Alleged racism at Irish gymnastics.

[Mooshamoo]

Have you seen the video? At an Irish gymnastics event, a woman gives out medals to all of the children, except the one back girl standing there. She walks past her.

Simone biles - the US gymnast - has just got involved, she is saying there is no place for racism in any sport.

What are your thoughts?

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4904393-black-child-gymnast-being-overlooked-in-medal-ceremony

Other thread with newspaper reports

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4904393-black-child-gymnast-being-overlooked-in-medal-ceremony?page=1

There's another thread here

Yeah but there isn't a thread in craicnet yet. I didn't see any Irish people replying to the other thread. More Irish people will see it here.

I was really wanting other Irish people's opinions on it. I'm in Ireland too.

Well on the face of it this is appalling racism , even if it is subconscious. The little girl is front and centre in a gymnast costume.

I felt so sad for her and angry on her behalf. She is owed an apology. And maybe some sort of treat? The other girls must have felt embarrassed as well?

Really horrible to see and hard to believe it could have been accidental. That poor girl. Gymnastics Ireland seem to have handled it very badly, not taking any responsibility themselves. And who thought mediation was the correct approach? It's not a dispute between people but a clear case of wrongdoing on the part of the official.
I'm glad it has come to wider attention, hopefully that will put pressure on the relevant sporting & equality bodies to look into it and make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen again. I sincerely hope the little girl and her family do not experience any sort of backlash, though.

And who thought mediation was the correct approach?

Feckin' eejits.

We had a man at work making sexual comments towards a woman and she got offered mediation. What is there to mediate? One person clearly did a stupid thing, that person deserves consequences. Why is it the girl's responsibility to tell her what she did wrong, and why should the girl's time be wasted having to teach a white woman not to be racist?

The girl needs support. The woman needs sacking and banning from anything to do with Irish Gymnastics. But it won't happen. We're not that good at dealing with this sort of thing, they'll do what they do to anyone who's been discriminated against for any reason, and pretend it's happened differently and that the girl is making a big fuss, then the woman will be left in post or at best, quietly shuffled sideways.

I don't think it was accidental. How could it be really. How yer one thought she could get away with it idk. Although it seems she did for quite a while. Racism is truly alive and well here (take a taxi and more often than not you'll be treated to a 'stealing our jobs' monologue). It's horrible and POC/foreigners are having to live here and be subjected to it much more often than we'd like to think.

Ireland is a land of a 1000 welcomes if you're white and catholic!

It's shocking and so blatant. The official involved hasn't renewed her membership with Gymnastics Ireland who have now offered an apology on foot of Simone Biles getting involved.

I saw that it brought tears to my eyes. Blatant racism. I heard the medal giving woman wrote a “heartfelt apology”. I would tear it up and throw it in her face if I were the mum. It was so obviously racist and watching the emotions on the poor girls face as she was so excited to get a medal and then skipped and how she hoped it was an accident, stood there smiling and thinking oh she will realise and get me mine next, but the woman goes two, three on from her and she’s not sure but then her face lights up thinking she would be remembered when the woman went back for more medals but then walked right past her ignoring her for a second time to give medals to every white child further down the line. You could see the exact moment when she realised it was no accident, she wasn’t getting a medal, and only her wasn’t getting a participation medal and you could see her look about probably looking for her mum and then staring off in an effort to hold back her tears.

Absolutely appalling.

Every adult there was complicit…there were other adults going up taking photos, another handing handfuls of medals to the woman giving them out. Not one of them said anything. They watched it happen and also ignored the little girl.

Is there some way we can make it up to that little girl and her family? We must be better than this!

Awful awful awful

I couldn't bear to watch it all through.
Shame on this woman and everyone who stood by and watched.

My kid does gymnastics. We pay a subscription to this body as part of the general fee. Ugh.

I also thought the same re mediation.
What the actual feck?!

OK. So this happened in March 2022. I was abroad then so didn't see the original story. Is there some reason its back in the news...

It's a bit embarrassing for Ireland. As someone said in the other thread, it makes Ireland looks like it's in the 1950's.

I just can't comprehend how they could do this and even though it says it was accidental I can't see how. She really does blatantly ignore her plus like someone said there were loads of adults around. That man taking the photos I thought he may say something.

It's more than a bit embarassing, it's mortifying. But imo it's showing us up for what we are. Racism is tolerated here to a shocking extent. We moved very quickly from a mono culture to multi culture and it's left a lot of people with whiplash. That said, there is no excuse whatsoever for this type of behaviour and we should know far better given our own history in UK and USA.

It was awful.
That poor child.
How could that woman do that ?
I have commented on another thread about it on Mumsnet.

My young adult son and I saw that and we were just absolutely shocked. How could you leave a child standing there looking bewildered and wondering what is happening. Imagine the shame she must have felt and there is just no excuse for this. This will stay with her for years how she has been treated. How was this allowed to happen, and why did nobody else step in as must have been other people there involved in this who could have given her a medal. It made me so sad for that little girl and whoever did this needs to be sacked and sent on an anti racism course. Name and shame this vile person so she knows what it is like to be publicly humiliated and a child would not know how to handle those emotions and her family must have been in shock also and outraged. How could anyone do that to a child. Just vile horrible behavior and ashamed that this has happened to this girl and her family and it needs more than an apology.

The family should sue Gymnastics Ireland for the treatment of their child and the blatant racism and the way that gymnastics Ireland acted afterwards suggesting mediation, feck that, they did nothing wrong. Being cruel to a child is the most vile thing anyone can do, just so sad to see that child's face not knowing what was happening and then the realization that she was not getting a medal.

What do you mean alleged??. Action speaks louder then words. Its blatant racism 😡. Stop with the gaslighting. They also did a pahatic apology for the racist behaviour ONE 1yr after because they got caught out .