By: Amanda Anderson-Niles
Gabby Douglas made history during the 2012 Summer Olympics. At 16 years old, it was the young black girl that everyone thought couldn’t do it that went home with the gold. Since then, her story continues to touch more people, and recently she was even honored in her home state, Virginia. Despite the negativity created by the media (TMZ and others decided to publicize the fact that Gabby’s mother filed for bankruptcy) and that pesky hair controversy that started a national conversation about black people and our views on hair; it’s clear that the young lady is still very much determined and still set on doing more great things in the sport of gymnastics. Currently, she’s already been featured on a box of cereal, and she’s still in talks to rake in millions of dollars in endorsement deals. And now she can officially add another accomplishment to her list of successes. The young Olympian has sat down with Journalism legend Oprah Winfrey, and she got candid about what it was like to make so many sacrifices for a dream, her past that involves racism, and the pressures of being in the public eye. She even talked about what her current relationship is with her father and how she really feels about her hair being the center of controversy during such a historical moment for African Americans.
Peep the interview below:
I have so much respect for this young girl. I just hope she doesn’t let the media destroy her, as they keep trying to do for some reason.
I’m sure the people that bullied her feel real stupid right about now. -_-
It sucks that Gabby’s legacy will be tainted by that whole hair thing. I mean now they ask her about it in all her interviews. And that makes me sad. I guess the only good thing about all of it is that it made silly black people see how stupid they can be.
I’m not saying the hair thing wasn’t wrong, but I think things got way blown out of proportion. People are ignorant, but we placed a magnifying glass up to that ignorance when we probably shouldn’t have. The media blew it up immediately.