// ' * , ` ' . __________ almost PARADISE

Tuesday, September 04, 2018

"Neither time nor history are neutral. If we don't have eyes to see pain, we perpetuate the invisibility of the minority experience." p. 131 I'll never forget "American Beats Out Kwan," the MSNBC headline that covered underdog Tara Lipinski's gold medal figure skating performance in the 1998 Olympics. It happened. I was still wearing a Team USA jacket when it did. (Okay, I wasn't, I was 12 and wasn't allowed to spend $250 on a jacket. Especially with shipping? You're kidding.) I had just watched athletes not much older than I compete at the highest level representing their country of origin and mine, and to celebrate, a zealous editor let a zealous journalist (at 13 I had my own athletic dreams with the backup plan of pursuing sports journalism) run this headline. Kwan was crushed. I was crushed.

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