Privilege

In American Studies, I spent a lot of time thinking about and analyzing white privilege, but these days I am thinking a lot more about American privilege. One obvious way that I have benefited from American privilege is the ease with which I got my visa to Ecuador (some of you know the actual process was quite complicated, but I was never very nervous that they wouldn't give it to me).

The last couple of weeks I have become aware of another American privilege: that is the privilege of rooting for my country's athletes in nearly every Olympic game I've watched. I feel a little silly for not noticing this earlier, but a lot of countries don't have the money to support their athletes in the games, and as a consequence have nearly no one to root for. Ecuador had five athletes, each of whom paid their own way to the Olympics. One woman was disqualified because she had very old equipment and her country couldn't buy her equipment up to current standards. Needless to say, I gained a much fuller understanding of the privilege permeating the Olympics.

That being said, I also witnessed a truly great Ecuadorian Olympic experience. I went to lunch with my host-sister Lucia (it was lovely to see her and catch up and we have plans to hang out again soon). We ate in a nice mall north of the Mariscal. There was a huge (we're talking giant, here) screen in the cafeteria area with the Olympics playing. At one point, we noticed that everyone in the cafeteria had turned their attention to the screen, and we stood up to see what was going on. An Ecuadorian runner, Quiñonez, from the coastal province Esmeraldas, was getting ready to race in a semi-final running heat. The gun went off and they were all running like crazy. The noise in the cafeteria started to grow; Quiñonez was gaining on the four runners ahead of him; he was passing the third runner; everyone was egging him on; he neared the finish line; the excitement in the cafeteria was tangible; and he crossed in third place! And the entire cafeteria exploded in whoops and cheers! Everyone was clapping and cheering on their feet, and continued to cheer during the replay and for the announcement of the times. It was truly an awesome feeling. I wished that he could have been in that cafeteria right then and know how much energy and faith he had behind him. It just shows how much people love to support their athletes and how much one runner can mean to a cafeteria full of strangers.