Eugenics

Some say the winner of this year’s New York City Marathon “is not really an American runner,” as reported in a recent New York Times article. Mebrahtom Keflezighi, an American citizen who immigrated to the United States from Eritrea at the age of 12, is the “first American to win the New York race since 1982.” Instead of collectively celebrating this American victory, some people are questioning whether Keflezighi’s win counts as an American victory at all. In anonymous online postings about the race, people have made such statements as “ ‘Give us all a break. It’s just another African marathon winner,’ ” and “ ‘Americans are kidding themselves if they say [Keflezighi] represents a resurgence of American distance prowess! On the other hand, he is an excellent representative of how we import everything we need!’ ” According to Professor John Hoberman, who studies race and sports at the University of Texas at Austin, “ ‘The more relevant question is, who gets to represent the country? . . . Only racists will insist that ‘our’ athletes meet specific racial criteria.’ ”