Darren Rovell is a Nativist Douchebag

A post by "S-Dott " To see more posts click here

It is a fact, that the United States is the greatest country on Earth. As flawed and imperfect as it may be at times, it is the only place in the world where the opportunity to accomplish anything is in the hands of those who are willing to earn such ends. Recently I wrote about the immigrating experience my family undertook when we arrived in this country, and I remember watching my mom take the Oath of Citizenship after passing her citizenship exam (I would become a citizen two years later) and feeling like we were finally part of the great mesh of American society. We may not have been born here, but we still believed enough in this country to become responsible citizens on our own accord. While we never abandoned our culture as Ethiopians, we knew that we were here by choice and would continue to be here because of our convictions that the United States of America was where we belonged as hard working people.

Which is why I’m taking this opportunity to make the following statement: Fuck you, Darren Rovell.

In an outrageous article published by CNBC Sports, Darren Rovell wrote about the recent triumph of US Marathon runner Meb Keflezighi (ka-flez-gee) in a manner that was condescending to him and attempted to belittle Keflezighi’s sense of patriotism. Considering Keflezighi’s marathon win is the first time an American has won the marathon in 27 years, Rovell’s article (entitled ‘Marathons Headline Win is Empty’) stated that “Meb Keflezighi, who won yesterday in New York, is technically American by virtue of him becoming a citizen in 1998, but the fact that he’s not American-born takes away from the magnitude of the achievement the headline implies” and in a pathetic attempt to whitewash the obvious nativist tone of his piece followed it with “nothing against Keflezighi, but he’s like a ringer who you hire to work a couple hours at your office so that you can win the executive softball league. The positive sign was that some American-born runners did extremely well in yesterday’s men’s race. If any of them stand on the top step of the podium in Central Park one day, that’s when I’ll break out my red, white and blue.” Just writing that is getting me pretty riled up so I’m going to hurry up and finish this article before I go into an all-out assault against Rovell and CNBC Sports.

Meb Keflezighi was born in Eritrea and emigrated with his parents to California on October 21st, 1987, where he attended San Diego High School. Showing a talent for distance running, the high schooler began to make a name for himself by winning the 1600m and 3200m events and earned a spot on the UCLA track and field team. In 1998, the same year that he graduated from UCLA, Meb became a naturalized American citizen. He won 4 NCAA titles and received several All-American awards during his tenure at UCLA (much to the chagrin of Darren Rovell).  Meb continued his running career, representing the United States in every single race, and earned a silver medal in the 2004 Summer Olympics (which was the first medal earned by an American marathon runner in over 30 years). His ENTIRE career was built on American soil, and he (Keflezighi) proudly accepts and appreciates that fact.

Unlike Darren Rovell, Meb proudly wears the red, white, and blue without precondition. ”[The] U.S.A. gave me all the opportunities, education, sports, lifestyle,” Keflezighi said in an article published by the NY Times, “When you dream, you dream. You don’t give up.”

I don’t know about you, but that statement sounds pretty American to me.

udothedishes…

Related posts:

1. The Olympics Aren’t Coming, They’re Here
2. Is Obama-Mania Over??
3. Anheuser-Busch To Be Sold. Is America In Decline?
4. I’ll Tell You Why America Is So Great
5. First ever post geared towards DC United
6. Birthers: How the Grass-Roots became the Crass-Roots
7. Question of the Day
8. First Olympic Posting of the Season
9. Is America Worth fighting for?
10. All-White Basketball League Proposed

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.