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    It Is Okay to Be Happy for Black American Olympians

    By 8 Mins Read
    2024 United States Olympic trials (track and field) Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

    Diaspora wars between Black Americans and Black Islanders are not new, whether you see them on social media, track and field, the kitchen, music, morals or the Bronx. Deciding which Caribbean country is better than the community cultivated by Black Americans, whose lineage in this country is generations deep, usually lends itself to Black Americans versus all Black Islanders. While we are all descendants of the victims of chattel slavery and colonization, somehow there is a separation between the one group and the other group made up of different groups, as if there was a lack of tragedy in anyone’s origin stories.

    Black Islanders have the privilege of at least feeling a part of the country whose flag they fly, while many Black Americans feel like foreigners in our own country. However, many Black Islanders find themselves seeking a better life in the U.S., becoming an extension of the same Black American communities they may feel are beneath them, while Black Americans have had trouble grappling with not using their slight homecourt advantage as a reason to dunk on the disadvantages that many Black Islanders may experience back home. Both not realizing that the same barriers put in place to discourage the economic growth of Black American communities are the same barriers put in place to discourage economic growth for Caribbean nations.

    Essentially, people who lack the same amount of resources are arguing over who has it better. 

    Fortunately, these arguments rarely turn into violence, but that does not mean they don’t get nasty, and when it comes to sports, vitriol is almost a given, even when it is from fans whose favorites are not even competing.  This week’s Olympic games were a torch to the already fueled flames of the diaspora war, leading many people to forget that you do not have to discredit the winner in order to comfort the loser.  

    As with any Olympic game, there are going to be upsets, and Track and Field, where the rivalry between the U.S. and Jamaica has been ongoing, takes center stage. Not since 1996 has there not been an American and/or Jamaican medal winner in the men’s 100m final. One would have to go all the way back to 1928 to get a podium with no American or Caribbean winners. In the women’s 100m race, one would have to go all the way back to 1980 to find the last Olympics without a Jamaican or American medalist (that includes all Caribbean nations as a whole). There is clearly a thing here, and while competition is healthy and helps to elevate the athlete, as well as the sport, being a sore loser isn’t and doesn’t. Instead of highlighting and congratulating the incredible feats of Noah Lyles, the men’s 100m winner and Sha’Carri Richardson, who won the silver in the women’s 100m, let alone Julien Alfred (St. Lucia) and Melissa Jefferson (USA) who placed first and third, respectively, in the 100m women’s, as well as Kishane Jackson (Jamaica) the men’s 100m silver medalist, in a race so close it had to be confirmed by a photo, and Fred Kerley, (USA), taking the bronze, negativity is much more prevalent.

    There has been little to no congratulatory spirit from Black Islanders to Black American winners (*cough or their own), especially from Jamaican fans whose three female medal winners from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Elaine Thompson-Herah, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pyrce and Shericka Jackson, who dominated the podium last Olympics, winning first, second and third, respectively, failed to place this year, leaving only, newcomer Tia Clayton, who placed seventh as the sole Jamaican to run in the women’s 100m final. 

    Lyles and Richardson are the obvious targets of the majority of the vitriol. Lyles, the gold medalist in the Olympics as well as the World Championships, is dubbed the “World’s Fastest Man,” with many disagreeing because he is not the world record holder. The world record for the fastest 100m was set by Usain Bolt from Jamaica, whose name is appropriate for his incredible speed. That record 9.58, is faster than Lyles’ 9.79, however Bolt’s record was set 15 years ago. It is unlikely that he could beat Lyles today, and so in fairness, the title is apt.

    This is absolutely not to take anything away from the awe-inspiring float to the finish witnessed when watching Bolt run, whose big personality drew fans in. Richardson and Lyles are also both known for their boisterous personalities; Richardson’s aura is much bigger than her body and even bigger than her muscles; she is the new revival of Florence Griffith Joyner (the current world record holder in the women’s 100m, with a time of 10.49 set in 1988). Both women’s striking good looks are immediately obvious, with their big hair, extreme speed, and long colorful nails, Richardson’s road to darlinghood was a bit bumpier than FloJo’s. Her boastfulness has been seen as arrogance in a sport that she has proved herself in, but according to some, not enough. This lead to many delighting in her absence from the 2020 Olympics (held in 2021), due to testing positive for THC, while grieving the, then recent, death of her birth mother.

    Richardson, a favorited contender in the women’s 100m lost to Julien Alfred of St. Lucia, who was the first Olympic medal winner, let alone gold winner, for the island nation. The happiness of her supporters back home was enough to give you chills, but the coldness was reserved for dunking on Richardson’s first Olympic medal and second-place finish. 

    Lyles angered many basketball players and fans when he suggested that the NBA Finals is misnomered by calling it a World Championship because the winners were not, in fact, competing against the greatest basketball teams the world had to offer. His confidence seems in direct defiance of his quirky and borderline nerdy personality. Many feel that even with a proven record of winning, Lyles’ is too full of himself as if humility is demanded of other sports stars. His win, aided by a head dip-making photo finish, did not come without controversy over the ethics of the marginal win but also did not come without the aid of his incredible power after trailing the second-place winner, Jackson of Jamaica, who was originally thought to have won, and whom Lyles initially congratulated, throughout the majority of the almost ten-second race. 

    Instead of congratulating Alfred for her gold medal and Jackson on his silver medal, too much energy has been focused on what the gold medalist, Lyles, calls himself, and Richardson placing second, filling the dance hall with hateration and holleration. Richardson’s silver medal is no less important than Jackson’s but there seems to be much more talk of her missing the gold than him achieving the silver.

    Instead of supporting Fraser-Pryce, the 37-year-old, five-time Olympiad who was unable to compete in the 100m women’s final, an event that she was not only also favorited in, the world’s most decorated female sprinter’s fans are too busy booing Richardson for placing second than supporting Fraser-Pryce in her understandable disappointment, over not being able to compete in her last Olympics as a sprinter.

    The rivalry between the U.S sprinters, as well as sprinters from island nations, both groups almost always being exclusively Black, should not devolve into anything that disparages the runners who have medaled and who have also run a good and fair race, either congratulate them or don’t but when it comes to the negativity, leave that sh*t in the wind. 

    Kyla Jenée Lacey is an accomplished third-person bio composer. Her spoken word has garnered tens of millions of views, and has been showcased on Pop Sugar, Write About Now, Buzzfeed, Harper’s Bizarre, Diet Prada, featured on the Tamron Hall show, and Laura Ingraham from Fox News called her work, “Anti-racist propaganda.”. She has performed spoken word at over 300 colleges in over 40 states. Kyla has been a finalist in the largest regional poetry slam in the country, no less than five times, and was nominated as Campus Activities Magazine Female Performer of the Year. Her work has been acknowledged by several Grammy-winning artists. Her poetry has been viewed over 50 million times and even used on protest billboards in multiple countries. She has written for large publications such as The Huffington Post, BET.com, and the Root Magazine and is the author of "Hickory Dickory Dock, I Do Not Want Your C*ck!!!," a book of tongue-in-cheek poems, about patriarchy....for manchildren.

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