Was Gabby Douglas Wrong To Speak Out About Bullying

Spotted @ The Single Father’s Blog
Sunday night my daughter and I sat in the living room and watched Oprah Winfrey interview Gabrielle Douglas on the “Next Chapter.”  During the interview Douglas revealed that while training at the Excalibur Gym in Virginia Beach, Virginia she was bullied by some of the other gymnasts. As the only African American training at the gym, Douglas said that she felt bullied by the girls because of her race.

The most stunning revelation made by Douglas during the interview was that she was called  a “slave” by other girls at the gym.  While speaking to Winfrey, Douglas said “I was just, you know, kind of getting racist jokes, kind of being isolated from the group. So it was definitely hard. I would come home at night and just cry my eyes out.“

One specific incident that Gabby talked about involved a gym member who was asked to scrape chalk off of the bars.  Instead of fulfilling the request she posed the question “Why doesn’t Gabby do it? She’s our slave.”