Black Girl's Parents Call Gymnasics Ireland Apology 'Useless'

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On Thursday, we reported on a video circling social media that shows a Black girl getting passed over for a medal at a Gymnastics Ireland event ceremony while every white competitor on the stage received their awards and now the snubbed athlete’s parents are weighing in.

Gymnastics Ireland, of course, did the whole apologetic song and dance saying that the official expressed “deep regret” over her “honest error,” but that halfhearted “apology,” which didn’t come until a full year and a half after the incident took place in March 2022, fell flat as far as the girl’s parents are concerned. The gymnast’s mother said previously that the apology was not “genuine.”

Now, she’s taking things a step further and calling the Johnny-come-lately-a** apology utterly “useless.”

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“[The apology is] almost useless,” she said to BBC. “There was no empathy shown, I feel like it’s not true.

“It’s been 18 months and it seems like they were pressured to give me an apology.

“I cried for so long and then millions of people cried with me before I could get this.”

Her mother said watching the incident play out was “unbelievable”.

“I didn’t believe in this day and time that this could happen,” she said.

“It is painful to actually state the obvious – my daughter was the only black child in that competition, she stood out well, there was no excuse for what happened. She felt very upset about what happened.

“It was almost as if though they blamed her for being black. It’s something very uncomfortable for a 10-year-old to go through.”

The mother also said she emailed Gymnastics Ireland the day after the snub, but she got no response. She also said the written apology the family received more than a year later wasn’t even addressed to anyone personally but was instead addressed: “To whom it concerns.”

“All I wanted was an empathetic reply from them,” she said. “I wanted a show of support for [my daughter]. And really what we wanted was a form of apology to show her. To say this is from them, to make her feel supported.”

BBC reported that it did find an email from the snubbing judge that was sent a month after the incident for upsetting “you and your lovely child,” but the family said that email was never forwarded to them and that they didn’t see it until last month at a mediation session that a rep from Gymnastics Ireland was supposed to attend but did not show up.

Yeah, this is definitely giving indifference. It seems like whether the “apologies” from the organization or judge reached the family in a timely matter or not, these people have been doing the obligatory bare minimum to make things right. They’re doing just enough to sprinkle a little sugar over their PR nightmare while doing as little has possible to actually address and rectify the issue—which sounds about white.

Categories: Race Matters