Irina Rodnina (pictured next to a wooden cat who has more feelings than she) is the famous Russian Olympics star who was seen by millions on Friday as she carried the torch that lit the Olympics flame. But then alert media reminded us all that she was the same woman who issued a racist Twitter tweet about President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama last September.
The image, which I will not show, was a picture of President Obama, seated next to First Lady Michelle Obama while both were eating at a basketball game, which Rodnina superimposed an image of a banana in front of and then shared the result in a tweet last September. After realizing it wasn’t funny, Irina deleted the tweet, and then attacked others online, saying that we had to get over our hangups.
That was in September; now, after the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony, Konstantin Ernst, the chief creative director for the production of the event, said, according to USA Today ” I didn’t read the Twitter of Miss Rodnina, but she’s the greatest athlete and the only figure skater who won three gold medals and as (IOC chief) Thomas Bach said, Olympic games have nothing to do with politics. All of us remember her as a great athlete.”
Well, we in America know her as racist.
It begs the question: is Irina Rodnina Russian President Putin’s message of racism to America and to President Obama? I think it’s time we asked the real question: does Putin have a problem with President Obama being black?