yahoo. From Twitter:
Apryl Stark â@AprylTheFirst
Michelle Obama has photo opts with Olympian athletes. Only the black athletes.
Expand
6h KatrinaLimited KatrinaLimited â@KatrinaLimited
Michelle Obama greets only the black athletes? seriously? http://www.nypost.com/...
Wait, was that a link to the NY Post? Murdoch. DAAAAAAMMMMMMNNNN YOOOOOUUUU MUUUURRRRDOCH!!!
Yes, this lie started in Rightwing Media. Not stated outright, but implied in this article which shows Michelle Obama posing with the USA Women's Basketball team, all black athletes. Of course, I'm glad the first lady is supporting our basketball team and all American athletes. But why did the NY post choose this photo, and not also include the photo with Nastia Luikin or Shawn Johnson? Likely, the NY Post wasn't purposely spreading this lie, but they knew that their rightwing readers would eat this up: our black first lady posing with a black basketball team.
But I don't see a black basketball team as much as I see an American one. I'll be watching our women's basketball team, for sure. Win us a medal, ladies. Make us proud and make the naysayers look stupid.
So, is Michelle Obama cheering on our athletes some sinister Marxist Kenyan plot? Probably not. Also from Murdoch's NY Post:
Other first ladies who have led recent U.S. Olympic delegations include Hillary Clinton at Lillehammer in 1994 and Laura Bush at Turin in 2006.
Heh. Why wasn't it a problem when Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush greeted our athletes? Hmmm... How is Michelle Obama different from those other two first ladies? Hillary is a Democrat, so it can't be that. What is it about Michelle Obama that...
...Oh.
Right.
She's black.
Although rightwing racism is pretty overt in this day and age, this takes the cake. They're not even hiding it anymore. They can't even put it behind them long enough to cheer on our athletes, the athletes that represent America, our great country. The Tea Party claim to be "Patriots", but apparently a portion of them won't be cheering on certain athletes because they don't belong to the right race.
It makes me want to throw my computer.
To close this rant, I'm extremely proud of our wonderful Olympic athletes, who are much better representatives of our country than Mittens was. This year's Olympics will be awesome, one for the ages. I can't wait to watch.
And thank you, Michelle Obama, for cheering on Team USA for all of us who can't make it to London.
Also, join me in cheering on our women's basketball team tomorrow.
USA vs. Croatia
July 28 @(11:45 am EDT), on NBC.
That's the live broadcast, but times may be different in your area, you can go to the TV listing on the NBC website to get the schedule for your area.
Go USA!
U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
EDIT:There's been a few corrections to the info in this diary. Shawn Johnson is a gymnast, not a tennis player, and was on the 2008 team, but is not on the 2012 Olympic team. Nastia Liukin was on the 2008 team but didn't make the 2012 Olympic team. However, she is still on the U.S. gymnastics team, just not the Olympic team. Both pieces of bad info came from Yahoo, and I got the same bad info when I Googled it several times. Sorry about that. But the pics are legit, they were all taken in London over the past 24 hours.
Thanks to badlands, Panacea Paola, and Brooke in Seattle for pointing this out, and thanks to Young Arizona Liberal for a good suggestion on improving this diary. Facts are important.