The internet is forever, something which today’s sanctimonious public figures would do well to remember before they go pretending they’re all anti-racist and “woke.”
Gwendolyn Berry, the Olympic hammer thrower dominated headlines last week for opting to disrespect the flag during an 26 awards ceremony in an era when disrespecting the flag has become incredibly hip in popular culture, is now under fire for some incredibly offensive tweets she issued a decade ago.
Ruh-roe.
The adage “play stupid games, win stupid prizes” is particularly applicable in the case of this self-proclaimed “activist athlete,” amirite?
The backstory: Berry finished third at the U.S. Olympic trials in Eugene, Oregon, on June 26, landing her a spot on Team USA.
Berry turned her back on the flag, eventually covering her head with a black T-shirt that read “Activist Athlete,” which she just so happened to somehow have within her reach when she claims to have been “set up” by the playing of the United State’s national anthem as she was — again — being awarded a medal for having voluntarily competed to earn a place on Team USA.
Now, some high-profile conservatives are calling for her to be kicked off the Olympics team before it gets to Tokyo.
She could have avoided the whole mess had she just scouted out, say, Iran or North Korea’s track and field team, I’m sure those countries would have been perfectly happy to have her (although she might find their attitudes towards anthem protests make the ire of conservative outrage culture pale by comparison).
“I feel like it was a set-up, and they did it on purpose. I was pissed, to be honest,” she indignantly told reporters at the time.
“They had enough opportunities to play the national anthem before we got up there,” Berry explained of what might possibly be the most self-centered conspiracy theory of all time. “I was thinking about what I should do. Eventually, I stayed there and I swayed, I put my shirt over my head. It was real disrespectful.”
This is sort of like claiming that Disneyland decided to play “It’s A Small World” over the park loudspeakers right after you paid your admission simply because you hate it, and not because it’s the most obvious place in the world to hear that annoying earworm played in public.
It was the Olympic trials for the American team after all.
Well, some might now say that Berry set herself up for the kind of close scrutiny afforded anyone who gets shoved into the spotlight over such a divisive, inflammatory issue, as her decades-old tweets have resurfaced.
Like this one, mocking rape accusers:
S/O to all the females that’s gon get drunk, get recked by 4 dudes, then cry rape this weekend
— Gwen Berry OLY (@MzBerryThrows) March 22, 2012
And this one, mocking whites in general:
White people are sooo retarded when they are drunk
— Gwen Berry OLY (@MzBerryThrows) July 30, 2011
And this rather confusing one (what does this even mean?):
I’m about to rape my lunch
— Gwen Berry OLY (@MzBerryThrows) October 11, 2012
Aaaaand a few more disrespecting whites, Asians and Mexicans.
This lil white boy being bad as hell!! I would smack his ass then stomp him!! Smh #whitepplKids hella disrespectful
— Gwen Berry OLY (@MzBerryThrows) June 27, 2011
Just saw this gurl wearing heels with white socks!! What the Hell..#chineseppl always try to start new trends..smh..ggguuurrrllll
— Gwen Berry OLY (@MzBerryThrows) April 29, 2011
“@IThrow: Mexicans just don’t care about ppl”😂😂😂😂😂
— Gwen Berry OLY (@MzBerryThrows) November 1, 2012
To be fair, a lot of people have tweeted all kinds of stupid things, and Berry is not, in fact, a thought leader or an ideologue, so I frankly don’t think we need to hold her to that high of a standard of impeccable behavior in the past.
Berry is simply an athlete who is really good at throwing a heavy object across a field — which is definitely cool.
But here’s the thing: she claims that she doesn’t feel represented by the flag or our anthem due to our nation’s history of racism, and yet, she had no problem spewing out racist rhetoric a decade ago, pre-Colin Kaepernick, did she?
After all, this is a woman who turned her back on the flag, claiming it had “never” represented black Americans, when it turns out that just a few years ago, that is, in 2015 as The New York Post reported, she was happy to celebrate a victory by running around with Old Glory draped around her shoulders before anthem protests were all the rage.
What’s more, Barry is being canonized as a new saint in the religion of wokeness by radical leftists and supported by liberal pundits, and has even been defended by the Biden White House simply for making the incredibly un-daring decision to virtue signal ideological views shared by the loudest, biggest, meanest bullies of our time; that is, the radical left.
She didn’t do anything brave other than anger the people who don’t go out and burn things down or try to ruin someone’s entire life and career because they said something they disagreed with.
Her woke virtue signaling is entirely self-centered and self-aggrandizing and indicative that she has no regard whatsoever for the weight of the role she’s meant to play for our country at the Olympic Games.
If we’re sending a team to Tokyo to represent our best and brightest athletes, there’s very good reason now that Gwen Berry most certainly should not be among them, and not because of her tweets, but because of her misguided contempt for the country in which she has been so blessed as to enjoy a flourishing athletic career and the freedom to say whatever stupid, offensive garbage she wants to.
It is hardly a consistently moral activist who hates the flag but doesn’t mind the considerable publicity and attention that being named part of Team USA would serve.
Berry doesn’t seem to understand that she’s not going to Tokyo to represent herself and her ideas, she’s going to Tokyo to represent America. And for this, it is clear, she is entirely unfit.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
