To The Editor,
In a not particularly subtle way, Morgan Cain's column last Friday suggests that Anna Kournikova is nothing but a pair of legs. First of all, as a Russian immigrant and an admitted Slavophile, I find the degradation of a comrade utterly offensive. Furthermore, it is laughable how badly Mr. Cain misses the proverbial point. Though I have never met Ms. Kournikova, all indicators suggest that she is a good person and a fine, fine human being. Mr. Cain chuckles at her apparent lack of tennis talent, but he forgets that she is only a teenager, and already has to contend with an NHL love-triangle, a grueling bra ad campaign and constant nagging from Playboy. One day the talent will come, and the name Anna Kournikova will be synonymous with Martina Navratilova, not Britney Spears, who would seem a more fitting object for Mr. Cain's praise.
Of course, the article portends a larger issue. Even though the Cold War is over, there is still a strong under-current of anti-Russian sentiment that has reared its head even at Dartmouth. Very often it takes an athletic tint, in jokes about Kournikova's alleged promiscuity, Oksana Baiul's propensity for the bottle, and of course, the dreaded Lake Placid hockey debacle of the1980 Olympics. Why can't we forget the mistakes our athletes make? I suspect that this humor will soon spread to other areas of Russian life, until we are simply swamped with hate. This, my friends, is only the begging. Let's stop the hate.
