The 2008 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials that Hayward Field will host this July are already attracting national attention. But not all the media reports have focused on the strength of the runners’ legs – one has focused on the color of their skin.

A Fox News report from March 27 called “Too Politically Correct?” said a “city-wide cultural competency training” group in Eugene called the Blacks on Track Team will be “training thousands of police, volunteers and hospitality workers to treat athletes of color with awareness, sensitivity and kindness.” The report contrasted the Blacks on Track Team with “many” in the community who are “critics” seeing an “oversensitive solution looking for a problem.”
But members of the multi-ethnic, and until the report largely unknown, Blacks on Track Team say the report totally misrepresented their committee; it’s a small group with virtually no opposition that’s not running any city-wide campaign at all.
“It’s really sad to hear that’s the way it was spun,” Senior Vice President and Provost Carla Gary said, who is on the committee.
In response to the report, she has heard of some people calling the BOTT “racist” and “segregationist” but knows of no organized or widespread criticism. And in direct contradiction to the Fox News report, Gary, who is the only BOTT member working on orientation, said “the training for law enforcement as well as hospitality workers is not something about which I have any knowledge.”
BOTT is a small part of the Local Organizing Committee, the large organization putting on the Olympic Trials and the corresponding Eugene 08 Festival. BOTT is one of 19 committees, like ticketing or security, that focuses on different areas of planning.
BOTT and its actions are “not a judgment” on Eugene, BOTT chairman Shawn Fincher said. “We would probably be doing ourselves a disservice,” if Eugene 08 ignored issues of race and ethnicity.
More than 65 percent of the athletes coming into town are black, Fincher said. And according to a 2006 U.S. Census estimate, roughly two percent of Eugene’s citizens are black, while 85 percent are white.
“We just want to be welcoming,” Fincher said. “That’s not to say in any way that the community is in any way racially insensitive.”
Fincher said a main BOTT goal for the nationally televised Eugene 08 trials is “putting our best foot forward because the world will be watching,” Fincher said.
While BOTT is an “integral” part of planning for Eugene 08, Fincher said, “it’s not a sexy story.”
As part of that larger group, Fincher said, BOTT gathers and shares information with marketing about advertising in black-focused publications and advises the entertainment committee about meeting the tastes of black attendees from a variety of age and economic backgrounds. BOTT has a member who will help train volunteers, Fincher said, but he spends most of his energy organizing a youth camp.
In the youth camp, athletes looking to give back to the community can teach kids of a variety of ethnic and economic backgrounds from throughout the Willamette Valley to see a university education as a goal.
Gary, the BOTT member involved in orientation, said her work focuses on welcoming black athletes and fans with information on local places to get a haircut or to pray.
“If I want to get my hair done, I can’t just go anywhere,” Gary said.
For the athletes coming here, “this is the culmination of a lifetime of work,” Gary said, and providing a welcoming atmosphere for the athletes is of paramount importance.
The BOTT role in the multi-group run volunteer training, Gary said, will consist of providing common sense ideas to help volunteers avoid judging people based on the color of their skin. This includes telling volunteers not to walk up to any black person and assume the person is an athlete and not automatically seating black people together in restaurants, the type of advice the Fox News report seized upon.
The reporting in the Fox News story “reminds me of the game telephone,” Gary said. “By the time it gets to the 10th person, it bears little resemblance to the truth.”
On the Ducksportsnews.com Web site, the report spurred this debate: “I find his ‘sensitivity training’ for Caucasians to be very offensive and racist – how dare this guy stereotype Caucasians as if we need special training to be nice,” said poster “JustaDog.”
Poster “Calvin” responded, “It may seem far-fetched but comforts/resources such as food, religion and needs are important and recognizing that people in Eugene do ask and say insensitive comments (even rooted in ignorance and not hate) shows that you don’t understand.”
Dan Springer, the Fox News correspondent who anchored the story, did not return repeated calls for comment.
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