As the Olympics come to an end, two young women's figure skaters will be able to return to their country with their heads held high. Before their show the media told their personal stories.
Both girls felt tremendous pressure from their country. The country had many companies who advertised their products using the face of those two girls. As a result, they felt like they would be disappointing all of their sponsors if they did not return with gold medals.
This story reminded me a lot of the same pressures Helen Zia felt. Her Asian culture made her feel like a minority in American society and that she needed to represent all Asians. Her professor committed racist acts on her but her desire to represent for her culture way too high and she struggled with what to do.
Americans never feel the need to represent other Americans and take all pressure on themselves so this is a very unfamiliar concept. While it should enrich our lives and make us think about adopting their perspective our close mindedness will not allow that. If nothing else we do need to try and understand how other culture's feel when they are in our communities and help them feel more included so pressure can disappear. They deserve to live in the land of the free the same way we do!
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