NOVEMBER 30, 2023
IN THIS ISSUE:
TOWN SQUARE — Disgust and frustration abound following an event featuring the Turkish ambassador to the U.S.
DANIEL PONS on the past, present and future of USC’s architecture
JIMMY AGUILAR on the future of ‘race-neutral’ college admissions policies
JASON PHAM on sustainable fashion
DAVID RENDON on the USC students creating a home through dance
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR — JASON PHAM
The American Dream took the form of CNN and stewpots in my family.
My most vivid memories from my childhood stem from my Vietnamese American father’s preferred news network, CNN. The news played louder than his cooking so my dad could hear the words clearly and practice his English along the way. So while preparing phở and bún bò huế, we spent our weekdays trying to grapple with American politics and understand CNN as an immigrant family.
On a cold December afternoon, the words the reporter was saying started sounding a little too familiar. “Clackamas Town Center,” “shooting,” “dead.” I could see the horror in my dad’s eyes. “What do they mean by this?” he asked me. “What word did they just say? Did you hear the reporter say what time it started?” I didn’t know either. I was 9.
Once I reached high school and I could better understand my surroundings, politics moved from the family room TV to the dining room table. There were fewer questions at this point; long tangents about Donald Trump and rising grocery prices filled the room instead as I slurped my soup broth on a typical school night. “There’s no way Trump can fund and build that wall all the way; he’s crazy,” my dad would say between his own mouthfuls of rice noodles.
I grew older and left for college. The news sessions with my dad became fewer. But he still kept his news habit, reading articles online and listening to broadcasts in his car on the way to work. Even though English wasn’t his first language, his determination for news shined through.
My dad utilized media as a tool, not only for learning about politics and current events, but also for learning, and connecting with, the very essentials of a language. CNN, for all its issues, was a space — one all immigrant families deserve — to assimilate into his surrounding community at his own pace, in the comfort of his own home. I’m sure he didn’t expect that to be his American experience when he moved here in 1986, but it helped nonetheless.
With this magazine, I hope to accomplish something of the same.