Black Women Should Follow Biles’ Olympic Lead

Nikki Attkisson | Last Updated : August 5, 2021

Naomi Osaka is a Japanese tennis player. Simone Biles is a gymnast from the United States. Both are well-known young Black females who are under the scrutiny of a worldwide Olympic spotlight that fewer people have ever experienced.

At the Tokyo Olympics, all athletes confronted crucial future decisions. Both claimed stress & psychological wellness as reasons for their actions. The spotlight shines brighter on such Black females because they are supposed to succeed, to be tough, and also to persevere after decades of effort and training. They have to strive more for acknowledgment, and when they wouldn’t fulfill the citizenry’s standards, they were generally criticized harsher than others.

“Black women are not going to die. We’re not going to be martyrs anymore,” said Cullors, who resigned her role as director of a BLM nonprofit foundation in May. “A gold medal is not worth someone losing their minds. I’m listening to Simone and hearing her say, ‘I’m more important than this competition.”

Black Women Should Follow Biles’ Olympic Lead

Michael Phelps, the nation’s best surviving Olympian, is recognized for starting a dialogue regarding athletics and psychological health. Phelps, on the other hand, was fewer apt to be plagued by the persistent health inequalities, sexual abuse, police abuse, and professional prejudice that Women of color, renowned or not, face on a regular basis when he caught up his glasses 5 years back.

For any athlete his mental state while competing in different games is more important. One who is already with low tempo cannot go for the best of his performance and the same is faced by Black Player Simone which was displayed by her in her words. The game is doubtlessly important and when you are competing at the world level it needs to have more focus but not more than my life at any stage she said. 

Naomi Osaka, a 4th time Grand Slam winner initially sparked worries regarding her psychological disorders in June after she refused to talk to the media throughout the French Open, eventually withdrawing from the sport until the Tokyo Olympics. Despite getting removed from Olympic prize contention, Osaka expressed worry for her own safety. She is worried due to her performance which may be judged unfairly by people in her nation.

Black Women Should Follow Biles' Olympic Lead

More recently, discrepancies in healthcare and socio-economic are expected to have an effect on Black women’s psychological wellness. American females get larger maternal death incidence than white females, and they were especially prone to experience being not recognized when seeking healthcare help for suffering.

Despite excellent personalities like Cullors, the word is reaching. On Twitter, Liz Dwyer, a Black writer and editor in Los Angeles, praised Biles, saying, “Black women are no longer ready to be the mental health mule.”

“The whole society gets the benefits from the work that we do,” Dwyer said. “And yet the racism and sexism, worrying about the rise of hate crimes, worrying about the safety of your children, worrying about your children being profiled and put in the school to prison pipeline … that all take a toll.”

Read Also MetaboFix Reviews Pro Reviews

Melanie Campbell, founder and CEO of the United Nations for Black Civic Participation and chairperson of the American Female’s Roundtable, is a life apart from Biles and Osaka. Their stance on psychological health, she said she has motivated her.

Campbell who is recently imprisoned after participating in civil disobedience throughout a ballot reform movement spearheaded by Black females stated, “It motivates me to keep advocating, keeping pushing for civil rights because you see this generation is stepping up”. “All of us have a role to play,” she said. “I can speak about these issues and still be who I am.”


Nikki Attkisson

With over 15 years as a practicing journalist, Nikki Attkisson found herself at Powdersville Post now after working at several other publications. She is an award-winning journalist with an entrepreneurial spirit and worked as a journalist covering technology, innovation, environmental issues, politics, health etc. Nikki Attkisson has also worked on product development, content strategy, and editorial management for numerous media companies. She began her career at local news stations and worked as a reporter in national newspapers.

Sign Up For Our Daily Dose Of Hot News