Conservative commentator Larry Elder slammed hurdler Aleisha Johnson, who placed second in the 100-meter hurdles final at the U.S. Olympic Trials on Sunday, securing a spot on the national team for the Paris Olympics later this month, for saying, “This is for everyone like me.”
Clip posted by Elder X After the race, Johnson said, “I give it all to God. People always told me I wasn’t good enough, I didn’t deserve it. So I did it my way, my team’s way, and the way I was meant to be. This is for people who are poor. This is for people who came from nothing. This is for people like me who never had a doubt. I got a black emoji tattooed on my chest. This is what I believe in, and I’m paving the way for people who are in my shoes.”
“If you know me then you know exactly what my speech meant. If you don’t then it wasn’t for you and that’s ok!”
Elders reaction? “Congratulations to Alisha Ray Johnson (@ImJustLaylay) for competing in the Olympics. But why is this [sic] “Looks like me” bullshit? There was only one non-black runner and she finished second to last. Can we stop this “we will get through this” bullshit? Please, it’s 2024!”
Elder’s post, which has 1.5 million followers on X, has garnered nearly 50,000 likes and more than 2,000 comments since it was published on Sunday.
- “Thank God we can finally see a strong black woman representing America in the Olympics!” one commenter wrote. I told a joke“You’re way late!”
- “Why do people look for skin color everywhere? It doesn’t matter! Be proud of who you are and what you’ve accomplished. America is not racist. We had a black president for 8 years. If that’s not enough, I don’t know what is!” said another commenter. stated.
- “I, [black sprinter] Wilma Rudolph competed in the 1960 Rome Olympics (televised). I was 4 years old. [years old]”I remember my mom yelling at the TV, ‘Run Wilma! Run!’ That was something special,” another said. I remembered.
- “I can’t imagine how it would feel to have a black athlete I looked up to growing up make a comment like this,” another commenter said. Said“The first biography I ever read was of Herschel Walker. From then on, I became an idol of him. I’m glad I grew up in a time when looking like someone wasn’t a prerequisite for admiring them or aspirations to be like them.”
The day after the race, Johnson posted the following message: X: “If you know me, you know exactly what my speech meant. If you don’t, it wasn’t for you and that’s okay!”
anything else?
Johnson ran a personal best of 12.31 in the final, just shy of winner Masai Russell’s 12.25. USA Today reportedRussell’s time broke the course record set by Gail Devers 24 years ago and was the fastest time in the world this year, he added.
“For someone like me who comes from inner-city Houston, it’s hard to get opportunities,” said Johnson, 27, who ran at the University of Oregon and Texas Tech University. He told the Associated Press“They say you always have to work twice as hard to get half the results. I always say that if I had a little more support, I could have been here sooner. But no matter how many people support me, I’ve come to understand that I’m strong enough to do it on my own.”
Johnson, who suffers from hypothyroidism, which causes fatigue, told the publication that he scaled back his warm-up on Sunday “to conserve as much energy as possible to complete the 10 hurdles.” The AP added that Johnson ran in borrowed spikes after the only one he brought to the heats “exploded.”
“We did this from the ground up,” Johnson told the outlet, “so I just hope somebody understands, honestly, how hard I’ve worked and how hard my team has worked to get to this point. With just a little bit of help, we could have been here a long time ago.”
According to USA Today, Johnson, Russell and Grace Stark, who came in third in the 100-meter hurdles, were all competing in their Olympic Games for the first time.
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