On notions of justice the masking of racial tensions

As I am not a sociologist by profession I cannot hope to top the idea of ‘microaggression’ the concept of everyday subtle but effective racism that plagues the lives of many. I leave that to the work of Debito and others.

The noise surrounding the Chinese swimming sensation who was accused by the US swim squad of doping has spiked my irritation yet again. It has also provided me an incentive to kick off my writing once again.

When there is a Western victory at the Olympics it is seen as a triumph of will over adversity etc etc. Yet when a Russian or Chinese person does really well it is seen as a case study of one or more of the following:

• Harsh rearing from early Childhood
• Peer Pressure
• Tiger Mother style Parenting (see Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother)
• Doping/Drugs

Ilona Slupianek, a high profile case of Doping from the Cold War Era

This is not entirely justified, the East German squad ascertained such notoriety for this particular reason. However, to still advocate this in a era where the IOC, WADA and others are under ever more hostile press attacks, undercover investigations leaves them with little room for fraud or manipulation. Yes the Chinese have something to prove nothing would destroy their reputation further or faster than engaging in a doping scandal of such myriad complexity that it would be bound to fail before the project got of the ground.

Think about it, you would need to hack WADA (easy enough), bribe at least two or three mildly senior officials without raising alarm (more tricky), pay off the scientific team at GSK (who have a strong CSR manifesto so would whack any employee who dissented) and potentially manipulate the medical sample… You would easily need a team of twenty plus to pull this off and that is just for one athlete. Even if you accuse, it is a case of ‘innocent before proven guilty,’ don’t go to town on it just because some coach who has been in the business for 40 years says so…

Ei incumbit probatio qui dicit, non qui negat (the burden of proof lies with who declares, not who denies)

This underlies all European and American legal practice, surely it is something we should practice as individuals. Why must we dissent into dated clichés. Surely the correct thing would be to say: ‘That’s a little too good a time, but I have faith in the judges.’ This is one of the occasions where the mass media with their investigative talents can exploit events to their great effect as was demonstrated with the match-riggers on the Pakistani Cricket squad several months back.

So for once, when an Asian athlete achieves something, can we just give them the credit they deserve? At last check, South Korea had the third highest tally of medals. For a country of 40 million that’s applaudable. No headlines about that…

Well, almost no headlines regarding the Koreans