Racial sports?

True or false – Black people run, white people swim, yellow people play badminton, and brown people play…well, we play cricket. Answer: True.

Racism in the 21st century is a wonderful thing, isn't it? It's the most subtle thing in the world. True, the Ku Klux Klan is still functioning, but it's not the many-headed monster it once was. You don't hear white folks calling for Barack Obama's blood for daring to run for US president…well not in public anyway.
Today's racism is an art form, if you will. Its beauty is in its subtlety. No one likes to be called a racist. But the fact remains that most human beings are inherently racist by nature. So people are adopting new ways to express their frustration over the lack of outspoken and obvious racism. In sports, for example, people have been "assigned" certain sports depending on their race. This is, by no means, to say this was planned and executed by a group of Nazis. But the fact remains that it's true. Whether by design or by genetic accident, it is true that only black people excel in athletics, and white people in swimming, etc., etc.

Take cricket for instance. We brown folks rule when it comes to this game invented by white man, to kill time. Yeah, Australia may be the world champions, but together the subcontinent cricketers can kick their kangaroo b**** any day. Just imagine, if the Olympics had cricket as an event, we're sure to have bagged a few gold and silver medals.

The 2008 Beijing Olympics ended last Sunday. If you have a look at the medals table, you'll see that it was the strong, long legged black people who broke the world records. It was the fish bodied Michael Phelps and Co who set new swimming records. And, as usual, it was the yellow (Chinese and look-alikes) who won pretty much all the indoor events, like gymnastics, badminton and so on.

On the track, Usain Bolt created mayhem winning not only three gold medals, but creating new world records in all those events. Along with him a few other Jamaicans, both men and women, who snatched the US medals making it only too easy for China to 'win' this year's games. And the long distance events, as always, went to the African states, notably Kenyans. The Americans ran – no doubt about that. And they won medals too. But, they were not the white people. They were the African-Americans ones. This is not to say that white people don't run. In fact, a few Europeans did, and so did the Chinese. But what names stuck in our minds? Those of the drak-skinned people, we dare say.

On to the pool, and there was of course, Phelps and fellow Americans and Aussies like Aaron Peirsol, Katie Hoff, Grant Hackett and Leisel Jones to name a few. There were also others – Serbia's Milorad Cavic, Brazil's Cesar Cielo Filho and Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry. And then there was Oussama Mellouli from Tunisia. Heard of him? A little clue – he's not white.

Such is sports. But why is it this way? Is it some unwritten rule? What does it take to be a swimmer, sprinter or cricketer? Do you need a particular body structure for a particular sport? Are black people born to run and visa versa? Are Africans the best long distances runners ever? Is it customary in their country that they run? But, then this is not very fair on the part of certain groups of people. Do countries from where these sportsmen and women come, not have the facilities and finances to train their people in other sports? That's not very nice either. But whatever the reason is, the fact remains that it is mainly the black people who excel in running, the white people in swimming, etc.

Sport is not racist (at least we hope so). But there's certainly something going on there.
Folks, this is just a general observation. Feel free to mail your comments to cynicsil.mm@gmail.com