Jordan Chiles Didn't Fall Out of a Coconut Tree (Issue #65)
We exist in the context of what came before us. Last weekend's Olympics drama is just the newest example.
Hi friends!
Last week I shared one of my all-time favorite photos from the 2024 Summer Olympics:
In it, U.S. gymnasts Simone Biles (far left) and Jordan Chiles (far right) bow to Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade (center) after her floor routine won her an Olympic gold medal. Not only was the photo a beautiful portrayal of good sportsmanship, but it also captured something quite historic — the first-ever all-Black Olympics gymnastics podium.
And don’t let Simone Biles’ G.O.A.T status fool you. This is a Big Deal™️ because gymnastics is a sport where Black women have faced years of marginalization. In fact, U.S. data from the 2022-2023 school year shows that only 8% of NCAA female gymnasts were Black. And yet, as Teen Vogue writes, recent years have been marked by an avalanche of Black excellence in the sport.
“Dominique Dawes was the first Black woman to win an individual gymnastics medal at the 1992 Olympics, but it wasn't until 2012 that Gabby Douglas became the first Black woman to win the all around. And it wasn't until 2023 that Biles, Andrade, and US gymnast Shilese Jones made up the first all-Black podium at a World Artistic Gymnastics Championship event.”
But, the beauty of this photo and the moment it represents felt over-shadowed by the news that broke last weekend – the International Olympic Committee (IOC) would be stripping Jordan Chiles of her bronze medal and awarding it to Romanian gymnast Ana Bărbosu. It’s not unheard of for athletes to be stripped of their medals, but in most cases, it happens as a result of an athlete cheating or failing a drug test after the awards ceremony. But Jordan didn’t cheat. She didn’t dope. She is losing her medal due to a technicality.
This video does a great job explaining the situation, but here’s the short version: The judges who initially scored Jordan’s floor exercise final placed her in fifth place. Her coach, convinced there was a mistake, filed an appeal. Sure enough — the judges had indeed miss-scored the routine. Once corrected, Jordan got the bump she deserved, landing her in third place and securing her spot on that historic podium. That was until last weekend when that appeal was reversed. The reason? Her coach allegedly submitted the score revision request four seconds past the one-minute deadline for appeals — a claim the US has since appealed with evidence to the contrary. Despite the scoring error being the fault of Olympic judges, it was Jordan who’d be penalized. Never mind the fact that her score was rightfully bronze-worthy.
And now, in the midst of losing her medal, she’s become the target of vitriolic racist attacks online, so much so that she announced on her Instagram stories that she’d be taking a break from social media to protect her mental health. A few days later, she released her statement:
I really do feel for Jordan. It so often seems like no matter how successful you are as a Black woman, the barriers to that success are endless.
It’s an especially painful way to end an Olympics year where the U.S. women’s gymnastics team was the most racially diverse in history. But despite this massive achievement, the criticism they’ve received seems endless. Take the comment Olympic silver medalist MyKayla Skinner made in her (now-deleted) YouTube video:
“Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and the depth just isn’t like what it used to be. Just notice like, I mean, obviously a lot of girls don’t work as hard. The girls just don’t have the work ethic.”
Simone defended her teammates, and MyKayla claimed her comment was misinterpreted. But I can’t help but wonder what MyKayla’s referring to. She herself won a single silver medal on vault at the 2020 Olympics. On the other hand, Jordan Chiles, Suni Lee, and Simone Biles were part of the team that won silver in 2020 and gold in 2024. Suni Lee alone has racked up a personal collection, which includes another gold and three bronze medals in a variety of events. I’m sorry, MyKayla, what was that you said about a lack of “talent and depth?” Because I’m really not following. The US women’s gymnastics team hasn’t gotten less talented, but it has gotten less white. And that, my friends, is the real problem for so many people.
In a year where Black women athletes took home 20% of the US women’s medals, it’s become clear that being remarkable just isn’t enough when misogynoir is still always one step behind every accomplishment. As Simone Biles became the most decorated U.S. Olympic gymnast in history, she still had to fight off comments saying her hair looked messy. As if that should even matter when someone is running around a gym and jumping 12 feet in the air (side note: leave Black women and their hair ALONE).
Or take this headline:
May I remind you that Sha’Carri Richardson won a silver medal in this event? Sha’Carri and Julien are both Black women who achieved something most athletes could only dream of. This article could have easily been about Julien winning gold (the first-ever Olympic medal won for the small Caribbean island of Saint Lucia) or about Sha’Carri winning silver for Team USA, but instead, it went with the most negative framing possible by pitting the winners against each other, undermining the incredible achievements of both athletes.
And this kind of treatment? It’s not limited to sports.
In this past Monday’s episode of The Daily, it was reported that folks close to Donald Trump have indicated his hatred for Kamala Harris runs unusually deep. Here’s an excerpt from The New York Times political reporter Jonathan Swan:
“One thing I can’t underscore enough is just how much contempt Trump has for Harris. He actually respected Hillary Clinton’s intellect. As much as he despised her he thought she was smart. He does not think Kamala Harris is smart. And in fact, he’s been counseled by some advisors to try not to show as much of that contempt publicly. So he does think he’s up against someone who is incompetent and is not going to perform well in a debate against him. It could be a big miscalculation, but that’s how Trump sees it and that’s how a number of his allies and advisors see it.”
Now, I’m not the biggest Harris defender, and I do believe she (like all politicians) should be subject to fair critique. But to call her incompetent? To view her as less smart than Hillary Clinton? That’s little more than racist absurdity. Not only is Harris currently the vice president, but she’s also served in both the Senate and as attorney general. And still, people will degrade her accomplishments by labeling her a “DEI candidate.” Kamala, like all Black women, has had to be better than perfect while shouldering the brunt of racism her entire career. And still, people will say she’s only accomplished this because of her identity. It’s truly fucked up logic, but sadly, racism doesn’t have to be logical to be effective in holding us back.
I often think about my own experience as a high school debater and debate coach as one of only a few Black women in the activity. I love debate with all my heart and credit it for shaping me into the person I am today, and yet that time is also marked by the racism I experienced. I have more stories than I can count – losing to white opponents in front of constant panels of all-white judges, listening to racist argumentation, feeling forced to defend racist positions to win a round, etc, etc, etc.
Ask any Black woman and they all will have their stories.
And look, it’s one thing to face additional barriers, and a whole other thing to be gaslit into believing you were always on the same playing field as everyone else. And yet, Black women continue to achieve, persevere and WIN, in spite of it all. And that isn’t something to take for granted. To achieve “in spite” of constant barriers is an exercise in constant exertion, a testament to the stamina, grit, and endurance appreciated over a lifetime of Black womanhood. But it does all make me wonder: just how much talent, success, and achievement are we still stifling? How much Black girl magic is still left to unlock?
A round-up of things to watch, read, and listen to as you head into the weekend.
Substack: 'American Fiction' Could've Been Great in
byI saw American Fiction this past winter, and while I wasn’t necessarily the biggest fan, I didn’t think about it too deeply once I left the theater. The movie is based on the book Erasure (which I haven’t yet read), so I really appreciated the ways
put American Fiction in conversation with its source material. I resonated with a lot of her points, and the piece ends with a syllabus for further reading into the themes discussed. Check it out!
Podcast: Flashpoint
I LOVED this podcast! There’s a pretty big twist at the end of the second episode, so I recommend giving it at least a full two episodes before deciding not to commit. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll just leave you with a description: “On July 27th, 1996, a domestic terrorist bombed the Summer Olympic Games held in Atlanta, GA. While the FBI and the media fixated on the wrong man, the bomber planned his next, more overtly political attacks on 2 abortion clinics and a gay nightclub. The bomber would later be identified as a dedicated soldier in the white-supremacist Christian Identity Movement. Through the lens of these 4 bombings, and the victims left to pick up the pieces, Flashpoint explores America's greatest threat, the political and religious radicalization of homegrown terrorists.”
Netflix: Butterfly in the Sky: The Story of Reading Rainbow
This documentary is a great portrait of a show I loved as a kid! Reading Rainbow was a staple of childhood for so long and has such a rich history that it is well worth the watch.
Featuring someone I’m obsessed with (talking about what they’re obsessed with).
I first met Lucy in 2018 through a photography workshop we both attended. She’s currently based in Tucson, AZ, but serves couples and elopement photography clients throughout the entire Southwest and Chicago (where she’s originally from). Despite her continued belief that Chicago is the greatest city in the world, she moved to Tucson in 2020 in search of a change of scenery and to be closer to nature. She’s since fallen in love with the desert and has no plans to leave! Lucy also loves working as a photographer, empowering couples to be their authentic selves, and helping them create wedding days that reflect that. :)
Since 2021, Lucy has been on a journey of getting back into reading, and it has gone better than she ever could have imagined. She told me that books are probably about 70% of her personality at this point, haha! She will never tire of reading, tracking her reads, and discussing books (all three of which she considers separate hobbies). This year, Lucy made the leap into bookish content creation, making an Instagram and later a TikTok dedicated to reading!
As for the rest of Lucy’s hobbies, she also loves rock climbing, road trips, and spending quality time with her incredible friends and family. :)
I’m so excited to share Lucy’s rec’s with you. Peep them all below!
This is the only podcast I listen to these days. I'm very picky about podcasts; plus, most of my bandwidth for listening to people talk to me goes towards audiobooks. But I absolutely love this hilarious, but completely wise and earnest, advice show hosted by Miles Bonsignore. Miles is/was affiliated with The Try Guys, and it’s how I originally heard about his show (which is entirely separate from The Try Guys). I always laugh out loud and muse about humanity while listening.
Kale Chips
I'm not really a salad person, nor do I enjoy cooking. So making kale chips is a simple, cheap way that I get leafy greens into my body. Get some standard curly kale from the produce section, wash and dry it, rip it into 1-inch-ish pieces, give them a LIGHT coating of olive oil, mix in salt + whatever other spices you'd like (I always go for garlic powder). Then bake at 275°F for 20-25 mins (depending how hot your oven gets), flipping them halfway... or attempting to. I usually end up just pushing them around the pan. I also recommend leaving them partially uncovered overnight at first so they don't get soggy! Et voila! A yummy, salty way to trick yourself into eating vegetables.
BookTok
I mean both the community I'm in as a BookToker, as well as just the existence of this TikTok niche for people who need book recs. Booktok was instrumental in kickstarting my reading journey, by completely packing my To Be Read list (which still grows to new heights each day). Now, as a BookToker myself, I've found such an awesome community of book lovers whose recs I can trust implicitly, who I can have analytical book discussions with, and who constantly hype each other up. P.S. Don't listen to people who say "Booktok is only smut" because a) if that's all they're seeing but don't want to, they are not using Tiktok correctly, and b) there is no need to shame people for reading whatever they enjoy and hurting no one in the process. If you’re looking for accounts to get you started on this side of TikTok, few of my faves are @mm.stormblessed, @abbysbookworld, and @ellisrubyreads!
This book-tracking app is an excellent alternative to Goodreads, if you ever get tired of that horrendous UX and giving screen time to Amazon. It is a small business (owned and run by a Black woman), and they are improving it and adding features every day! It has an incredible stats page where you can see things like your genre breakdown, your average star rating, and so much more. You can also do challenges, either made by the admins or by users (for instance, I like to do the annual StoryGraph Genre Challenge to mix things up) and get incredibly accurate book recs from their algorithm. One of my favorite features is the Buddy Reads - where you can read along with friends and make comments as you go. StoryGraph rules!!!
Things to try + share in the group chat.
Note: Links preceded by an asterisk (*) are affiliate links that allow me to collect a small commission when you purchase something I’ve recommended. That said, I can promise I’ll only ever share items I love. Buying through these links is one way to support me and my small biz. ❤️
I found this carnitas recipe recently, and I can’t wait to try it! I'm also excited to explore other recipes on RecipeTin Eats, as Nagi's philosophy is to "make great food with everyday ingredients even if you’re short on time and cost-conscious." It’s an outlook that really aligns with my busy schedule and low-effort-great-taste cooking preferences. 🙂
My mom has been growing *oat grass for cats this summer, and it’s been a hit! So now, I’m excited to give it a try myself. My thinking is that maybe if my cat has his own plants, he’ll leave mine alone. Wishful thinking???? We’ll find out! You can also check out my other tips for protecting your plant babies from your feline friends here!
As always, thanks for reading and for being part of the Sincerely, Celisia community. I’m ever so grateful to be able to share my musings with you, and to hear what you think in return. Leave a comment below (or reply to this email) if you have any thoughts about today’s issue, and I’ll see you here next Friday. Until then, I hope you have the best weekend possible!!
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