Skip to content
  • Subscribe
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Youtube
  • Instagram
  • Email
  • Home
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment
  • Features
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe to Ray’s Columns
Suburban Chicagoland

Suburban Chicagoland

Original News, Features & Opinion on Chicago, Illinois and America

  • About
    • About
    • Advertise
    • Our Writers
      • Ray Hanania
      • Bill Lipinski
      • Biography: Aaron Hanania
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Policy
    • Reach Out
  • Sections
    • Events
    • Opinion
    • News
    • Features
    • Seniors
    • Comic Strip
  • Library
    • “MIdnight Flight” Online Book
      • Midnight Flight Book Overview
      • Midnight Flight Introduction
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 1
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 2
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 3
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 4
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 5
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 6
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 7
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 8
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 9
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 10
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 11
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 12
      • Midnight Flight Chapter 13
    • Villages, Cities & Towns
    • Federal Office Holders
    • County Officials
    • Legislators
  • Subscribe to Ray’s Columns
  • Comment
  • Podcast
    • Ray Hanania on Politics
    • Two Guys on Politics
    • Hanania on Tiktok
  • News Wire
  • Archive 2004-2013
  • Toggle search form
  • Kat Abughazaleh 9th DIstrict Congress 2026 candidate democrat
    Federal Grand Jury in Chicago Indicts Six Individuals on Charges of Impeding Federal Agent Engaged in Immigration Enforcement Operations Civil Rights
  • 05-23-25 Jeffery M. Leving
    Little Girl Rescued from Feared Danger and Reunited with Dad News
  • Hastings insurance legislation
    Hastings announces legislation to ensure fair homeowners insurance rates for Illinois families Business
  • Mahnoor Ahmad campaign photo
    Mahnoor Ahmad runs for DuPage County Board seat Democrat
  • Sunday, October 26, the Village of Orland Park formally rededicated its Village Hall in honor of the late former Mayor Fredrick T. Owens
    Village of Orland Park Rededicates Village Hall in Honor of Late Former Mayor Fredrick T. Owens Government
  • Fire at townhome at 13900 block of Berkhansted Court in Orland Park, just before midnight on Monday, Oct. 27, 2025
    Firefighter treated for dehydration battling townhouse fire in Orland Park – no residents injured Fire
  • Firefighters with the Orland Fire Protection District who responded to a fire in an apartment at 15200 block of Al Camino Terrace on Saturday morning said the next day that they did find a kitten that needed respiratory aid that they saved.
    FIRE UPDATE: Fire District releases photos of kitten saved from Orland Park apartment fire Saturday Features
  • two-story apartment building on the 15200 block of El Camino Terrace in Orland Park
    Orland Park apartment fire Saturday morning, no injuries Fire
  • Illinois Senator Michael Hastings addressing the Orland Township Democratic Organization Wednesday Oct. 12, 2022
    Hastings calls for bipartisan action to protect Illinois families from SNAP benefit shutdown Baby Boomers
  • Illinios Industrial Energy Consumers, information ad
    Get information on the Illinois Energy Omnibus Bill in Springfield Business
  • State Senator Mike Porfirio secured over $20 million to support infrastructure improvements and construction in the 11th Senate District.
    Senator Porfirio applauds more than $20 million in infrastructure repairs coming to the 11th District News
  • Dad and daughter reunited Lebving Law firm photo
    Little Girl Recovered and Reunited with Dad After Long Separation Dads' Rights
  • 11-03-25 OFPD Coffee living alone
    Orland Fire hosts meeting on helping Seniors who live alone Nov. 5 Baby Boomers
  • State Senator Michael Hastings introduces law to revive long dormant and degraded Tinley Park Mental Health Center into a Sports Park for the community. Photo courtesy of the State Senate President Don Harmon
    Hastings secures $250,000 grant for Easterseals Academy’s Tinley Park campus Health
  • Chicago ranks as 161st worst city for crime in new national survey Chicago
USA Olympic Team athlete Raven Saunders. Photo courtesy of the US Olympic Team official photo

Tired of athletes who use their celebrity for narrow political agendas

Posted on August 3, 2021August 4, 2021 By Ray Hanania 1 Comment on Tired of athletes who use their celebrity for narrow political agendas
SHARE THIS STORY
            
 
  

Tired of athletes who use their celebrity for narrow political agendas

I am really tired of privileged athletes who use their celebrity as a platform to promote divisiveness, especially when they fuel the flames of racism. Raven Saunders crossing her arms in protest supposedly to support “the oppressed” is truly unprofessional and selfish

By Ray Hanania

It was one thing when two African American athletes at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics raised their fists in protest of the racism that plagued the United States.

That protest came at a time when civil rights and racism were real issues and took place only after the Rev Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. It was truly a terrible time in our country.

But don’t compare the assassination of Dr. King with the accidental killing of George Floyd, or exaggerate the challenges that minorities and the LGBTQ community face today. Society has changed and although racism remains, it isn’t just against African Americans. It impacts everyone. Most White Americans better understand African American history more than ever before. Gay are more accepted, and so are Blacks and other minorities.

Despite the gains against racism, some continue to use it to keep America divided in a narrow and selfish way to promote themselves. Doing it at the Tokyo Olympics as Raven Saunders did this past week is shameful.

USA Olympic Team athlete Raven Saunders. Photo courtesy of the US Olympic Team official photo
USA Olympic Team athlete Raven Saunders. Photo courtesy of the US Olympic Team official photo

Saunders who is African American and openly Gay, came in second place in the ShotPut competition, winning a Silver Media at the Tokyo Olympics. After receiving her award, during the photo-op session, Saunders crossed her arms above her head and later told reporters she did so to show the “intersection” where all people “who are oppressed meet.”
 
Wow! An Olympic Athlete who beat out thousands of other Americans to be honored to become a member of the American Olympic Team, who has the backing of an entire nation, calls herself “oppressed?”
 
Saunders is representing the United States at the Tokyo Olympics, on an American team that strives for equality on every level from race to ethnicity to gender. Diversity and equality are among the American Olympic Teams’ primary goals next only to athletic achievements.
 
That is a success that anyone African America and Gay, or not, should be proud to embrace.
 
In 2016, the American Team had the largest number of women competing, 292 out of 555 American athletes setting an Olympic record – the Chinese held the record until then with 289 women on their team.
 
This year, the team consists of 621 athletes who have risen to championship competition because of their individual performance and qualifications. The team is as diverse as any team has ever been with 131 African Americans, the largest racial group next only to Caucasian and far more than Hispanics, Asians and Arabs. Click here for more info.
 
The team also boasts Gay and LGBTQ members, too, like Saunders. And in the coverage of this year’s competition, much of the national news coverage and attention has focused on several African Americans including Simone Biles, who is the only African American to qualify for the Women’s Gymnastic Team. Despite some personal issues she is overcoming — with the support of the entire nation behind her — Biles has received huge media coverage and praise, showcasing her African American race.
 
If any ethnic group needs more representation, it is Hispanics, who number only 8 out of the total Team USA. You don’t hear much about them at all.

What about Arab Americans and Muslims who are competing? You don’t hear me complaining, as an Arab American, that they don’t get much coverage and have been excluded. (I really doubt any major American news media would cover me if I stood up with my hands crossed over my head protesting the alleged abuse Arab Americans get as we round the corner to the 20th Anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001.)

What about Asians? How come there is no focus on them? What about Native Americans? I s Saunders doing anything to help them? Click here for more information.
 
For most Americans, the TEAM USA represents America, not just one racial or ethnic group, or one athlete who wants to get herself some cheap and easy national coverage at the expense of American pride.
 
For Saunders to grab the spotlight crossing her arms above her head to play up the issue of racism and division, is truly selfishly opportunistic.
 
The American Olympic Team has the backing of every American. White. Black. Hispanic. Asian. Despite its challenges, the United States is the best country in the world when it comes to treating their citizens and even non-citizens. (Does Mexico or any Central American country give free education to their “Dreamers” the way America does?)

America has the best working conditions of any country. We have the best healthcare services of the world’s top 10 nations. Sure we can do better but we strive at it. We have free speech and we don’t get murdered when we speak out against the government. I do it all the time but criticism is a part of the process of public debate, a freedom we enjoy more than any other nation.
 
Saunders should be more appreciative of the fact that she is representing America at the Olympics, not just one racial or minority group. She is a part of a diverse group of Americans who stand together with the backing of every American across-the-board in Olympic competition.
 
I am proud of all of the Olympians for what they have achieved, win or lose. I’m not going to favor one group. And I am not going to favor one issue at the expense of the perseverance of the athletes who have worked so hard, trained and sacrificed to get where they are all at today.
 
I have friends competing in this year’s competition, and while I have been happy to share their stories, I do so in the context of the bigger picture of pride. Pride for all of the athletes and all Americans.
 
What Saunders did was to undermine that American pride, by playing racial politics in order to exploit the challenges that people of all races face in every country around the world.
 
It’s disturbing to me when individuals of privilege grab media attention to create a moment that is memorable for them as Saunders has done and puts a cloud above the achievements of the rest.
  
I support the police and I don’t appreciate the implications of what Saunders has done to attack them, because that is exactly what her message really is about. The movement to defund police and blame all of the violence in some racially dominant communities is purely political and it is extreme.

Like many Americans, I believe that any police officer who commits a crime should be investigated fairly and prosecuted if warranted. If a jury believes they broke the law, then punish them, too. But I am not going to stereotype all police as some activists are doing for selfish reasons of political empowerment and animosity.
 
Stereotyping all police is no different than stereotyping any group or any minority. Calls to defund the police are really calls to empower criminals and street gangs who end up killing far more innocent victims of race in one year on the streets of Chicago than are killed by all of the police across this country during the past half century.
 
Instead of fueling that internal division, why doesn’t Saunders do something to heal America and bring it together? Why doesn’t Saunders use her powerful position to show leadership and fight to bring America together instead of ripping it apart?
 
Where is the athlete who stands up and speaks for ALL AMERICA instead of just for themself?
 
Where is the athlete who is grateful to America for giving them the opportunity to compete in an international Olympic competition representing the greatest country in the World?
 
Where is the athlete who stands up with pride, grateful for what they have, and using their privilege earned through national support to give back to America instead of just taking away?
 
Raven Saunders had an opportunity to do something good. She certainly has a talent when it comes to throwing the “shot,” the heavy metal ball. The record throw is 78 feet and 8 ¼ inches.

What she did instead was to grab the spotlight and, using controversy, stirred up the pot to fuel not diminish racial tensions in America.
 
If there is a Gold Medal competition for being a selfish opportunist, she certainly is in the running.

(Ray Hanania is an award winning former Chicago City Hall reporter and political columnist. This column was originally as a special SUBSCRIBER ONLY COLUMN. For more information on Ray Hanania visit www.Hanania.com or email him at [email protected].)

 

Subscribe to Ray Hanania’s Columns

* indicates required field.

 

Select Email Format


 

Click here to view The Ray Hanania on Politics podcast. 

newswire info
  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Ray Hanania
Ray Hanania
Ray Hanania is an award-winning opinion columnist, author & former Chicago City Hall reporter (1977-1992). A veteran who served during the Vietnam War and the recipient of four SPJ Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing, Hanania writes weekly opinion columns on mainstream American & Chicagoland topics for the Southwest News-Herald, Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, and Suburban Chicagoland.  

His award winning columns can be found at www.HANANIA.COM Subscribe FREE today

Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.

Email Ray Hanania at [email protected].

Follow RayHanania at Twitter
Ray Hanania
Latest posts by Ray Hanania (see all)
  • Federal Grand Jury in Chicago Indicts Six Individuals on Charges of Impeding Federal Agent Engaged in Immigration Enforcement Operations - October 30, 2025
  • Little Girl Rescued from Feared Danger and Reunited with Dad - October 30, 2025
  • Hastings announces legislation to ensure fair homeowners insurance rates for Illinois families - October 29, 2025
NPV: 45
  • Tweet

SHARE THIS STORY
            
 
  
 
 
 
           
Blogger, Commentary, Opinion, Racism, rayhanania, Sports Tags:African-Americans, athletes, crossed arms, LGBTQ, protest, Racism, Raven Saunders, Shotput, sports, Team USA, Tokyo Olympics

Post navigation

Previous Post: President Preckwinkle Cuts Ribbon on New and Improved Sand Ridge Campus
Next Post: Orland Township hosts Back-to-School Health Fair for students

Related Posts

  • Cook County Treasurer Maria Papas
    Everything you need to know about your Property Index Number or PIN Blogger
  • Jeffery M. Leving fights for your rights
    Court orders divorced mother to allow son to visit dad’s critically injured relative Blogger
  • Remembering the Daily Newspaper Baby Boomers
  • Police car, this one from Chicago. Photo courtesy WIkipedia
    Is there a politics to mass shootings? Blogger
  • Buzz Aldrin walks on the moon, July 20, 1969 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Was it staged using sophisticated video technology or real?
    Why conspiracy theories are necessary Baby Boomers
  • Jussie Smollett, Hollywood actor and accused liar. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
    America sending out wrong messages locally and internationally Blogger

More Related Articles

American Justice is truly blind to justice, in a bad hypocritical and conflicted way. Photo courtesy of tingey-injury-law-firm-DZpc4UY8ZtY-unsplash Hanania columns on Biden’s border plan, Israel’s PAC influence on Congress, and Trump’s conviction National
Goalie Garret Sparks of the Chicago Wolves. Courtesy of the Chicago Wolves. Chicago Wolves beat Milwaukee again Chicago
Anti-Drug Industry Media Firestorm: Unscientific, Dishonest, Dangerous Blogger
The Chinese Communist Party is the founding and ruling political party of China. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Right from the Middle: Real estate industry problems weaken Communist China Bill Lipinski
Chicago Wolves courtesy of the Chicago Wolves Chicago Wolves earn third win in a row Chicago
Christopher Kennedy, the son of the late U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, speaks at a governor's candidates forum Sept. 16, 2017 at Reza's restaurant in Oak Brook hosted by the American Muslim Task Force. Photo courtesy of Ray Hanania Carrigan attack against Jubeh is pure bullying Blogger

Comment (1) on “Tired of athletes who use their celebrity for narrow political agendas”

  1. Pingback: The Driver's Side" – News From The Motorist's Perspective | theexpiredmeter.com

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Login with your Social ID
  • OPINION
  • Cook County Treasurer Maria Papas
    Your Mortgage Company May Pay Your Taxes — But You Still Need to Watch
    October 17, 2025
  • Mohammed Faheem The Lightning Strike Radio Show small
    The Politicization of the Nobel Peace Prize — and Trump’s Fury Over Losing Again
    October 11, 2025
  • 06-04-25 Two Guys on Politics Background Zoom LOGO with images
    Video Podcast: Trump Kimmel Kirk Great American Divide Illegal Aliens polling and Illegal Aliens and ICE
    September 20, 2025
  • Illinois House Speaker Emanuel "Chris" Welch speaking at a West Side affordable housing dedication
    Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, one of the best candidates to become Illinois Governor
    September 7, 2025
  • Cook County Treasurer Maria Papas
    What You’re Missing on Your Property Tax Bill
    September 5, 2025
Subscribe to Ray Hanania's column graphic

Enter Your Email to Subscribe to Ray Hanania’s Columns

  • The-Kings-Pawn-Book-300-x-300.png

Mohammed Faheem The Lightning Strike Radio

  • NEWS
  • Kat Abughazaleh 9th DIstrict Congress 2026 candidate democrat
    Federal Grand Jury in Chicago Indicts Six Individuals on Charges of Impeding Federal Agent Engaged in Immigration Enforcement Operations
    October 30, 2025
  • 05-23-25 Jeffery M. Leving
    Little Girl Rescued from Feared Danger and Reunited with Dad
    October 30, 2025
  • Hastings insurance legislation
    Hastings announces legislation to ensure fair homeowners insurance rates for Illinois families
    October 29, 2025
  • Mahnoor Ahmad campaign photo
    Mahnoor Ahmad runs for DuPage County Board seat
    October 29, 2025
  • Sunday, October 26, the Village of Orland Park formally rededicated its Village Hall in honor of the late former Mayor Fredrick T. Owens
    Village of Orland Park Rededicates Village Hall in Honor of Late Former Mayor Fredrick T. Owens
    October 29, 2025
John Kass Columns

Order the book PoweR PR; Ethnic Activists Guide to Strategic Communications

YOUTUBE VIDEOS

CLICK TO SUBSCRIBE TO RAY HANANIA'S YOUTUBE VIDEOS


Click here to view the video on YouTube or use the widget below.

Follow Ray Hanania at
Twitter
Facebook
TitkTok
BlueSky
RayHanania Columns

Creative Commons License
All works on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Do not edit original work. Give credit to the original source.

Categories

Copyright © 2022 Suburban Chicagoland & Urban Strategies Group

Powered by PressBook Premium theme