Our newest All-American Girl

Thank you, Gold Medalist Tamyra Mensah-Stock, for providing me with the most indelible image of the delayed 2020 Olympics.

Yeah, I know it is not over yet, but nothing, nothing can top the interview she gave after becoming the first African-American woman to win gold for freestyle wrestling. If you haven’t seen that 4-minute interview, enjoy the clip.

She goes from unbridled joy at her victory, to tears of grief remembering her dead father/mentor, back to jumping for joy and exulting as the bearer of the flag of the country she so loves. She talks about how everything is possible with hard work.

I’d like that to be played in every American school. I’d like to see that played before the opening of every session of Congress, rather than a prayer.

It’s the answer to the lie of “systemic racism” being the defining feature of 21st Century America.

In her remarks, the 28-year-old Mensah-Stock explained her father was an immigrant from Ghana. There is no question her parents instilled in her a deep faith in herself, faith in God, a need for education, and faith in her country. 

As I have said before, immigrants are the keepers of the American Dream. They believe in it and they make it come true, because America, with its faults, gives them the precious gift of opportunity. We need lots more like the Mensah family from Ghana.

There were other immigrants from Africa, now Americans, in the Olympics. Or sons and daughters of African immigrants. I did not get a record of their names, but what I remember seeing was their joy in displaying the Stars and Stripes — their Flag. Not the Flag of white America, not the Flag of division or hate — but their Flag.

Mensah-Stock’s image balances — not replaces — that of the 1968 Olympics “raised fist” by track medalists John Carlos (bronze) and Tommie Smith (gold).

They turned to face the Flag and kept their gloved, clenched  hands raised until the anthem had finished. In addition, Smith, Carlos, and Australian silver medalist Peter Norman all wore human-rights badges on their jackets.

There was an uproar, naturally. Man, that was more than 50 years ago and I can still hear the curses, and the cheers.

Smith raised a right fist, Carlos the left, in the traditional “Black power” salute.

Why? Lack of coordination? 

Both U.S. athletes meant to bring black gloves to the event, but absent-minded Carlos forgot his. Aussie Norman suggested Carlos wear Smith’s left-handed glove.

And so it happened, they had their reasons, and they embarrassed their nation. That was their intent.

On the contrary, Mensah-Stock’s intent was to elevate her nation. 

One final note: After winning her gold medal match, Mensah-Stock locked her two coaches — tears pouring from their eyes — in a vice-like grip. Her two white, male coaches.

If you follow the ugly edge of CRT — Crap Race Theory — these white men would be called irredeemable racists.

That’s another lie exploded by Mensah-Stock.

Does Wheaties still put heroes on cereal boxes?