What I learned from Kristi Yamaguchi (NYT)

[PRlady]

haven't even read it yet but I know it belongs here!

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/03/3...chi.html?_r=0&referer=https://t.co/0pXaXd3sMs

 

[missing]

Thank you PRlady for the link.

I just sent it to a half dozen friends.

 

[WanderlustTO]

Thanks for that. Fantastic article.

 

[skategal]

Thanks for posting this wonderful article. I plan to share this as well.

 

[Jessica]

Just chiming in to also say thanks. Kristi is such a good role model for U. S. figure skating and obviously for Asian Americans. She's always been my favorite.

 

[Loves_Shizuka]

Really nice article and Kristi is of course, fantastic. Being before my time, I don't know that much about her - but I thought she came over beautifully in her TSL interview. It's easy to see why she'd be such a role model.

Thanks @PRlady

 

[PRlady]

I always liked her, as a skater and a person. I never thought how important she must have been to young Asian girls. Must have been what (first Jewish Miss America) Bess Myerson was to my mom!

 

[Finnice]

Great article! I really liked Kristi's skating.

 

[VGThuy]

Loved this article. Kristi to her was what Michelle Kwan was/is for me.

 

[maureenfarone]

Thanks for the link. What a great article

 

[FunnyBut]

Wonderful article. Along the same lines, my friend and I used to joke how Michelle Kwan was such a huge upgrade from that embarassing Calgon Lady. Calgon...Ancient Chinese Sekret.

 

[VALuvsMKwan]

Wonderful article. Along the same lines, my friend and I used to joke how Michelle Kwan was such a huge upgrade from that embarassing Calgon Lady. Calgon...Ancient Chinese Sekret.

Actually, the Asian husband in the commercial was the one who intoned "Ancient Chinese Sekret". The Calgon Lady/his spouse in the commercial seemed quite straight-forward and non-stereotypical in comparison.

 

[MacMadame]

Kristi Yamaguchi is the reason I started taking skating lessons.

 

[dr.frog]

I have a great respect for Yamaguchi.... aside from her competitive achievements, she took her long professional career seriously, always showed up trained and prepared and wasn't just in it to take the money and run, she's always seemed very classy in terms of her off-ice persona, her charitable foundation seems likewise to be very well thought out, etc. I think it's unfortunate that the author of this article seemed focused entirely on Yamaguchi's racial background, which has nothing to do with the things that make her so deserving of respect. It's not like Yamaguchi could control who her parents were, after all -- and it's really all about *her* achievements and the choices *she* made.

 

[VGThuy]

I for one am thankful the author focused on it considering what it meant for her. I bet Yamaguchi and Kwan don't shy away from it either. Even the Shibs talked about how important it was for them to show Asian representation in ice dance and spread it to Asian-Americans and Asians (when they compete and tour in Asia) in the NBC Asian-America article published shortly after Nationals.

 

[oleada]

I have a great respect for Yamaguchi.... aside from her competitive achievements, she took her long professional career seriously, always showed up trained and prepared and wasn't just in it to take the money and run, she's always seemed very classy in terms of her off-ice persona, her charitable foundation seems likewise to be very well thought out, etc. I think it's unfortunate that the author of this article seemed focused entirely on Yamaguchi's racial background, which has nothing to do with the things that make her so deserving of respect. It's not like Yamaguchi could control who her parents were, after all -- and it's really all about *her* achievements and the choices *she* made.

I think you're missing the point. The author is an Asian American female who didn't have any positive role models who looked like her or who were depicted as the All-American girl until Kristi came along. Her ethnicity is very important for the author, and many others.

I know that it always means something to me when Latinos aren't the maid or migrant or gardener or laughing stock on TV, and I'm not a child.

 

[dr.frog]

But what does her ethnicity really have to do with why Yamaguchi is a good role model? If Yamaguchi were purple with green polka dots, would make that her any less of a good role model?

 

[VGThuy]

Sigh.

 

[Dobre]

It means the path she traveled was likely harder than many people can imagine. And even if it was not, it means that she was able to help others travel a path that would have been much harder to envision without her to blaze the trail. (And, I would add, Tiffany Chin before her). It is not all Kristi is, nor likely most of who she is, but a part of who she is. To be valued.

 

[rjblue]

But what does her ethnicity really have to do with why Yamaguchi is a good role model? If Yamaguchi were purple with green polka dots, would make that her any less of a good role model?

It would mean that somewhere a little girl with green freckles, who had never seen an athlete with green freckles on her TV before, would realise that it doesn't matter as much that the other kids make fun of her green freckles. If Kristi can do it, so can she.

 

[dr.frog]

And here I was thinking that the dream was that people should be judged by the content of their character instead of by the color of their skin....

 

[VGThuy]

Not everyone dreams of erasure. But I get why it's hard for you to see how other people's lives really have been shaped and continued to be shaped by race and ethnicity...and how that's not always a bad thing. From things we've seen in the news, it's still a big deal and we're not in some post-racial world.

 

[dr.frog]

Is racism something we should celebrate? Because that's what this is -- praising someone just because their skin is the "right" color.

 

[VGThuy]

I'm sure that's how you see it. What I see is invalidating an Asian woman's perspective for stating the very real fact that for most POCs, race and ethnicity have played huge roles in shaping their lives and will continue to, all because of some misplaced anger and insecurity. Many think assimilationist colorblindness does nothing but erase people's identities, as much as it might make you feel more comfortable if that were to happen.

 

[Prancer]

When I was growing up, I used to read biographies about women all the time. It wasn't that they were women; it was that they were women who DID things, and coming from a world in which women were wives and mothers and maybe worked as a teacher or a secretary, it made a difference to me. I found it inspiring. It made a difference to me. I think it made a difference to other little girls who grew up when I did.

I don't think that's sexist. Maybe it is and I don't see it. But if isn't sexist for a girl to find inspiration in a female role model, I don't know why it would be considered racist to be an Asian girl inspired by an Asian female skater.

 

[Tinami Amori]

Is racism something we should celebrate? Because that's what this is -- praising someone just because their skin is the "right" color.

I think this is, yet again, a misuse of the term "racism". Yamaguchi is my all time favorite US Lady Skater, and i am not Japanese. But if I was, not only i would still love her, i would be proud of her as a fellow Japanese. Did you miss the part where Armenian community is proud of Evgeniya Medvedeva? Nobody thought that was racist. I am proud of the Jews who succeed and lead interesting lives. Tarasova praises Ashley Wagner and all non-russian skaters who are trained by former Russian citizens. Many Blacks in USA voted for Obama only because he is Black. Mexican-Americans carry Mexican Flags to US ball-games and cheer for Mexican players and teams. One of the most popular commercial service now is DNA Testing to find one's ethnic identity... http://dna.ancestry.com/
There is even such programme on the very liberal PBS - http://www.pbs.org/weta/finding-your-roots/
What do you think it is for? for self-identity..
People do have ethnic identities and proud of their own kind. Melting Pot does not mean one looses ethnic or cultural identity, Melting Pot is like a lava-lamp, where you swim peacefully side by side in "your own circle".

 

[VALuvsMKwan]

Not everyone dreams of erasure. But I get why it's hard for you to see how other people's lives really have been shaped and continued to be shaped by race and ethnicity...and how that's not always a bad thing. From things we've seen in the news, it's still a big deal and we're not in some post-racial world.

Considering that Kristi Yamaguchi is one generation removed from people of her ethnicity (her own mother, among others) who were interned in concentration camps in the US (let's not pretty it up by calling her mother's experience anything but that), I doubt that the author of the article related to just Kristi's skin color/ethnicity, but the triumph over every disadvantage and hardship that people of that ethnicity have had to face in the US.

Dr L., I am really quite astonished at, and disappointed and confused by, your posts about this subject attributing racism to the author of the linked article.

 

[Aerobicidal]

I think you're missing the point. The author is an Asian American female who didn't have any positive role models who looked like her or who were depicted as the All-American girl until Kristi came along. Her ethnicity is very important for the author, and many others.

I know that it always means something to me when Latinos aren't the maid or migrant or gardener or laughing stock on TV, and I'm not a child.

I'm sure that's how you see it. What I see is invalidating an Asian woman's perspective for stating the very real fact that for most POCs, race and ethnicity have played huge roles in shaping their lives and will continue to, all because of some misplaced anger and insecurity. Many think assimilationist colorblindness does nothing but erase people's identities, as much as it might make you feel more comfortable if that were to happen.

You both rock. I was going to write a similar post from my own perspective, but you've said it all.

 

[dr.frog]

My understanding is that Yamaguchi's upbringing was considerably more privileged than my own. I don't recall that her parents were enormously wealthy (wasn't her dad a dentist?), but they were obviously both supportive of her goals and well-off enough to make it possible for her to pursue them. As if having their own daughter competing at a high level in a very expensive sport wasn't enough, IIRC they were also picking up at least some of Rudy Galindo's expenses and acting as his surrogate family when they were skating pairs together. In any case, she hardly had to overcome "disadvantage and hardship" herself to get to the Olympics, the way (say) Tonya Harding did with her horrific family situation.

I also remember back in the mid-90s when some people were complaining that Yamaguchi was suffering "disadvantage and hardship" due to her race because she didn't get endorsement deals after she won the Olympics. In fact, she had a long list of endorsements at that time; she did a milk ad, she had a fashion deal, she endorsed contact lenses, she was a spokesperson for Mervyn's, she did a Wendy's ad, promoted frozen dinners, etc. The race card seemed to be something people were just using because they knew it was a hot button that would stir others up, not something that was real. (FWIW, my recollection is also that Yamaguchi didn't even have an agent who was shopping her around at the time of the Olympics and that she said in interviews at the time that she was deliberately being selective about pursuing such commercial opportunities anyway.)

Certainly what happened to Yamaguchi's grandparents was a shameful episode in American history. But I still maintain that gushing over someone as a role model simply because their skin is the "right" color is as racist and offensive as putting them in concentration camps and confiscating their property because their skin is the "wrong" color. And praising someone just because her grandparents were in a concentration camp seems completely muddled to me. There are so many *other*, more legitimate things for which Yamaguchi deserves praise -- her work ethic, professionalism, etc. That doesn't mean that I want to erase Yamaguchi's ethnic heritage.... it just seems totally irrelevant to her own achievements. They'd be just as admirable in a person of any other color, including purple with green polka dots.

 

[skatfan]

I think the point is the value of seeing someone like yourself make it. If folks cannot appreciate that skating is a VERY white sport and seeing someone of a different color achieve so much is significant to a minority little girl, gosh, can't help you.

Just because someone had some privileges that other white folks didn't doesn't mean there weren't barriers to overcome. To assume there were none is naive.

BTW PBS is showing the Jackie Robinson bio this week. Guess that didn't matter either.