Simone Manuel - Yet Another Woman Athlete Undeserving of Her Own Headline

 San Jose Mercury News Tweet: Michael Phelps shares historic night with African-American

Simone Manuel was the first gold metal won by an African American in swimming. African Americans were systematically excluded from swimming pools for decades. The victory was an important one for African Americans and for women. 

Instead of heralding in Manuel and her milestone in a sport hostile to African Americans, her victory was swept aside in a gulling act of racism and sexism by the San Jose Mercury News. 

After her historic win the San Jose Mercury News sent out a tweet and headlined an article, "
Michael Phelps shares historic night with African-American"

Just like that, Manuel was stripped of her name, accomplishment and identified only by her race. The practice of scrubbing a woman's accomplishment and identifying her by a nearby man is common sexist practice which news sources have tripped over numerous times during the Olympics. 

Corey Cogdell won a bronze metal in Woman's Trap - a shooting competition, yet the Chicago Tribune decided to not include her name in a tweet and headline about her win, instead identifying her by her marital connection to Chicago Bear.

After the blatant sexism of the tweet and headline scrubbing Cogdell from recognition of her own accomplishments, a constant pervasive excuse was offered; "The newspaper just wanted a local connection."

Simone Manuel went to college at Stanford University, 23.5 miles from the San Jose Mercury news. She has a local connection to the readers of this newspaper.  Phelps was raised and trained in the Baltimore area. He went to college in Michigan. She is not connected to Phelps in any way other than the same sport.

She is stripped of her name, Phelps was not. She was described as her race, Phelps was not.

The sexist coverage of women athletes is not about local connections. The racism and sexism are just good old American non-sense.