Black child gymnast being overlooked in medal ceremony?

[Loopylooni]

Anyone else horrified at this?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12554637/Gymnastics-Ireland-embroiled-racism-row-young-black-competitor-skipped-medal-ceremony-Olympic-champion-Simone-Biles-condemns-heartbreaking-incident.html#comments

If the child had been white

Well, she wasn't, was she?

@IvorTheEngineDriver: It happened. Trust me. I'm curious as to whether the woman handing out the medals was from the Ireland For the Irish crowd. This was just so blatant. This is a teachable moment. It should not be tolerated.

It was heartbreaking to see her little face go from excited, to confused, to sad. Poor kid. There's nothing I can do or say to make it up to her, but bloody hell. I can't believe this still happens.

That poor wee mite. Honestly that coach should never be allowed in charge of such matters again ,that's horrendous. And that apology! Pathetic ! You don't to do that! You had one job pal! Very hurtful for a child. Can't believe anyone is saying this is not racially motivated, although why people still think like that in this day and age is beyond me! Sheer ignorance.

Just watched the video again and wondering why the photographer didn't flag that the girl had no medal to show off? It was his job to take photos of the children proudly showing off their medals but he just moves past her ignoring her as well. Shocking.

I just saw this video on the Sky News website and came to see if there's any discussion about it.

I'm shocked to see there are posters here trying to explain it away.

Watching the video it seems very obvious, calculated and not just an inadvertent oversight in a short passing moment. It's intensely uncomfortable to watch. Obviously the official handing out the medals is hugely at fault but what about the other adults present too? Why did nobody else step in?

I cannot wrap my head around racism being so accepted that people would behave like this knowing they're being filmed. I also can't wrap my head around some of the comments on this thread.

@Mooshamoo

Have you watched the video? It really is not that case that the official 'forgot'.

It didn't happen to a white child though did it? She looked right through that little girl and multiple other adults failed to act. You don't "forget" the only black child in sight. This is like when people say "I don't see colour" as an excuse to turn a blind eye. Nobody is colorblind, and certainly not in a crowd as diverse as that was.

I agree with you. I think many in Ireland are racist because it had a predominately white population for so long. Anti-immigration sentiment doesn't help. That doesn't excuse racism (nothing ever excuses racism) and certainly doesn't excuse what happened to this little girl. I can't get over the number of adults around - the person taking the video, the official, the numerous photographers etc and not one spoke to the girl or found out why she hadn't got a medal. The photographers literally ignored her to get photos of all the girls around her when they got their medals.

I'm mixed race and a very much loved part of my family. However, I can confirm that these same lovely people have also said some extremely racist comments/have unconscious racist views.
I 100% believe that they do not realise these comments/views are racist but that doesn't make it right.
So in the nicest possible way, please don't use the fact your best mate/niece/sil is a POC as a defence against racism, it's just cringy.

It's intensely uncomfortable to watch. Obviously the official handing out the medals is hugely at fault but what about the other adults present too? Why did nobody else step in?

Well exactly. Or are we supposed to believe that everyone present felt it's okay for a little girl to be without a medal when everyone else got one. Nah, if she were white someone would have spoken up much sooner because you can't do that to children. Many people felt able to turn a blind eye, that's what's so chilling about the video. Only the girl besides her spoke to her, just after she released the most devastating sigh 😔

She deserves so much better, it is obvious she's looking back to where her parents are for support, but she's very composed and stays in that line just in case the mistake is corrected, and so as not to ruin the moment for any other girl, since she knows what's expected of her at such an event. She's a great kid and I hope she gets all the good things she deserves.

This, this, all of this!

She’ll be named soon, then she’ll cry and say it was an honest mistake and everyone will fall for it.

Gymnastics Ireland have released a weasely statement

I just don’t see how it have been anything other than a genuine accident. Like she thought she had done it already. If it had been any other one of those girls that’s what people would have thought.

And yet it was the black child who was left ouy

But something like that has happened to my daughter. Her team went up for something and the person giving out the medals missed her when she was right in front of her. It never occurred to me it was anything other than a genuine mistake. And had it been a white child there no one would have thought anything of it. Sometimes we just see what we want to see.

@Emeraldsrock

That lady had one job- to go along and give each one of those girls a medal. They were in a line. She wasn't blind, or in any way distracted. She left out the only black girl.

How can you possibly justify that as an accident?

I'm so very sorry for anyone who suffers or has suffered racism, and even Scorrier you have to listen to others try and pretend it's not happening.

@Emeraldsrock

That exact same thing happened to your daughter? And you've only now mentioned it?

Aye, OK.

Because racism happens all the freaking time

You could see the other girls couldnt understand why the black girl didn't get a medal, so it wasn't like she hadn't competed. Very shocking. I'm Irish btw. Horrifying.

Don't be shocked. It's Mumsnet. A very racist site (I'm talking about some posters, not the platform itself). I have to hide most of the threads discussing racism.

Unbelievable 🤣

Usually these kind of posters claim to have a mixed race child or a black husband. There's time, I guess.

Not the exact same thing. It wasn’t gymnastics. It was dancing. They weren’t in a line they were all stood squished together on a podium. I only noticed after when she started saying she didn’t have one and went back and they immediately gave her on. The point is if she had been the only girl of a certain race it would have been easy to say it was racism. You don’t have to believe me if you don’t want to. I just can’t see why any person would do that on purpose.