Originally Posted by bellweatherman
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Gatlin, who is black, will be vilified by the American public and media. Landis, who is white, will be given the benefit of the doubt and defended using every excuse known to science.
Just look at Barry Bonds, should I remind you that he is also black? Barry is assumed guilty at every turn. Compare to Lance Armstrong, who is white, who is given the benefit of the doubt and vociferously defended no matter how many more credible witnesses, testimony, or tests show his guilt.
I think there is a much easier non racial explanation. We don't care about track and field or Gatlin, and we assume sprinters ala Ben Johnson use steroids. So when we hear Gatlin's positive, we go ok, what's new and go on.
We do care about cycling and Landis. He's our hero and we want to believe in him. Consequently a fair number of people on this forum are willing to swallow a fair amount (i.e. Floyd's rapidly increasing bar tab) and make a lot of tortured arguments (it's alll a big french lie) to suspend their disbelief.
One other significant difference is that Gatlin's B sample has been tested and the testing process has run its course. I'm willing to give Landis the benefit of the doubt until its confirmed, but I'd bet heavy the B sample and the radioisotope test are going to hang Landis.