In a recent interview, Gabby Douglas’ mother Natalie Hawkins called out her daughter’s critics, and she is over the Olympian receiving so much backlash.
Reuters writes:
“She’s had to deal with people criticizing her hair, or people accusing her of bleaching her skin. They said she had breast enhancements, they said she wasn’t smiling enough, she’s unpatriotic. Then it went to not supporting your team mates. Now you’re “Crabby Gabby”,” Hawkins said in an interview.
“You name it and she got trampled. What did she ever do to anyone?”
For the second Games running, Douglas has found herself caught in a firestorm despite yet another gold winning performance in Rio.
In 2012 Twitter went into overdrive after Douglas became the first African-American gymnast to win the Olympic all-around title. But rather than lauding her excellence, critics rounded on her for the state of her hair during the final.
Four years on and Douglas has another Olympic gold, from the women’s team competition, but the sheen from that victory has also been tarnished after TV cameras showed her standing to attention during the national anthem.
“I don’t think respecting your country or your flag boils down to whether you put your hand over your heart or not,” Hawkins said.
“It’s in your actions towards your country, how well are you abiding by its laws, how well are you helping your fellow citizens?
“We grew up in the military community. My mum spent almost 30 years in the military, my dad’s a two-time Vietnam vet. Because of that it was so insulting that they would accuse my daughter of being unpatriotic when we are so tied to the military family.
“When the Star Spangled Banner is played, most military members either salute or stand to attention.”
Gabby herself addressed the backlash in a recent interview and she claims the whole ordeal has been hurtful.
E! News writes:
The Team USA Olympic gymnast has been plagued by social media bulling since arriving in Rio for the 2016 Olympic Games, but now she’s speaking out to defend herself. “When they talk about my hair or me not putting my hand on my heart of me being very salty in the stands, they’re really criticizing me,” Douglas told reporters on Sunday. “It doesn’t really feel good. It was a little bit hurtful.”
Gabby and her mother would be better off not even addressing any of this. This is what these racists want. They want to know they broke her and they live off of knowing that. Gabby is going to have to be strong and focus on the games. Win more medals and make them seethe. She should call Serena and get some tips. The best revenge is success. Always.
*standing ovation*
Sadly with this country, they only allow one black woman on top at once. That’s why having Beyonce and Rihanna doing well at the same time is a sucg a great thing. Simone is who they want right now, so they are tearing down Gabby any way possible. I just hope Simone is smart enough to understand her day to be torn down may very well come too. So she should be showing Gabby a lot of support right now.
When they started making it all about Simone, I knew they were going to throw Gabby under the bus. Lord forbid we have two well loved black gymnasts slaying.
she gets dragged for everything even by her own people
People just want to hate this girl because she’s very pretty and it makes a lot of them salty. When you’re successful, pretty and black they will try their hardest to destroy you. That’s why it’s sad to see some black people jumping on the hate Gabby bandwagon too.
I hate to see Gabby going through this. But this is the price of fame. They build you up to tear you down.
Imma b real and say that she did seem salty in the stands while Simone and Aly were doing their thing. She didn’t even look excited after they killed it. I seen a lot of comradery from the other ladies whether it was fake or not they looked genuine…..she looked unimpressed. And she does look like she’s bleaching. No hate or shade just observations….she’s a great gymnast not taking that away.
People gotta remember Gabby was getting dragged while Simone and Aly were competing so that’s why she seemed salty. You can’t expect someone to be all happy and smiles when they are getting dragged for something as silly as not putting her hand over her heart during the anthem.
I think we won’t get the real story about all of this until the Olympics is over. Methinks Gabby’s teammates haven’t been all that nice to her when the cameras weren’t around. I mean Aly is the same person who made gag motions when Gabby made it to the team for the last Olympics. That was caught on camera. Gabby is not the sidekick black chick Aly wants. Gabby is drop dead gorgeous and she’s proud of her blackness. She also isn’t a butt kisser. Passive aggressive white chicks can’t stand the Gabbys of the world. Simone is a better gymnast than Aly but she has a follower mentality and she follows Aly around like a lost puppy dog. And that’s why Aly likes her. It’s actually embarrassing.
At the end of the day, Gabby and her black girl magic has done more in a week than the people who are criticizing her have done in a lifetime. She’s already won. Nothing will ever change that.
it’s really something else that the media thought it was so cute when McKayla looked “disappointed” when she lost at the last olympics, but Gabby not smiling and being visibly upset with herself makes her bitter, hateful and disgraceful. Sadly a lot of our own don’t even see the bias in all of this.