Voula Papachristou's joke about about Africans and West Nile virus was, by itself, in poor taste, but to tweet it to the world, as an Olympic representative, during the Olympics, was something else, as well. Recall that the Greeks invented the Olympics, so they might be a little bit touchy about its besmirching, especially by one of its own.
Papachristou offended a whole continent and made Greece look stupid. To control the damage, authorities forfeited her Olympic participation. Sometimes it's not just what you say, but who you say it to (sic), that makes the difference.
James C. Collier
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Technorati Tags: Voula Papachristou Booted Off Greek Olympic Team, West Nile Virus, African Joke, Racist Tweet, Expelled, Acting White
8 comments:
She will have a great career at Fox News.
As a Greek, her tasteless comments are both an insult and offensive. The Greek Olympic authority was correct in the action it took.
She shoulden't have said that.
However there is something about overreacting that some how creates a legitimacy to what she said.
Kojo
Someone has reasonably pointed out that her apology included everyone, except Africans.
"I would like to apologize to all my friends and fellow athletes, who I may have insulted or shamed, the National Team, as well as the people and companies who support my athletic career. Finally, I would like to apologize to my coach and my family." And why did she suddenly delete all earlier supporting tweets for far-right-wing party, "Golden Dawn"?
I think the Greek Olympic Committee knew exactly who they were dealing with, when they kicked her off the team. She will go into politics, where she belongs.
I agree with Fat Bastard, she will become the little darling of Fox news. Though I'am surprised that the typical bigots who tend to frequent this and other black oriented sites have have been quite.
To be strictly technical, the joke she repeated wasn't that because of some many "black" people in Greece the mosquitoes were going to eat home food, it was that with so many "Africans". Isn't it a little racist for everyone to assume that only black people can be Africans? I know what the joke meant, same as you, but to be fair, she actually didn't say anything racist, and to start assuming what someone means is starting down a dangerous slippery slope: the IOC was no better then she was ... not in my view.
@Frank, Papachristou has made it a practice to tread dangerously close in public affiliations with the far-right in general, and Golden Dawn in particular. In this case, she simply outsmarted herself with what she said AND the timing of it. As evidence, she quickly withdrew the body of her earlier public comments, thus to hide the consistency of her support for people and causes that would distract from her defense.
She should be careful what she says. The problem with making insensitive comments about other people is that it opens you up for similar insensitive comments. That being said, she wouldn't like if someone accuses Greece of inventing the gay virus, now would she?
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