Five-Ringed Circus, Day 7: Costas plays the race card.

So is it any more racist for Bob Costas to make the comment about Gabby Douglas being the first Great African-American Darling by being the first African-American to win the gold in the ladies' gymnastics all around than for Michael Johnson to make the comment about the superiority of Black (of whatever specific heritage) sprinters?

This is what Costas said after Douglas' gold:

"You know, it's a happy measure of how far we've come that it doesn't seem all that remarkable, but still it's noteworthy, Gabby Douglas is, as it happens, the first African-American to win the women's all-around in gymnastics," Costas intoned, his besuited left elbow resting comfortably on the anchor desk. "The barriers have long since been down, but sometimes there can be an imaginary barrier, based on how one might see oneself."

Especially given the Eastern European dominance in the gymnastics girls events (before China took over that mantle of main competitor to the USA), the white girls who would win that gold for the USA (and the team gold as well) would become the country's little darlings.  (Mary Lou Retton, anyone?  Kerri Strug??)

But I re-ask the question again:  What makes Costas so villified to play the card that is reality?  African-Americans are, as a race and culture, better athletes than Caucasian-Americans.  Pretty much without exception.

So why is Costas' mention of the fact that Douglas is the first African-American to win the individual ladies' gymnastics all-around at the Olympics so scorned?

Really...