Race and the Races

I saw a report on CNN last night that I mistook for a skit from "Saturday Night Live". It seems the Olympic Trials are coming to Eugene, Oregon, and the whole city is being made to take "sensitivity training" to deal with the black athletes. The CNN report mentioned having to learn hip-hop lingo and knowing where the local soul food eateries are. Doesn't this sound like a joke? By the way, these are AMERICAN athletes, so this seems even more insulting and ridiculous. Read more here:"The exact nature of cultural diversity training is still being worked out. But examples could include alerting visiting athletes to the kinds of restaurant foods, hair care salons or religious services that they might be accustomed to frequenting. 'We can tell people about Papa’s Soul Food Kitchen, but if they’re more into pan-Asian, we can let them know that Ring of Fire is right down the street,' Fincher said. 'We’re just highlighting what the community has to offer, not creating anything new.' Jones said another element of training will be about not making assumptions based on a person’s race — that every unfamiliar black person in Eugene, for example, must be a Trials athlete or supporter."