Posts Tagged ‘Canada’

2012 NCAA Second Rd. Match-up: Syracuse vs. Kansas St. Features 3 Archbishop Carroll HS (DC) Teammates

Saturday, March 17th, 2012

By Aquil Bayyan

I  just wanted to take the time to talk about a story line in the second round of the NCAA Tournament East Region (Pittsburgh, PA). The second round match-up between (1) Syracuse Orange and (8) Kansas St. Wildcats has an interesting twist to it. Three starters for the teams actually went to the same high school in Washington, DC. That high school is, Archbishop Carroll High School, which plays in the extremely competitive WCAC (Washington Catholic Athletic Conference). Through the years Archbishop Carroll has produced the likes of John Thompson, Jr., George Leftwich, Tom Hoover, Edward “Monk” MalloyEddie Jordan, David Hawkins, and many other college and professional athletes in various sports. Kansas St. forward Jamar Samuels played with Kansas St. guard Rodney McGruder before he eventually transferred to a prep school. The year after Jamar Samuels transferred from Archbishop Carroll, Kris Joseph, who is a forward for Syracuse, came to Archbishop Carroll via Montreal, Canada and played with Rodney McGruder for two seasons. The three star players also played AAU together with the world renowned DC Assault AAU organization, which has produced numerous college and professional basketball players. All three players are very versatile, with the combination of fundamentals and athletic ability to play basketball at the next level. I have had the pleasure of being able to coach, train, and mentor these players while teaching and coaching at Archbishop Carroll. It has been great watching them develop into the players I knew they could become. Joseph and Samuels are seniors and McGruder is a junior. There is a chance we will see all three players playing in the NBA and if not they all have the ability to make good money playing overseas. Keep Working Hard and Good Luck Fellas!!!!!

Jamar Samuels with the Dunk, Rodney McGruder with the Jumper, and Kris Joseph with the Dunk!

Aquil Bayyan of The War Room, for War Room Sports

Subconscious Prejudice Part II: True North Strong and Racist?

Monday, November 14th, 2011

By Maggie Mangiel

Truth hurts.  People cannot speak their minds nowadays without others over-analyzing what they have said and “go off on different tangents”.  I’m talking about the response I have received from my latest blog entry, the “Subconscious Prejudice”.  Most have missed my point to put it lightly.  Moreover, some said I was “ignorant”.  What?  Really?  I attended university, speak three languages, and have a near genius IQ; I extend my middle finger to those people; yes that is so lady-like.  My concern here is for those who have been eluded by my point and purpose of the article.  I could care less about those who did not realize that what they referred to as “ignorance” was my writing style.  I tend to use cynicism and humor, and nothing is funnier than generalization and stereotyping people (I watch too much of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart).  However, some people even went as far as calling me racist, and some leapt “as high as the ceiling” and said that there is no such a thing as racism in Canada.  Try telling that to the black hockey players.  Do you not remember the banana peel at the Flyers/Red Wings game at the Labatt Centre in Ontario, or the minority kids’ struggle to “fit-in” in hockey that was just aired on CBC not long ago?  We do not have to go as far as Ontario; let’s stay right here with our own former Oilers player, George Laraque, and his new tell-all autobiography, “The Unluckiest Tough Guy” and how he chronicled growing up as a victim of racism.  He wrote about how his elementary school bus driver called him the “N-word”.  Yes that happened…HERE…in Canada.  I do not understand why people become angry and deny its existence.  Pretending it is not there will not obliterate it.  We need to face and address it.  There is racism, discrimination, prejudice, and whatever you like to call it, right here in the True North Strong and Free, and it seems to be more prominent in my line of work.  We need to stop burying our heads in the sand and wish it gone.

Nonetheless, my topic was not racism.  I was talking about prejudice in physique competitions and modeling; there is a big difference between the two.  But now, you leave me no choice.  I am just gonna have to talk about racism; there is no turning back.  Like Chris Rock said, “racism will never stop; it’ll only multiply”.  I want to know why is it that white women go to great lengths and spend as much money as possible to acquire “booty” and full lips but this society still considers a black woman who has them naturally, less attractive?  Why do I not see women like me in the sport or the beauty magazines that I read?  Why do magazine editors choose not to put models, especially women of color, on their covers?  Some editors have been reported to go as far as saying, “black doesn’t sell”.  Are they saying that whoever is buying the magazine is interested in the color of the person on the cover and not the contents of the magazine?  What are the implications of the answer to that question?  Walk into a newsstand, randomly pick 3 Canadian sport magazines and tell me how many Asians, African Canadians, Hispanics, or even East Indians are on the covers, or even featured in them.  One of the leading fitness magazines in Canada has this annual issue of the hottest Canadian fitness models.  In their first issue, published in 2010, they included less than 10% of women of visible minority (one black model, yes the token).  Yet, Statistics Canada states that in 2006, 4 years earlier, (stats are taken every 5 years and the results for 2011 will be out in Feb 2012) visible minority women made up 16.4% of the female population.  Is this not a diverse country and do we not pride ourselves in our multiculturalism and shove it in peoples’ faces every chance we get?  Where is the diversity in the Canadian fitness industry?

Even when I look at the American magazines, I can count on one hand the number of black models and athletes that I have seen on the covers or inside their pages this year; despite the countless number of hard-working, attractive African American models in the industry.  In the beginning of his modeling career, one of the top fitness models in the world was told by an editor that the magazine would be happy to give him a spread but cannot put him on the cover because he is black.  Yes, that happened in this day and age when the leader of the free world and the president of the United States of America is a black man.

This was my point, and that was what I wanted everyone to consider.  I am not one to run around blaming the color of my skin for my shortcomings.  When I decide to do something, I give it my best, and when I fail I am always clear on the cause, and my race, so far, has never been one of the reasons.  Being a dark-skinned female does not define who I am; it is only a part of what I am.  I am a proud Canadian and very fortunate to live here.  I pay my taxes; therefore I refuse to travel and compete in the U.S.  Sometimes I feel that I do not enjoy all the privileges this country has promised me, and I do not want my children to feel the same, so I had to say something.  If I do not speak up, who is going to do so on my behalf?

Maggie Mangiel, Fitness Model & Personal Trainer, for War Room Sports

The Subconscious Prejudice

Tuesday, October 25th, 2011

By Maggie Mangiel

A physique competition is a different ball game altogether, aside from the non-existence of the ball of course.  I stepped on stage and basked in that limelight for the fourth time on October 15.  It was my second time as a bikini competitor.  My first two times were in the fitness model category.  But I chose to change to bikini model because I prefer the softer, more feminine look as opposed to being more muscular.  First time competing in bikini, I placed top 10 and second time top 5.  So, it seems to be the perfect category for me since I did not find much success in the fitness model category previously.  I’m happy with my results and I’m looking forward to my next competition, and to more improvement in my physique.  For some of you who are not familiar with physique sports, the bikini category is the division in which the female competitor is judged on her beauty traits, facial and physical, stage presence, and marketability.  Each time, I was the only black woman in a sea of bleached-blonde, super-enhanced barbies.  I have no problem with “purchased” beauty.  God created plastic surgeons, and we sure as hell do not want them to starve.  Thanks to Baby Jesus, I will not be spending my hard-eared money on them, so power to the barbies.  Back to what I was saying, I know I’m not the only black woman with good looks, beautiful physique, and enough courage to flaunt what she’s got.  So the question arises, where are the rest?  Why aren’t there more Black Canadian females competing in the bikini division?  I thought I would share my feelings and opinion on the subject with you and let us consider them for a second.

First of all, the weather sucks up here and black people prefer to live in warmer climates.  The population of black women is very slim in comparison to the other races.  Well, there’s nothing we can do about the Canadian cold, so I’m going to leave that alone while sighing deeply with disappointment.  I basically think many black women would like to compete and have what it takes to step on the stage, but the truth of the matter is the bikini division is not “black woman friendly”.  This is a beauty contest, plain and simple.  With people like Satoshi Kanazawa on this planet, black women have some hurdles to clear.  In case you have not heard of him, he is an English psychologist of Asian descent who has written one of the most hurtful pieces of work toward black women, and some people have considered his paper to be the worst thing since slavery.  Good thing someone locked his lips and threw away the key (muahahahaha!).  I think the judging panel has to be diverse.  In my opinion, you cannot put a black woman against 30 white women to be judged by 3 white women, 2 white males, and 2 Asians (well sometimes there’s one black guy or a racially ambiguous “black” woman), and expect a fair judgment.  I’m not calling them racist but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and people tend to identify with people who are similar and closer to their likeness.  So for the improvement of the sport and the advancement of the black woman, I would like to see a panel that resembles the UN and hopefully North Korea does not join (jk…hahahahahaha, nothing against the Asian but Kanazawa just made it so hard for a black woman to look at Asian men without contempt).  This way I feel that my beauty is being assessed fairly, and would not second guess the judges’ integrity and ethics.

In addition, we as black women always think we are better looking than everyone else.  We overestimate our beauty.  Hell, I think I have the nicest “tush” and legs in the whole world, but I’m sure some of you reading this beg to differ.  So, before stepping on stage, we need to logically asses our physique and beauty and compare it to the judging criteria.  We need to be honest with the person looking back at us from behind the looking glass.  Once you truly know your worth, nobody can knock you back, and you can deal positively with people’s opinions and views of you.  Competing once and quitting because you think you “got robbed” or switching to a category such as figure or bodybuilding in which your facial beauty is not considered, or even going as far as traveling to compete in the United States or the Caribbean is not the solution.  The solution is for us to come out with our best, be humble about our looks, and  showcasing them in front of a diverse panel of judges while saying, as Sojourner Truth has neatly put it, “Ain’t I a woman”.

Maggie Mangiel, Fitness Model & Personal Trainer, for War Room Sports