Linford Christie's reaction

@WarpedGalaxy I know precisely why the NAACP say they want to keep the name. I have black friends in America who disagree with them. It is what it is. But it indicates that one size does not fit all, is it were, when it comes to linguistics.

That aside, I still don't see any other take on what LC said with his WTF other than the very obvious one.

To be fair, Linford did tend to wear more tight fitting lycra running shorts and the rate of movement in sprinting vs middle distance meant that there was more "swing" so to speak, both things making it a bit more obvious . I can't recall anyone making similar comments about other sprinters at the time like John Regis, or Colin Jackson in the sprint hurdles.

Excellent posts Toxteth.
If you have the stomach for it, there is a whole thread on the Amber Rudd interview in AIBU, with various people being told that we must have misremembered ‘coloured’ being acceptable in even the 1970s, let alone more recently. One poster has accused another of being ‘unhelpful’ because she is not personally bothered about being described as coloured. Etc.

Linford has experienced a lot of racism much of it centred around the fetishisation of his body.Linford Lunchbox hahahhaah no one said that shit about Seb Coe did they.

Exactly. Many women crushed on both these athletes at the time (me included) but only one got reported like that.

Bits of him are, if I remember rightly

Oh dear...

He isn't thick

Bits of him are, if I remember rightly

Toxteth
I just read the synopsis of Jessie Owens life post gold medal. So sad.

I also read the wtf to be peak trans.

Totally right Toxteth I agree.

WTF is the reaction I expect from people upon hearing McKinnon type bullshit. also a lot of TRAs seem racist, have seen many times 'excluding transwomen from womens changing rooms is exactly the same as excluding black women'. Erm, no, not even close.

I'm confused

But not being invited to the White House was about racism and a still segregated America. It had nothing to do with a perception that Jesse Owen's abilities and successes as an athlete were inherently unfair because he was a black man.

That being said, Jesse Owens' story of his life post those Olympics breaks my heart and makes me all the more angry that McKinnon is trying to co-opt his experiences.

Thanks, this first parapgraph was how I intended to answer and you beat me to it (likely much more eloquently than I would have as well!)

Agreed with the second, which is why I was cautious to say the US still did and had a lot of issues with racism. Taking Owens to the Olympics does not mean they didn’t. Owens life following the Olympics is a clear example of that.

WTF would have been the only appropriate response when the idea to allow some men to compete in women's sports was first suggested. Followed by Nah, fuck off.

What McKinnon has done here is the same tactics as when TRAs equate sharing changing rooms with lesbians to sharing changing rooms with men who ID as women. White women should push back every time we see this, the same as straight women should push back when lesbian women are being used to try and make their argument. The common factor is that all women are equally female irrespective of our race skin colour or sexual orientation.
Racists/sexists such as McKinnon do this all the time to women like Serena, a powerful strong black woman so a double whammy there. He's a despicable human being.

But not being invited to the White House was about racism and a still segregated America. It had nothing to do with a perception that Jesse Owen's abilities and successes as an athlete were inherently unfair because he was a black man.

That being said, Jesse Owens' story of his life post those Olympics breaks my heart and makes me all the more angry that McKinnon is trying to co-opt his experiences.

Black people competing in sport and it being unfair is, I think, a relatively recent, post equality legislation whinge, propagated mostly by white men who are annoyed things aren't still going their way in every walk of life any more.

The US said f that, and if you won’t welcome our athletes - including our black and Jewish ones - we will boycott your Olympics. The US definitely still obviously had and had many issues with racism but they did stand up for their athletes (well, except their Jewish ones ultimately when it got to it but Jesse Owens did compete and did come home with four gold medals)

Maybe the USA did say that, but I could note that Hitler did acknowledge Jesse Owen's win but his own President at the time, FDR, refused to invite him to the White House along with the other Olympic medal winners.

Well

That was a most confusing interlude

So McKinnon is ignorant about history as well as racist

They are not the only ones who are outright racist. Remember Muslim women need re-education to accept penises in their changing rooms.

I cannot believe the audacity that have to one minute telling women of various religious beliefs ( many of which will be woken of colour) they are transphobes and the next they suddenly think they can use them to make their point about segregation.

Thank you to those kind comments about my post. Thank you PeeGreen for posting the link. That interview is even worse than I remember.

I am utterly sickened by the MRA led trans movement co-opting the struggles of women and people (past and present) who have suffered daily indignities, prejudices, violence and sometimes death because of their female sex and/or race in order to further their own warped ends. I wonder, if there was a real life Gilead, how many men who identify as women would continue to do so and face the consequences. Lesbians were hung in Gilead. Or would they just decide to be men again? Hell, we don't even have to go into the make believe world. I wonder how many would be willing to sit in a menstruation hut in Nepal whilst they are having one of their "periods". Of be a girl under the Boko Haram regime? Or hell, let's go closer to home, stand with their biological female sisters in a gymnastics ring and put up with the indignity of having your regulation, skimpy, fanny revealing costume taped to your arse (despite many years of appeals to be able to wear shorts or at least a pair of knickers) rather than having the rules bent for you.

BTW, Linford Christie was a bit of a arse in many ways, but he knows sport, he has trained female athletes, he is a contemporary of Kelly Holmes and Sharron Davis's ex, Derek Redmond, there is zero chance he agrees with McKinnon.

So McKinnon is ignorant about history as well as racist.

McKinnon's only clear expertise is in making assertions without knowing what you're talking about.