*Don’t let your talent to take you where your character can’t keep you.” *
This saying shared by thought leaders like Kenneth Hartman, John Wooden, or even motivational speaker Eric Thomas can be easily applied to the young Texan track star, Sha’Carri Richardson, that has captured the hearts of the world.
Thrust into the national limelight, the 21-year-old has had to navigate her brand, her manners, and also the loss of a parent, while suffering two very embarrassing public moments.
The first incident was when she tested positive for smoking weed and was not allowed to participate in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
After the verdict came down she went on television and held her head — explaining how devasted she was to learn that her mother had died by a reporter at one of her meets.
People empathized with her story, her misfortune, and what seemed to be a young person who made a mistake and is now trying to atone for that.
The second moment was the devasting loss in the Prefontaine Classic. Not only did she lose the race, but she also came in dead last in 9th place.
Her first interviews seemed to show good sportsmanship (except for one) and she appropriately promised her country that she will come back better than ever.
People were cheering for her.
In fact, people were scolded for saying anything that wasn’t tenderhearted about her performance, critiquing her social media and interviews that suggested that maybe her head was not in the game.
Now …
That was before she liked a derogatory tweet that belittled the winners of the race that she lost. The tweet used disgustingly bigoted stereotypes to characterize her colleagues and her “liking” of it suggested that she may need someone to check her.
The tweet said, “Not y’all Jamaicans still talking s### when y’all gotta walk barefoot to your coconut stand everyday for a living.”
This came a few days after she liked a tweet that said that one of the winning Jamaican sprinters, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce looked like New Orleans rapper Lil Wayne.
Well, the Jamaican Team has clapped back.
Those winners showed how to throw shade in a way that didn’t feed into racist and nationalist troupes.
From the teams account, someone tweeted nine female runners in emoji form. Each emoji was representing their native countries (with the flags listed above them). The emojis were listed in the order of their performance at the Prefontaine Classic, with the top three representing Jamaica.
The last one was the American.
It was captioned, “#ThrowbackThursday,” wrote Team Jamaica, adding a sly emoji. “Too soon?” they added.
Maybe not … maybe Ms. Richardson needs this wake-up call. We know her not because she is clever and cute (which she is both). We know her because she runs fast.
We want to know more … but what she is sharing with us is not going to endear us or make us proud.
