Currents Magazine Fall 2021: Global Citizenship

CURRENTS Global Citizenship FALL 2021

Is It Worth It?: Faith and National Identity

Examining the United States’ Complicated Past with War and State-Building pg. 46

pg. 18

VOL. CXVII

Contents 06 08 11 12 13 16 18 22 23 24

Infographic:

Statistics of Pepperdine and Beyond

What is Global Citizenship?

Infographic: Interconnected

Zachary Luben Elevates Adoptee Voices Global Opportunities After Graduation Poem: X Is For

Faith and National Identity Singer-Songwriter Leilani Frailich Makes Multilingual Music Recipe:

Chicken Fried Rice

Love Knows No Bounds

27 28 30 34 39 40 43 46 52 53 54 55

Nicole Wong’s Blossoming Cultural Confidence Photo Spread:

Clothing Across Cultures

Serving or Saving:

What factors drive service to others

How One Delicious Salad Can Create Global Citizens Diana Martinez Emphasizes Global Interconnection Vietnamese Refugees’ View on the American Dream The Power Behind A Name “Is it Worth It?”: Examining the United States’

Complicated Past with War and State-Building

“The Oath Never Stops”: A Marine’s Heart for Service

Poem:

The Perfect Angle

Professor Anastasia Triviza Adjusts to Life in LA Infographic:

Grow Your Global Perspective

Letter from the Editor

I

t was in my ninth grade English class that I first learned about Elie Wiesel. A Holocaust survivor and Jewish prisoner of the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps, Wiesel recounts his World War II experiences in his memoir “Night” — the book that made its way into the hands of a young Annabelle and 20 other 14-yearold Robinson High students in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Deeply moved by his story, when it came time to write a re-

port on one of “American Rhetoric’s Top 100 Speeches” later in the year, I chose Wiesel’s speech, “The Perils of Indifference.” In it, he speaks words that took root in my heart and have steadily grown in importance to me.

“Indifference elicits no response,” Wiesel said. “Indifference is not a response. […] The political prisoner in his cell, the hungry children, the homeless refugees — not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope is to exile them from human memory.

And in denying their humanity, we betray our own.”

Though I didn’t fully understand the gravity of his words at the time, I felt them. I imagined a 17-year-old boy left fatherless and motherless in the wake of one of the largest atrocities against mankind. He needed assurance, a promise that this would never happen again. He needed the world to listen. And at 71, as he delivered his speech against indifference to a crowd of American policymakers, he called for the same thing — a commitment to do better.

I firmly believe a commitment to global citizenship is a denouncement of indifference. It is a commitment to wrestle — to learn, empathize and act on the behalf of a global community made up of people we may never meet but with whom we share a human experience.

Of course, that opens up an endless stream of questions. What does global citizenship look like in practice? As you’ll read within these pages, service is complicated and foreign intervention is messy. Gauging what is helpful or harmful in the international community is subjective — it varies in the eye of over a billion beholders.

And how does one commit to shouldering the emotional weight of the entire globe? It feels like too much in the context of our daily lives, when there is so much work to do at home.

Yet global citizenship calls us to empathize and combat our own indifference to world crises. It calls us to cultivate a curiosity for the things that matter to others.

It calls us to genuinely desire connection and to learn about experiences outside of our own.

My wish is that throughout this magazine, you discover that global citizenship is not just collective grief, but appreciation for a world we may never understand but hope to. It is an intentional discovery of the communities and unique cultures in our backyard.

As you read through this edition — a collection of recipes and poetry, snapshots of human experiences, critical looks at global interactions and celebrations of cultural history — I hope you open your heart to learn and grow.

And perhaps this can be your first step in discovering what global citizenship means to you.

Editor-in-chief

Staff Contributors

Emily Morton Assistant Editor

Marley Penagos Assistant Editor

Ali Levens

Creative Director

Megan Williams

Photo Editor

Adviser Christina Littlefield, Journalism and Religion Professor

Contributors

Lydia duPerier

Production Assistant I

Jessica Wang

Production Assistant II

Sofia Longo

Production Assistant II

Whitney Powell Design Assistant

Samantha Torre

Production Assistant II

Aaron Yang

Design Assistant

Photos by Megan Williams | Back cover by Aaron Yang

Joe Allgood Melissa Auchard Sarah Best Ryan Bough Stephanie Chan Beth Gonzales Yamillah Hurtado Jeremiah Jones Claire Lee Josh Leow Anezka Liskova Hattie Pace Lexington Russell Emily Shaw Abby Wilt Addison Whiten With special thanks to Broad Street Oyster Company and Joules and Watts

Statistics of Peppe Countries of origin for international students China: 43% Indonesia: 7% Brazil: 5% Republic of Korea: 3% Hong Kong: 3% India: 3% Russian Federation: 2% Peru: 2%

World sex Male: 50.4% Female: 49.6% United States sex Female: 50.8% Male: 49.2% Pepperdine sex Female: 64.0% Male: 36.0%

United States ethnicity White: 60.1% | Hispanic: 18.5% Black: 12.2% | Asian: 5.6% Multiple races: 2.8% American Indian/Alaskan Native: 0.7% | Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander: 0.2%

Sources: Pepperdine Office of Admissions, Pepperdine Office of Institutional Effectiveness, U.S. Census Bureau, The KFF, World Bank, Pew Research Center, The Washington Post

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Pepperdine ethnicity White/Caucasian: 42.1% Latinx/Hispanic: 17.7% Black/African American: 8.7% Asian/Asian American: 10.4% Multi-racial/ethnic: 4.8% Native American/Alaska Native: 0.26% Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander: 0.45% International student: 9.6% Unknown: 6.0%

Most spoken worldwide languages Chinese (all dialects): 1.39 billion Hindu-Urdu: 588 million English: 527 million Arabic: 467 million Spanish: 398 million Russian: 254 million Bengali: 250 million Portuguese: 193 million German: 132 million Japanese: 123 million French: 118 million Italian: 67 million

erdine and Beyond

research by Melissa Auchard art by Aaron Yang

, Worldwide population: 7.7 billion

United States population: 332.9 million Pepperdine enrollment: 10,446 Seaver College enrollment: 3,708

World religion Christian: 2.3 billion Muslim: 1.8 billion Unaffiliated: 1.2 billion Hindu: 1.1 billion Buddhist: 500 million Folk: 400 million Other: 100 million Jewish: 10 million United States median household income: $62,843 Worldwide average annual income: $9,447

United States religion Christian: 70.6% Unaffiliated: 34% Jewish: 1.9% Muslim: 0.9% Buddhist: 0.7% Hindu: 0.7% Pepperdine religion Christian: 71% Unaffiliated: 18% Jewish: 3% Muslim: 2% Hindu: 1% Buddhist: 1%

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What is Global Citizenship?

The idea of global citizenship may be a hard concept to comprehend with so many people living in the world. Pepperdine faculty, staff and students share their thoughts on what it means to be a global citizen.

Stamp-filled passports lay open. Much like a passport, the journey toward global citizenship is like collecting stamps — gathering diverse perspectives in the pursuit of a holistic worldview.

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1500-1200 B.C.

604 B.C.

Hindu sacred scripture, the Vedas developed Source: World Digital Library

Lao-Tzu (Laozi), founder of Daoism, was born

by Abby Wilt ­­ photo by Megan Williams

T

he globe has 195 countries, 19,495 cities and 7.753 billion people.

With a world population that large, global citizenship may be a hard concept to comprehend.

However, those who take on the charge of global citizenship understand the importance of stepping out of their comfort zones and getting to know other cultures and nationalities. To them, the goal is to expand their horizons and gain empathy for others.

“To be a global citizen, you need to be able to both appreciate diversity, be curious about it, and then be willing to use that appreciation to work together for some common goals that we share as humans on a shared planet,” said Brian Swarts, director of Pepperdine’s Washington, D.C., program.

Defining global citizenship Blake Farley, Pepperdine Global Fellow and senior Religion major, said he believes global citizenship means being a part of a bigger and more diverse culture than the one he lives in. Farley practices global citizenship by traveling to other countries and serving people in other cultures.

“Being a global citizen means that I belong in a community with more people

than I even know,” Farley said.

“And more people than I’m even familiar with, and people who do see the world very differently than me. I think that [it’s] an exciting opportunity to be a global citizen.”

Pepperdine community members characterized global citizenship as the skill of interacting with diverse cultures and remaining cognizant of current events globally.

Swarts said global citizenship is the idea that everyone plays a part in the country they inhabit, and everyone has the responsibility to contribute to their communities and the communities they may not typically interact with.

“Global citizenship, in my mind, is about people who are committed to cross-cultural engagement and understanding,” Swarts said. “It is about a commitment to shared goals in common and the common good.”

It is easy for people to get set in what they know and forget that there are people who live differently than them, Swarts said. To him, a part of global citizenship is engaging with different cultures instead of being set in one circle of people.

“From a white American perspective, or from any dominant group, when you’re not engaged with people that are different from you then they almost don’t exist in your world,” Swarts said.

Sophomore International

Studies major Izzy Lindstrom agreed and said global citizenship means embracing authenticity and appreciation for other nationalities to avoid ethnocentrism — the concept of putting one’s own culture above other’s cultures. Lindstrom practices good global citizenship by getting to know people from other cultures and learning about their beliefs and opinions without judgment.

“It’s just having respect for other cultures and understanding that what’s normal to us may not be normal to another culture,” Lindstrom said.

The head, the heart and the hand International Programs Dean Beth Laux said being a good global citizen comes in three parts — the head, the heart and the hand.

The head of global citizenship is being knowledgeable about different cultural traditions and history, as well as having familiarity with global trends. The second is the heart, which is having a global worldview and being open-minded to learn about new cultures and new perspectives. The third is the hand — the behavior-driven aspect of global citizenship.

Laux said the hand causes people to gain global competence across cultures and learn adaptability, situational awareness and problem-solving skills.

500 B.C.

500 B.C.

Siddhartha Gautama, founderof Buddhism, was born

Founding of the caste system in India

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“Just engaging with people who are very different [from] oneself is a way to start building those skills and those capacities,” Laux said.

Swarts said being a responsible global citizen starts with people knowing themselves and understanding their own culture and identity, so they can share that with others and get to know them better.

“Each of us has a story and a role to play within global citizenship,” Swarts said. “What that looks like and figuring out what that is is unique to each of us.”

Engaging with other people who have different beliefs is also a vital aspect of being a good citizen, Swarts said.

“That can be as extreme as somebody who’s from a completely different religion, or a different part of the world like let’s say, a refugee, or an immigrant, somebody who’s like an international student,” Swarts said. “To something as simple as somebody who came from a different part of the country.”

World citizenship in practice: The Global Fellows program Farley studied abroad in Lausanne, Switzerland, and Washington, D.C., with the Global Fellows program, whose mission is to equip and empower a community of purpose-driven, global leaders to be agents of change through integrated professional development, intercultural learning and academic excellence.

All students participating in

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the Global Fellows program are required to spend one year overseas and one semester in Washington, D.C. They are also required to enroll in 22-23 units of courses revolving around global citizenship and foreign languages. “[The] Global Fellows program itself is for students who want to take really a step further in the abroad experience and learn what it means to be a global citizen,” Farley said.

Global Fellows trains individuals about global citizenship and how to be responsible citizens living in America, Farley said.

“I’ve certainly learned how to more critically see things like the news,” Farley said. “And the way some organizations step out and look for ways to help in certain global issues or just in certain communities.”

Laux currently oversees the Global Fellows program and said it is a great way for Pepperdine community members to learn valuable global citizenship skills. ​​“It helps them [Global Fellows] create and lead and communicate effectively across cultures, which is key to being change makers in today’s society,” Laux said. “It’s just an opportunity to collaborate and construct a future that we all can work toward with other communities.”

Practing global from home

citizenship

While individuals can learn to be a global citizen through larger experiences like traveling and studying abroad, there are also

ways people can expand their horizons and be good global citizens from their homes.

Farley recommended people talk with as many people as they can, stay educated on current world issues and look for ways to serve in their communities.

Lindstrom also said the best way to be a good global citizen is to stay educated on what is going on in the world, and do as much research as people can on different nationalities and cultures.

“If you want to appreciate a culture and have respect for it, you got to know what’s going on,” Lindstrom said.

Another vital step to being a good global citizen is to change the focus from oneself and one’s own country to other people and their countries, Swarts said.

“Listen to what people are saying, not just about us, but about themselves,” Swarts said. “Letting other people define themselves rather than going off of definitions that maybe we’ve gotten in school or definitions that we got from popular culture.”

In addition, Lindstrom said it’s important to recognize that while being a global citizen may push individuals out of their comfort zones, it also expands people’s horizons and informs individuals on how people from diverse cultures live.

“We have a responsibility to understand what the impact of our actions and our choices is,” Laux said. “And to make sure that we are thinking through all of the different variables that impact communities worldwide.”

334-323 B.C.

4 B.C.

Alexander the Great conquered Greece to Western India

The birth of Jesus of Nazareth

Interconnected Exploring the global supply chain and tracing where everyday products originate.

research by Lydia duPerier photo by Megan Williams modeled by Antonia Miller

Thrifted white button down shirt is made in Vietnam.

MacBook and iPhones are designed in California and manufactured in China.

Pilot G-2 Pens are manufactured in Japan, France and the United States.

Five Star Mead Notebooks are sourced and manufactured in the United States.

Japanese company Honda manufactures vehicles and accessories in the United States.

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Zachary Luben Elevates Adoptee Voices

by Lexington Russell photo by Megan Williams

E

12

veryone has a story.

Whether it’s untold or brought up in most conversations, a person’s story is unique and speaks to the ways the world has shaped them.

This philosophy inspires Pepperdine Associate Chaplain Zachary Luben’s life, as he is one of thousands of Korean-Americans adopted shortly after the Korean War into a transracial family. Luben aims to shed light on his experience with adoption, something he still wrestles with today.

“My story is my story,” said Luben, who oversees partnerships for the Pepperdine Hub for Spiritual Life and adjuncts as a religion professor. “There are some commonalities, but our experiences and the way we react to them are very different.”

Luben did not foster an intense interest in Korean culture until the middle of high school, when he became more aware of his identity as a Korean-American adoptee. Luben said it was then that he received comments that he “did not look Korean enough,” enforcing the idea that as an adoptee he lives in a liminal space, that is, he is stuck between identities.

Interactions like this continued through graduate school, where Luben experienced blatant racism tied to the fact that he was in an interracial marriage. Soon after his wife got pregnant, Luben said he

made it a point to develop values, attitudes and belief systems for his son Judah to live out, taking into account these unfortunate realities that oftentimes shaped his story.

Luben began to form this understanding when former Pepperdine Communication Professor Bert Ballard, an adoptee from Vietnam, introduced Luben to a book titled “Invisible Asians.” Luben said the book enhanced his knowledge of the ways Korean-American adoptees’ are portrayed as racially invisible. Since then, Luben has read eight books in the last 16 months on Korean adoption politics and history.

“I think it is important to learn the history of transracial and transnational adoption and the way that it shapes the story,” Luben said.

After the Korean War, there were large numbers of children who needed to be adopted. Luben said he believes Americans adopted Korean children for the moral high ground.

“If you examine the newspa-

pers in the social and historical context during the Korean War,” Luben said, “I think some have argued, convincingly so, that what you have is an impulse in middle-class America to fight communism through the adoption of babies to establish a democracy as a means of winning the ideological war, despite it being a stalemate militarily, at best.”

Luben said a large part of the adoptee experience is recognizing these realities.

In addition to learning through reading, Luben connects with the adoptee community through various channels: Instagram, Facebook and podcasts. In these communities, Luben said he doesn’t have to walk into a space carrying the burden of explaining his experiences.

Luben said his belief system regarding transracial and transnational adoption has been stretched and strengthened as he actively participates in conversations within the community to educate, engage and embrace the realities that adoptees face.

Global Opportunities After Graduation

by Samantha Torre

I

t’s a question that lurks in every college student’s mind.

What to do after college?

For some students, the answer is easy: Go abroad.

The decision to go abroad is the product of planning and conversations with advisers and professors. Students who go abroad take part in graduate school, research fellowships and organizations such as the Peace Corps, while expanding their view of the world around them.

“If you’re scared about being alone by yourself, like being alone or in a new place, you’ll make friends pretty quickly and it’ll be OK,” 2021 Creative Writing graduate Mary Buffaloe said. “Because in the end, if you actually care about what you’re doing it doesn’t really matter where you are.”

Pepperdine alumni pursue graduate school abroad

Pepperdine alumni tell stories of attending graduate school and conducting research abroad while a current student shares her hopes of joining the Peace Corps. Alumni said graduate school and research abroad is difficult, but ultimately worth it.

2020 alumna Milan Loiacono glances back at the camera while walking down a corridor in Vienna, Austria. Photo courtesy of Milan Loiacono

Buffaloe currently studies at the University of Lincoln in England, pursuing their master’s in Gender Studies.

During their senior year at Pepperdine, Buffaloe said they applied to multiple schools in the United Kingdom.

“I really wanted a new perspective, specifically on femi-

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58

The Death and Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth

Buddhism was introduced in China

13

nism,” Buffaloe said. “I had gotten quite a bit of feminism in the U.S., and I wanted a more international approach to it and I thought that going to the UK would just be a really great opportunity to broaden my horizons and also just to see a new place.”

Buffaloe said the University of Lincoln had a similar application process to American schools, requiring applicants to write essays on why they wanted to attend Lincoln and propose possible dissertation topics.

In their classes, Buffaloe said they enjoyed being able to see a new perspective on gender studies. Their Pepperdine professors in gender studies prepared them to have discussions and gave them the background necessary to inform peers about subjects such as women’s issues in the United States.

“It’s really interesting to see another kind of power and how they take on different issues and how they perceive their own fallbacks as a society,” Buffaloe said. “It’s just fascinating to me.”

Buffaloe said they recommend attending graduate school abroad to gain new perspectives and to cut costs.

Milan Loiacono, former editor-in-chief of Currents and 2020 Seaver graduate in Italian and Intercultural Communication, is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Linguistics at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.

Going abroad after graduation was always a possibility, Loiacono said, but it was not part of her original plan. During her postponed graduation in 2021, Loiacono reconnected with two of her profes-

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sors who encouraged her to look into international graduate school and mentioned the lower cost.

“I just love that feeling of being surrounded by history and kind of having a very rooted sense of place,” Loiacono said. “I remember writing in my abroad journal.

I looked back at it this year, but I wrote like ‘Wow, that was so cool I wish I could go to school there,’ but I had no concept in my head at the time of going to grad school.”

Loiacono said applying to graduate school was somewhat unfamiliar because she had only applied to undergraduate schools in the U.S., where she had some understanding about college expectations. Unlike when she studied abroad in Florence, Loiacono did not come in with the expectation of traveling every weekend.

“When I showed up for the masters, I kind of came in with the expectation of ‘I’m going to study, I’m not here to study abroad,’” Loiacono said. “I just happened to be an international student that is studying in Dublin. It was like a normal school year just in a new country.”

Loiacono said going to grad school abroad is a good way to look at the world in a non-American perspective.

“I think it’s a fantastic experience and definitely worth it,” Loiacono said.

Graduate students research abroad

conduct

Juan Carlos Hugues, a 2021 alumnus who majored in Religion and Psychology, is currently in the French part of Switzerland at the University of Lausanne,

researching LGBTQ+ community member’s Christian experiences.

He had previously looked at the topic with Pepperdine Psychology Professor Steven Rouse, and hopes he can apply his research to other countries.

Switzerland recently passed legislation on marriage equality, Hugues said, and the French Protestant Reformation played a large part in Swiss history, making Switzerland a suitable country to study.

“It seems like a timely project to see the experience of LGBTQ+ people, specifically LGBTQ+ Christians,” Hugues said.

Hugues said he applied for the Fulbright Scholarship in 2020, but did not receive the grant. The Fulbright program has thousands of slots open to research hopefuls.

However, he was able to receive a Swiss research scholarship. The scholarship provides funding for three months, and Hughes is using his savings to stay in Switzerland for the year.

Hugues said he attended Pepperdine’s Lausanne internship program in Switzerland two years ago.

“I really loved it,” Hugues said.

“I fell in love with the chocolate, the mountain, the people. It called me a lot, even after I had left, and so I thought ‘This is something I wanted to do after college,’ but it really solidified last year.”

Hugues said he loves the French-speaking part of Switzerland.

“So really this program is an embodiment of all that I love, which is French psychology, LGBTQ+ topics, Christianity research,” Hugues said. “And Pepperdine truly did ex-

395

570

The Western Roman Empire falls

Rise of Muhammad

2021 alumnus Juan Carlos Hugues hikes in Mürren near Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland.

Hugues researches LGBTQ+ community experiences at the University of Lausanne in the French part of Switzerland.

Photo courtesy of Juan Carlos Hugues pose me to a lot of it.”

Dana Dudley, assistant dean of Special Graduate and Special Academic Programs, said she advertises abroad fellowships to students and helps them through the application process. There are many different fellowships, all with their unique application requirements.

The largest group Dudley works with are Fulbright applicants, which consists of 25 to 30 students per year. Smaller programs Dudley works with usually have around 10 applicants per year.

After coaching students toward the fellowships that best meet their interests, Dudley said she encourages them to do research on their own. Dudley is also there to offer help to students who are struggling or have questions. For most students, the essays are the most challenging portions.

“They need to really understand that fellowship and what type of candidate they’re looking for, and make sure that they are that kind of candidate and then be able to talk about that in their essays,” Dudley said.

Fulbright does not list a GPA requirement, Dudley said.

Where the Rhodes fellowship, an award for graduate students

to study at Oxford, looks for high academic performance, Fulbright looks more for involved students.

“They’re looking and saying ‘How much does this person line up with the type of candidate that we’re looking for,’ and every fellowship would have a candidate profile so there would be information there,” Dudley said. “’This is the type of student that we’re looking for.’”

Student applies to the Peace Corps Senior Psychology major Michaela Gromer said she recently applied to the Peace Corps, an international service organization with the hope to begin work in summer 2022, shortly after graduation.

The Peace Corps accepts one in three applicants per year, an acceptance rate similar to Seaver College, according to MV Organizing. Peace Corps volunteers work in specialized groups alongside the international community.

In her junior year, Gromer said she began looking at the Peace Corps after attending a virtual fair at Pepperdine. She was drawn to the benefits of the Peace Corps,

which include a two-year paid job, a $10,000 stipend and the potential for the Corps to pay for graduate school.

“I was also interested in taking some gap years because I’m tired of learning, it’s been a long four years,” Gromer said. “So I was like ‘OK, this feels good. Two years would be perfect before grad school.’”

Gromer said she filled out an application for the Youth and Development sector because it relates to her Psychology major and her experience working with children.

“Anytime I work with children, I feel like that’s where I’m most fulfilled and that’s where I’m like ‘Oh yeah, this is the way to make things better,’” Gromer said.

Gromer said she was comfortable with the Peace Corp’s mission of being a small piece in a larger whole.

“It’s overwhelming anytime being immersed in a different culture, immersed in a different language, it’s challenging,” Gromer said. “It’s something that I’ve been mostly focusing on the good, like ‘Oh, this would be amazing,’ but it’s definitely important to acknowledge that.”

800

1088

Pope crowned Charlemagne Holy Roman Emperor

The first university was established in Bologna, Italy

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X Is For There are certain words in my vocabulary today that wouldn’t have existed a year ago.

COVID-19, a global pandemic, mask mandates.

County lockdown, city curfews, closed borders, purple tier, red tier, orange tier.

Gen Zers using humor as a coping mechanism through TikTok, calling it a parallelogram, pandemonium, panoramic.

Certain phrases that have become more apparent in our everyday vocabulary.

Black Lives Matter, ACAB, “Say their names,” defund the police.

Stop Asian Hate, xenophobia, “the Chinese virus,” “kung flu.”

The fetishization of young Asian women is not a compliment; it is terrifying.

We’re living in a world where Black and Asian people are targeted for the color of their skin, and the generalized implications that come with it.

Where “good stereotypes” don’t outshine the truth that news coverage refuses to air.

Where our personal voices are silenced because we are told to fear hurting the feelings of the majority demographic.

But how can we care about your feelings when it doesn’t seem as though you care about our lives?

And you’ve created this “model minority myth” that may or may not ring true for some, but our lives are not an ongoing game of Oppression Olympics.

We are the minority and we are done living in fear.

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I don’t want you to look at me when the news says “Asian women,” as if I am the only one who has something to say.

I need you to back me up on this, I need you to say something first, prove to me that you are an ally and that I have your support, because my response will always come out of anger, and I don’t have the time or energy to worry about offending you.

by Stephanie Chan art by Whitney Powell I cannot imagine the pain of losing your life to a bullet, but I can imagine the scars racism leaves in your mind.

I still remember the shock I felt when I learned that the term “corrective makeup” in theatre was meant to transform my small Asian eyes into having double lids, because I would only look human on stage if there was a dark black line drawn over the top of my eyelid.

I remember the confusion I felt when, on Chinese New Year, a white male museum security guard walked past me and whispered in my ear, “xin nian kuai le,” and once I registered what he had said and abruptly turned around, he was staring at my body, smirking with delight.

I remember the anger I felt when, walking by a micupped street performer, he made a point to stop his act, turn toward me, bow with his hands in a prayer position, and mumble Japanese slurs at me.

I remember the bystanders laughing — some confused, some ignorant.

I remember the discomfort I felt when crossing international borders and listening to the questions I would have to answer regarding contact with any possible diseases. I remember being the only Asian in a group of white people, and hearing border patrol ask my friends if they had ever had a case of “yellow fever.” They never asked me, never asked anyone before or after us.

I remember being told, “that’s not a microaggression.”

“They’re just doing their job.”

“I don’t think they meant it in a derogatory manner.”

I remember getting gaslighted over and over again to the point where all my feelings have become internalized and I am numb to the words that are meant to inflict pain upon my people.

I remember forgetting that I am a victim of racism, because I have been conditioned to brush it off and forget about it.

But I think it’s time to stop remembering the life I am currently living.

It’s time to start taking up space, time to start verbalizing our assaults, and not let fear dictate our actions.

Yes, we could “kill them with kindness,” but no, we cannot let them continue gaining access to the group of people they oppress while continuously getting let off the hook because the color of skin they possess equates to success.

In the same country we are fighting to express our offenses, Their transgressions need to be accounted for, so that we may begin to make progress.

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S

Religion has played arguably one of the most influential roles in U.S. history and continues to impact American life. The question of how faith and national identity should interact is a longstanding and sometimes controversial issue.

Faith and National Identity

by Joe Allgood photo by Megan Williams

An American flag cradles a Bible, symbolizing the relationship between national identity and religion.

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ome 401 years ago, a group of Puritans landed in America seeking religious freedom.

And 234 years ago, the Founding Fathers created a government that protected religious expression. Today, religious symbols abound, from presidents swearing in on a Bible to “In God We Trust” on U.S. currency.

For the entirety of the country’s existence, religion, specifically Christianity, has played in the wings of its history. The role that religion should play in the U.S. has long been contested. While 54% of the nation supports the separation of church and state, 15% believe the federal government should declare the U.S. a Christian nation, according to a March 2021 Pew Research Center survey of more than 12,000 U.S. adults nationwide. That number rises to 35% among white evangelicals.

During the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, the Associated Press reported that symbols of Christian fervor were on full display, from signs exhibiting Christian messages to rioters leading prayers in the evacuated Senate Chamber.

This violent and public collision of politics and religion sparked debate for Christians on where the line lies between a healthy patriotism and a harmful nationalism.

“Christian nationalism, in many ways, sets up the state as the handmaiden of Christianity,” said Richard

1095

1215

The First Crusade started

Magna Carta was signed

Hughes, former Pepperdine church historian and scholar-in-residence at the Center for Christianity and Scholarship at Lipscomb University. “Or in some instances, perhaps even sets up the state as higher than Christianity.”

Patriot or nationalist?

Many Americans honor the men who founded the U.S. as patriots.

Americans also honor veterans who laid their lives on the line to protect the country, and every July 4, communities across the nation are gripped with patriotic pride.

Now replace the word patriot with “nationalist.” How does that change what’s being said?

Whatever connotation one associates with nationalist, it’s probably different than what one thinks when one hears patriot. In the Merriam-Webster and Oxford dictionaries, patriotism and nationalism have two distinct meanings.

Most commonly the distinction is that while patriotism is a love for one’s country, nationalism is extreme support for one’s country that comes at the exclusion or detriment of other nations.

But people don’t think in dictionary definitions, and personal definitions cover a wide range.

“Patriotism is, I would think, simply love of country,” Hughes said. “Nationalism is certainly love of country but it’s more than that.

Maybe even just a totally and uncritical allegiance to country.”

Other experts in the field differ on their view of the two ideologies.

“Basically, patriotism is a nice synonym for nationalism,” said Joel Fetzer, distinguished professor of Political Science at Pepperdine.

“I think it’s basically people who

are nationalist, who want to feel good about themselves. They say they’re patriots, but it’s the same thing. It’s basically worship of the state.”

For many students and Americans in general, the distinction between patriotism and nationalism can be challenging, but most noted that there is a distinction.

“Patriotism is actually quite the opposite of nationalism,” said Adian Imbrogno-Mastin, a junior Philosophy and Political Science double major and vice president of the Pepperdine College Democrats. “Patriotism is the ability to contribute to the betterment of society, within your given national context. Whereas nationalism, I feel that there’s a negative connotation to it. Nationalism seeks to promote superiority.”

Still others see the two as almost interchangeable.

“To me they’re almost synonyms,” said Jacob Vanderley, a sophomore Accounting major.

“Nationalism is really just having pride for your country. I guess patriotism you could say is doing what’s right for your country.”

While patriotism and nationalism may be challenging to define for each person, they certainly don’t exist in a vacuum. The interaction between Christianity and American national identity has a long history, one that impacts the nation to this day.

“If you said ‘What’s the difference between patriotism and Christian nationalism,’” Hughes said. “That’s a huge difference.”

History of American Christianity Since the arrival of colonists, the American church has seen waves

of religious zeal, great awakenings and revivals.

“Christian nationalism has a long, long history. It really began even before the Puritans came to these shores,” Hughes said. “Christian nationalism was originally a kind of English Christian nationalism and the Puritans brought it with them, and then transferred, so ‘England is God’s chosen people’ then became ‘the colonies are God’s chosen people.’”

Christianity continued to develop and adapt to American democratic mores through the 18th and 19th centuries. Pepperdine’s own tradition, the Churches of Christ, has roots in the early 1800s during the Second Great Awakening. Americans continued to remain majority Christian, elevating Christian ideals.

“Up until the 1960s, many Christians and many Americans, Christian or not, just sort of assumed that America was some kind of a Christian nation,” Hughes said.

“But then the 1960s came, and everything got derailed, the countercultural, the sexual revolution, the drug revolution, civil rights.

Christian nationalism, for all those years, and this is really important to say, was a white Christian nationalism.”

Hughes believes that the connection between race and Christianity in America is incredibly important, and that the U.S.’s history of slavery ultimately prevents it from being a Christian nation.

Fetzer corroborated this belief.

“Now, many of the slaves considered themselves Christians, and I would argue were Christians,” Fetzer said. “But they were not recognized as such by the people that were writing the Constitution,

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1492

Marco Polo started his journey to China

Columbus began his first voyage

19

running the government and so on, who were overwhelmingly, especially in the South, slaveholders.”

So American Christianity developed in front of the backdrop of slavery. While many Christians were enslavers, many Christians were also abolitionists, and later involved in the fight for civil rights.

Hughes believes that the 1960s, including the Civil Rights Movement, were a cultural turning point for the U.S., especially for the American church.

“In the aftermath of the 1960s, a lot of Christian evangelical fundamentalists launched a major movement to reclaim America as a Christian nation,” Hughes said.

This movement included Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority, and Pat Robertson and Ralph Reed’s Christian Coalition.

One of the goals of the movement was to “try their best to elect Christians to every office in the country from the president of the United States down to the local mayor,” Hughes said.

The Moral Majority folded in 1989, but Falwell, Robertson and Reed continued to be outspoken figures and other grassroots efforts continued, Hughes said. Church leaders still promote political campaigns. Almost a third of Americans believed that the outcome of the 2016 presidential election was God’s will, according to a 2020 Pew article. The amount of white evangelicals that voted for Trump increased from 77% in 2016 to 84% in 2020, according to a 2021 Pew Research Center article.

A question of idolatry Displays of Christianity within political contexts are prevalent in

20

America. Hughes pointed to an image of a billboard he came across, which a Tennessee pastor first photographed outside Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. The billboard features an image of former President Donald Trump and says “Unto us a son is given and the government shall be on his shoulders.”

In examples like these, Christians grapple with the issue of idolatry.

“I wouldn’t say it’s absolute idolatry,” Imbrogno-Mastin said.

“I do think they idolize this figure, and were using this as a way to advertise their ideology or their particular beliefs, but this is disruptive.”

Vanderley also believes that Christian images within politics can come across as disingenuous.

“When they use Christian imagery, I think all they’re trying to do is, they’re trying to appeal to a very specific identity, almost identity politics, which I’m not a fan of,” Vanderley said.

Whether it is this specific example or any other situation, Eric Wilson, preaching minister at the University Church of Christ, described idolatry as placing other things equal to God or above God. While the extremism displayed in this image and at the Capitol riots may be startling for some, they’re nothing new.

“I think that’s something we forget is religious extremism exists in all religions, and in all countries,” said Joseph Heinemann, a sophomore History major and Jewish American. “And we kind of tend to pigeonhole it into various different stereotypes. When in reality, religion has always been used to push politics in every country and within every religion.”

Striking the balance There are certain values associated with being American, like the pursuit of happiness. Similarly, there are values associated with being Christian, like loving one’s neighbor.

Christian-Americans have to consider how to balance these values.

“I love the idea of the pursuit of happiness. I want happiness, I want other people to have happiness,” Wilson said. “It’s when I hold on to that high value to such a degree that I can’t see the shadow I cast and the damage that it does, then it moves into nationalism.”

Students agreed that Christian principles shaped the nation. Regardless of their background, none thought that Christianity should dominate the nation or control the government. Imbrogno-Mastin re-

1502

1517

Europeans began to enslave indigenous peoples in the New World

Martin Luther posted his 95 theses, starting the Protestant Reformation

jected the idea that the U.S. could be considered “God’s chosen people,” a common belief that is often a point of contention.

“Rather, I think that we are all God’s chosen people,” Imbrogno-Mastin said. “I don’t think it’s limited to any nation-state or any type of culture, race or sexual orientation.”

Vanderley believes that Christian principles provided moral guidance to early Americans but didn’t go much further than that.

“Obviously, it’s not a theocracy.

I think that’s important to remember,” Vanderley said. “But I don’t think just Christian principles are necessarily negative. Because religion, when you come down to it, fundamentally, the values are relatively similar between them.”

Students said certain values shouldn’t be limited to one religion or nationality.

“Equality, and treating people with equal rights and things like that, I wouldn’t even say is something that is a Jewish value, or a Christian value, or any kind of religious value,” Heinemann said. “I’d say that’s more of a human value, that may be represented in different religious traditions.”

For Americans who are not Christian, like Heinemann, calling the U.S. a “Christian Nation” can seem discriminatory.

“I do find it difficult, because by interpreting America as being a Christian nation, that definitely excludes a lot of religious faiths,” Heinemann said. “And I do think it is frustrating, and even in some ways, dangerous to just refer to it as a Christian nation.”

Because of how the U.S. treated marginalized groups, Fetzer said the U.S. can never claim to

follow Christian principles.

“Since 1776, it has not been pretty,” Fetzer said. “To say that’s Christian is just insane. So no, I do not consider it a Christian enterprise.

And if that’s Christianity, if Christianity means genocide and enslavement, then I’m not a Christian.”

The ultimate question of allegiance The issue of allegiance is common throughout the Bible, especially given that the Israelites faced slavery, exile and occupation. The Old Testament describes them as citizens of a specific land, with rights and responsibilities.

“In the Old Testament stage of faith, there was this nonbinary way of holding your nationalism,” Wilson said. “Then Jesus comes and fills, expands, makes that idea whole where you are part of a nation, an earthly nation, but you are also part of a heavenly kingdom.

So, in some ways it mitigates the borders of your national status.”

In the New Testament, Jesus confronts the question of how the Israelites should respond to Roman demands. His response is often brought up in the context of faith, identity and civic duty.

“Many Christians, conservative and some liberal Christians as well, when you ask the question about the Christians’ obligation to government, they’ll run immediately to Romans 13,” Hughes said. “Obey the government, do what the government says, render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, to God what is God. But then you go to a text like the Book of Revelation, it’s a whole different story and the message of Revelation is ‘Do not pledge allegiance to the empire.’”

Ultimately, how one’s faith interacts with one’s national identity is a personal choice, and one that differs greatly across the broad spectrum of American Christianity.

“How many times can we just be [so] blinded by the quest for the pursuit of happiness or freedom that we end up hurting each other, and hurting people outside of us?” Wilson said. “Maybe we hold a little bit too tight. I’m not saying letting it go. I’m just saying hold it a little bit looser, so that we have enough clarity just to see what it’s causing.”

When it comes to the United States and the Kingdom of God, Hughes believes that some American Christians need to get their priorities straight.

“These people, these Christians, seem way more concerned to make America great then they seem concerned to make the kingdom of God great,” Hughes said. “The kingdom and the United States of America are two entirely different entities. They’re radically different.

I think many Christians don’t see that point.”

Some Christians take a radical approach to their faith, basing it off of the radical mission of Jesus in a Roman-occupied state.

“Jesus, he talks to people that in his day were complete pariahs,” Fetzer said. “So he hangs out with lepers and prostitutes and people from the wrong side of the tracks, with Samaritans. He goes out of his way to insult, to offend the people with power in his day, the people who were prestigious in his society, because he said, he calls them out for oppressing people and sinning. That’s radically different from what the authors of the U.S. Constitution set out.”

1620

1652

Mayflower Compact was signed

Dutch founded Cape Town in South Africa

21

Leilani Frailich Makes Multilingual Music

by Jessica Wang­­ photo by Megan Williams

F

22

rom English to Spanish to Italian to French to Arabic — switching between five languages might be tough for some, but for first-year Leilani Frailich, these languages inspire creativity.

Frailich is a Political Science and Psychology double major on the pre-law track, who grew up speaking both Spanish and English. Her multicultural household, consisting of Mexican, Jewish and Arabic backgrounds, shaped her upbringing. Frailich’s wish to learn her family’s languages transformed into the desire to incorporate those languages into her musical performances.

“I try to intertwine music within my language and culture,” Frailich said. “And that’s pretty much what really encouraged me to pursue singing in multiple languages.”

Frailich, who speaks Spanish fluently and French as a second language, began performing mainly in English. She started out performing in front of friends and family and now sings at Pepperdine’s Coffeehouse.

One pivotal moment where Frailich began to diversify her performances was when she decided to sing the song “La Vie En Rose” in French, rather than in English, for

her high school teacher who had cancer.

“It was an inspiring moment,” Frailich said. “So, I was like, ‘Oh, I’d love to recreate this with a happy memory and bring a whole new life to it.’”

The incorporation of different languages into Frailich’s performances created new opportunities for her as a singer-songwriter.

“I started out in Spanish, English and Italian, and little by little, I was like, ‘Oh, what if I were to add a French song to my resume or add something else that’s a little bit more diverse, like in Arabic,’” Frailich said. “I was thinking, ‘If I could sing in all of these, then maybe, I could start writing my own music in some of these languages too’ — and that’s what I started doing.”

When Frailich is writing music, she uses the pronunciation and phonetics of different languages to create the meaning and sound she is looking for.

“If I find something that rhymes in French and it sounds good together — it actually does — it just sounds more fluid than it would in

English,” Frailich said. “I’ll typically put that down first and then I’ll add some English after or just something that would go with that. But I mainly prioritize writing French, and then seeing anything else that would work alongside that.”

When she first started singing in French, Frailich said she didn’t truly understand the words in the songs. Taking three years of French classes helped her appreciate the songs’ meanings.

“Understanding, now, after those years of studying it in class, I’m like, ‘Now I understand the meaning,’” Frailich said. “‘Now I can add emotion and now I could actually put the pieces together.’”

Frailich finds value in being multilingual and understanding other cultures.

“It’s really nice when you travel and you’re able to connect with those cultures and communicate,” Frailich said. “Even here in LA, a lot of the population speaks Spanish.

It’s really nice to be able to understand different people’s points of view and what they’re trying to say.”

Chicken Fried Rice

by Josh Leow photo by Megan Williams

Ingredients:

Directions:

(Makes two portions)

1) Heat up a cast iron skillet or wok over medium -high heat.

1 Cup White Rice, cooked 2 Tbsp Sesame Oil 2 Tbsp Soy Sauce 2 Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs, cubed ¼ Sweet Onion, diced ½ Bunch of Green Onions, chopped 3 Whole Eggs, beaten 2 Cloves of Garlic, minced 2 Tsp White Pepper Powder 2 Tsp Five Spice Powder 2 Tsp Fresh Ground Black Pepper 2 Tsp Salt

2) Place sesame oil and chicken thighs in; season to taste with salt, pepper, five spice and white pepper powder. You should hear a nice sizzle. Cook 75% of the way through; approximately 2-3 minutes.

3) Push chicken to the side; pour in beaten eggs and stir fry vigorously until somewhat scrambled; about 30 seconds.

4) Add white and green onions and garlic; lightly season with salt and pepper and stir fry vigorously for about 30 seconds.

5) Add rice and soy sauce and stir fry vigorously for about 30 seconds to a minute.

6) Optional: Add 1 tbsp of butter and stir fry vigorously.

7) Season to taste, garnish and serve.

23

Love Knows No Bounds

History Professor Stewart Davenport and his wife, Mary, pose with their 4year-old daughter, Shiloh.

by Yamillah Hurtado photos by Megan Williams

I

Throughout the 21st century, interracial relationships have become more common and accepted in society. Three couples within the Pepperdine community discuss their experiences being a part of interracial relationships and the challenges and lessons that come with it.

t was early morning on July 11, 1958 when Virginia sheriffs took a couple into custody because they were in an interracial relationship, thus breaking the law.

Richard and Mildred Loving had been dating for a few years prior, but just five weeks before their arrest they decided to get married in Washington, D.C. — where marriage between two people of different races was legal.

“They asked Richard who was that woman he was sleeping with,” Mildred Loving said in the HBO documentary “The Loving Story.” “I say, ‘I’m his wife’ and the sheriff said, ‘Not here you’re not.’”

The Lovings fought the arrest all the way to the United States Supreme Court. On June 12, 1967 — nine years after their arrest — the judges deemed any laws banning interracial marriage unconstitutional, marking a monumental victory in the Civil Rights era.

An increase in interracial relationships As of 2015, 10% of all married

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1756

1776

French and Indian War began

American Revolution began

couples in the United States were in interracial relationships, and that number rose to 17% for all newlyweds, according to a 2017 Pew Research Center survey. Americans have become more accepting of interracial relationships, as 39% of adults agree that interracial marriage is good for society. Despite this, 9% believe it is a bad thing, according to the survey.

Allison Skinner, a psychology researcher at Northwestern University, tested the truth of these statistics in a 2018 study and found that most Americans possess implicit and explicit biases against interracial couples.

Communication Professor Jasmine Gray teaches a class on intercultural communication where students learn how to communicate and empathize with people of different backgrounds and identities.

“You can just imagine the generations of people that existed before the laws changed and the generations of people whose attitudes did not change even when the laws changed,” Gray said.

Implicit and explicit bias can factor into why people don’t enter interracial relationships, but for those that do, exposing one another to each other’s cultures is the first step in building understanding. Gray said in order for a couple to learn about each other’s backgrounds, they must have a firm understanding of their identity.

“It starts with you and being clear on who you are, what your values are, how those values are expressed through your culture and introducing [your partner] to those aspects [of your identity],” Gray said.

The best way to engage with each others’ cultures and backgrounds, Gray said, is for a couple to create an environment within their relationship that fosters trust, vulnerability and patience. This can make space for couples to listen to one another, express curiosity, ask questions and learn about one another’s backgrounds.

Navigating the personal dynamics Senior Megan Strydom and her long-distance boyfriend Stephen Reynolds said one way they have navigated their cultural differences is by trying to put themselves in the other person’s shoes in order to understand where they’re coming from. They said this has prevented them from facing major challenges due to their racial differences.

Strydom, whose family hails from South Africa, is African American and from Virginia. Reynolds is white and from Colorado, but later moved to Virginia where he met Strydom. The pair have been dating for four-and-a-half years and met through their home church.

Strydom said having the same religious beliefs helps them in working through differences they might face.

“It always comes back to what God wants us to do,” Reynolds said.

“So that’s been a good common ground to have in those conversations because sometimes [they] can be pretty difficult topics.”

Similarly, Kene Izuchukwu, Pepperdine alumnus and Men’s Volleyball chaplain, and his girlfriend Valerie Posada said listening is key in understanding each others’ cultural identities.

“I think it’s forced us to be way

more patient and mindful of our cultural differences,” Izuchukwu wrote in an email. “We learned how to best communicate with each other and love each other through that.”

Izuchukwu is Nigerian American and Posada is Salvadoran American. The couple have been dating for nine months and met at a church conference in San Diego in 2017.

The pair said being an interracial couple hasn’t negatively affected their relationship, and they haven’t really taken the time to introduce one another to each other’s cultures because they’re both submerged into American culture rather than their parents’ ethnic heritage.

“I think it affects us because it’s who we are,” Izuchukwu said. “But as far as external pressures, I don’t feel it’s affected us.”

Couples overcome challenges and grow together Gray said most people desire understanding and empathy within their relationships and for that reason, people might be hesitant toward entering an interracial relationship.

“You want to be with someone who can, if not understand what you experience, empathize with the challenges in your minority group,” Gray said. “So, I think that’s the biggest thing I’ve heard. People are not so unwilling to date outside their race, [but] are unwilling to date anyone who doesn’t understand or try to understand where they’re coming from.”

For Mary Davenport, wife of History Professor Stewart Davenport,

1789

1789

Americans gained their independence

French Revolution began

25

this was the mindset she had before meeting her husband. She said she was surprised when she found herself becoming interested in him romantically.

“I thought I would actually marry somebody who is Asian, just because I’m Asian,” Mary Davenport said.

Mary Davenport is Filipino American from California, while Stewart Davenport is white from Alabama.

The couple met in 2005 at a Halloween party. One of Mary Davenport’s friends showed an interest in Davenport, but he showed an interest in Mary instead. The pair dated, fell in love and got married two years later. They now have a 4-year-old daughter, Shiloh.

One challenge they faced at the beginning of their relationship occurred when Mary Davenport visited her husband’s hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, for the first time. She said she was one of the only Asian people in the area and felt the judgment of the locals whenever the couple walked into a room together.

“It was the first time that I felt self-conscious because I was ethnic,” Mary Davenport said.

Despite this, the couple said they don’t feel race has played a huge role in their relationship and haven’t experienced many obstacles because of it.

The Davenports said they’ve learned about each other’s backgrounds through being around their families, eating cultural food and having conversations regarding each other’s cultural experiences.

Gray said one benefit of being in an interracial relationship is the

26

History Professor Stewart Davenport twirls his 4-year-old daughter, Shiloh, around. ability to understand perspectives and empathize with experiences outside one’s own.

“Sometimes when you’re dating within your race, you could accidentally be in an echo chamber where you’re already hearing the same things you agree with,” Gray said. “You’re dealing with people who see the world similarly to you, and, as human beings, having challenges to our perspective and our worldview allows us to grow.”

For Stewart Davenport, being a part of an interracial relationship has opened his eyes to the privileges afforded to him because he is white. He said being a father to a biracial child has allowed him to think about the limitations that can potentially be placed on his daughter because of her racial identity.

“It just kind of brought something up for me to start this un-

derstanding of a glass ceiling, or limitations, that are placed on people in the United States because of their gender, or because of their race, or because of their immigration status that I hadn’t considered before,” Stewart Davenport said.

As the couples reflected on their experience of being in an interracial relationship, they all said they’ve been able to move past any challenges through the love and empathy they have for each other.

All couples expressed gratitude for their partner and for the fact that love brought them together.

“We were just thinking about how a couple of decades ago this wouldn’t have been possible [because] it was illegal to marry someone of a different race,” Posada said. “We were thinking about that and it’s just crazy that we’ve come such a long way.”

1791

1798

Bill of Rights was enacted

Napoleon invaded Egypt

Nicole Wong’s Blossoming Cultural Confidence

by Claire Lee ­­ photo by Megan Williams

B

eing a third culture student, senior Nicole Wong has grown more confident in opening up about her cultural upbringing through her journey of personal identity and growth.

Wong — a Liberal Arts for Education major and Multimedia Design minor — grew up facing cultural differences between Hong Kong, Shanghai and America. She was born in Hong Kong (soon after it ceased to be a British territory) and raised in Shanghai since she was 4. Her spectrum of schools include a Communist Chinese public school, an English-speaking international high school that emulated American culture and a private American university.

As Wong’s college journey progressed, her ability to express her cultural heritage grew.

“If you don’t understand the fact that I’m Chinese, it’s so hard to understand that I’m Nicole,” Wong said. “It’s such a big part of me.”

During her first year at Pepperdine, Wong said she was more shy about sharing her ethnic background.

“I appeared trying to be more ‘whitewashed’ than I seemed to be in order to fit in,” Wong said.

“But I feel like spending the year in Shanghai my junior year during the pandemic really made me a lot more connected to my family and

roots of where I come from.”

Wong said her first-year roommate Valerie Lam, another international student from Shanghai, encouraged her to be more open in sharing her unique cultural practices and to use her cultural identity as a social asset rather than a social barrier.

“I think that was really inspiring to me to see that it’s OK to ‘rep’ your unique cultural identity and to be OK that you’re so different from other people,” Wong said.

Wong found ways to use her cultural knowledge and skills to help others, such as guiding group discussions for international students with stronger cultural-linguistic barriers for Pepperdine’s Great Books program.

“I feel like more and more so, you have to be proud of where you’re from and just acknowledge that not everyone has that same experience,” Wong said. “You can be the bridge to really push the cultures together.”

While Wong navigated how to express her cultural qualities in America, she also had to confront cultural challenges in China.

“That’s something I struggle

with,” Wong said. “Maybe just the way I present myself is very different from what a common Shanghai person would. So sometimes, I’ll literally just be standing in the metro and people would tell that I’m not from there.”

Before even saying a word, Wong said people at the metro station in China would speak to her in English.

During her internship in Shanghai last summer, Wong said her cultural differences also created an initial barrier between her and the Chinese natives.

“As the weeks progressed and we got to know each other more, they were surprised to see that I am more Chinese than they thought I originally would be,” Wong said.

Being back in America, Wong said she felt inspired when others spoke about reconnecting with their cultural roots.

“I feel like them voicing out those thoughts gave me more confidence to be like, ‘Yes, you know what, Asia is amazing, and my identity that I come from there, that’s also amazing,’” Wong said.

“It’s such a blessed experience that I get to ‘rep’ that when I’m here.”

27

Clothing Acro Eric Njuku “I only got it just to bring a piece of my home, just to tie it back. I actually bought it so I could come with it here. I could tie it back to my community, to my home, to my country.”

28

Pinn Jingkaojai “I feel like clothing says about who you are and how you carry yourself, so if you have something from home it just means a lot more, like ‘This is home to me and I can wear it on my body.’”

ross Cultures Tepkanya “Merica” Sin “Knowing that at some point I’d have to showcase my culture — and that’s a really big part of me — and so any opportunity I get where I can showcase my culture I’d wanna wear this outfit with it.”

Lidia Qaladh “It makes me feel more connected to my culture just wearing something that I know that my family typically wears and my grandma [wears].”

Mengyuan “Summer” Xia “I wore this for my [high school] graduation because it’s Chinese and I wanted to wear my cultural dressing.

I wanted to show other people how my culture is and how it’s different from other people.”

research by Jessica Wang ­­ photos by Megan Williams

(Left to right) Njuku wears a maasai shuka from Kenya, Africa. | Jingkaojai dons a traditional wrap skirt from Chiang Mai, Thailand. | Sin models an av pak (blouse) and sampot (skirt) from Phnom Penh, Cambodia. | Qaladh dresses in an abaya from Al Minya, Egypt. | Xia poses in a qipao from Shanghai, China.

29

Serving or Saving:

What factors drive service to others

E

by Emily Morton “

sto es para ti.”

This is for you.

These are the words from a young Mexican boy in 2014 that have stuck with Pia Anderson, a senior Biology and Spanish major.

On a family vacation, Anderson and her brother had just finished giving out ice cream to children in a community living inside the city of Puerto Vallarta’s dump when the young boy came back up to Anderson and offered her his ice cream.

“I was someone who was coming from great opportunity and great privilege,” Anderson said. “And he had saved his cup of ice cream for me, because he wanted to demonstrate his selflessness and generosity.”

His act of kindness touched her and she began fundraising for the area when she arrived home. When she saw the support from her community in Northern California, she started her nonprofit organization “Para Ti Global.”

Anderson’s organization

Many individuals participate in nonprofit organizations, service projects and mission trips to help communities in need. Navigating the best way to serve can be complex.

A group in O’ahu, Hawai’i, plays basketball while junior Joe Karlous visited the commuinty. Photo courtesy of Joe Karlous

30

1821

1838

Mexico achieved independence from Spain

Trail of Tears began

is just one example of service to other communities. Many Pepperdine students volunteer with nonprofit organizations or participate in service projects and mission trips to help those in need.

Each instance looks different in the shape they take and the duration, and there are often a lot of ethical questions to navigate on how to help and not hinder those in need.

White savior complex While helping others usually receives praise, critics often point out the unequal power dynamics in international and domestic missions that can taint the experience. Often this is called a “white savior complex.”

The white savior complex “is about having a big emotional experience that validates privilege,” Teju Cole, a Nigerian American writer and photographer, wrote in an article for The Atlantic. This action can be conscious or unconscious.

“Any kind of ‘savior complex’ is a mission disaster,” said John Barton, director for the Center of Faith and Learning, Religion professor and a former missionary.

“No matter how well-intentioned people or projects might be, when we overestimate our own importance and motives, mission is undermined and damage is done.”

The white savior complex can come into play whenever foreign characters come in and decide what is best for the situation without asking the people living directly in the area.

“You can have a white savior complex without being white,”

said Daniel Rodriguez, divisional dean of the Religion and Philosophy Division and professor of Religion and Hispanic Studies. “You can have a brown face, like mine, coming from the United States of America, and still be accused of having a white savior complex.”

Rodriguez said the phenomenon of the white savior complex is still around today.

“And it’s alive and well because of our ethnocentrism in this country,” Rodriguez said.

Ethnocentrism is the concept of evaluating another’s culture based on preconceptions from one’s own culture.

Rodriguez said the key to avoiding the white savior complex is equal partnership with a local agency. He said it is important to let the local agencies make the decisions. Organizations like Anderson’s avoid the white savior complex by having volunteers in the local areas and having partnerships with local entities.

Rodriguez said white saviorism is common when Americans make suggestions for what they think is best for the community when in actuality the community needs something more fundamental.

“They say yes to something when what they really needed was some houses, or [what] they really needed was a clinic, where they really needed someone to help put new roofs on three schools that were destroyed by the hurricane,” Rodriguez said. “But the Americans want to do something different.”

Americans often center their own cultural background, Rodriguez said, and have trouble separating their Christian identity

from their identity as U.S. citizens.

The Bill of Rights includes separation of church and state, but many people believe America is a Christian country.

“It’s done very consciously in this country,” Rodriguez said. “We bring these symbols together, a cross and a flag, so being American is almost synonymous with being Christian.”

Fully Christian missions have to meet a standard, Barton said.

“Whatever someone’s motivations or intentions are, mission can only be considered Christian if it is done in God’s way,” Barton said. “And Jesus gives us the standard for that.”

He referenced Matthew 7:12 which reads, “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you.”

“The ‘everything’ in that command is comprehensive and so includes all forms of mission,” Barton said. “Among other things, this means that true mission cannot be self-serving, coercive, manipulative or disrespectful of others.”

Evangelical and humanitarian missions There are two main kinds of mission trips, those that fall under the category of evangelical, that is they focus on sharing Christianity, and mission trips that fall under the category of humanitarian, meaning they focus on meeting a need.

“From the perspective of Christian faith, mission is not something we initiate or do, it is something God initiates and does,” Barton said. “Mission is God’s. So

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Irish Potato Famine led to starvation and immigration

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our main task is just to be attentive to what God is already doing in the world and discern through the power of the Holy Spirit how we might participate or contribute.”

Rodriguez, who teaches courses in ministry, has been on many Christian mission trips focused on building relationships with communities in Honduras and China.

In 1999, Rodriguez organized a humanitarian-focused Christian mission. He put together a monthlong International Program trip to Honduras, with Pepperdine students helping the community build a clinic in response to a hurricane that hit the area.

“That month with those 12 students was just incredible,” Rodriguez said. “They were pushed so hard. It was so hot and uncomfortable. Nothing like going to Lausanne or Florence or Heidelberg.”

When planning a short-term mission, Rodriguez said, organizers should remember to be good neighbors.

“Are we going to all stay in a nice three-star hotel? Or are we going to stay in the homes of local people,” Rodriguez said. “What are we going to eat? Who’s gonna prepare food? Good short-term missions are thinking about being good neighbors.”

Rodriguez also participated in a trip to China that focused more specifically on evangelism, where the group spent eight weeks teaching English at a language institute. “[The institute] was run by a faith-based nonprofit, and our students were involved in teaching English as a second language

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as a way to introduce them to this community of believers,” Rodriguez said.

A Korean church created the institute as a mission outpost.

Rodriguez said the teaching of English was the first step in leading those people to have conversations within the small Christian community.

Nonprofit organizations Barton said he has been privileged to participate in partnerships for justice and development for close to 30 years in different parts of the world.

“I am humbled and grateful for those opportunities,” Barton said.

“And while I have always tried to give what ‘loaves and fishes’ I have, I have always learned more than I have taught, and been both challenged and blessed by those I have had the privilege to partner with.”

Barton currently sits on the board of a nonprofit that he and his wife, Chaplain Sara Barton, helped found, “Kibo Group International.” The organization emphasizes empowering the onthe-ground work of Kibo’s East African leaders and partners, who work with communities in Ugandan villages and rural communities in Busoga, according to the KIBO USA website.

The work of the organization is focused on helping local leaders address community needs rather than bringing answers to them. “Kibo is not a charity that provides answers but a network of friends that helps communities ask good questions,” according to the website.

Anderson’s nonprofit also works to address local needs by actively communicating with local leaders and volunteers that are located in the area.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Anderson said her family would take four or five trips a year with the organization to work on the nonprofit projects in person.

They have branches in Mexico and in the Philippines, though they have not been able to visit the Philippines in several years. “[It’s] due to sanctions and some shifts in local government,” Anderson said. “But that’s another place where we’ve been utilizing a lot of our present employees and regular volunteers in the area who get that job actualized until there’s kind of a more stable way for us to go visit in person, which we have been projected to do this spring.”

Anderson and the nonprofit are currently working on Project Protect, which is a way to slow the spread of COVID-19 in low-income communities. This includes the selling of masks in the U.S. to raise money to provide masks in these communities.

“Our mission is to address the systemic needs of children medically, nutritionally and educationally so that they’re able to escape that cycle of poverty,” Anderson said.

Anderson has found that a few people have taken advantage of her organization, in regard to adding service to their resumes. She said she has had people ask her to write letters of recommendation for selling masks or posting to their Instagram stories.

“It’s totally justifiable to in-

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The United States Civil War began

Opening of the Suez Canal linked the Mediterranean and the Red Sea

Senior Pia Anderson works with children in Puerto Vallarta as a part of her nonprofit organization, Para Ti Global. Anderson founded this organization with her brother, Luke, to aid communities in Mexico and the Philippines. Photo courtesy of Para Ti Global

volve yourself in service work with [resume building] as a motive,” Anderson said. “But it’s not appropriate to do so without a true understanding of the underlying cause of that organization, or a true understanding of the real depth and meaning behind the nonprofit’s mission.”

To Anderson, true service looks like leveling the playing field for communities. “[It] made me think about how if everyone were given that same playing field, it’ll be amazing what some of these young kids would be able to accomplish,” Anderson said.

Short-term service Many students participate in short-term missions, spanning from one to two weeks, and occasionally six to eight weeks. Junior Psychology major Joseph Karlous had the opportunity to participate in a Christian mission in Ha-

waii. He went in spring 2020 and again in summer 2021.

Karlous went to a mission home on the westside of O’ahu.

The place he went to had a church with a pastor who had seven biological children of her own and adopted seven other children from an encampment nearby. He said the homeless encampment had around 3,000 members.

Karlous noted similarities between himself and the children he met.

“I think the kids broke my heart, because I kind of looked like them,” Karlous said.

Karlous said his skin tone was similar to the children. He also resembled the fathers in the community.

He said he helped with various tasks, many of which focused on humanitarian aspects like handing out food or fixing up the church, but he found an underlying Christian connection to the people he helped.

“These kids love God,” Karlous said. “I [would] say, ‘What’s your favorite book in the Bible?’ And they would scream ‘Ezekiel.’”

Karlous found on his trip that though he did not actively preach the Word of God, the members of the community would approach him and just start speaking about religion.

“Just showing Christ’s love through just serving them,” Karlous said.

Sophomore Sport Administration major Joseph Deluzio went on a mission trip when he was younger, and like Karlous wants to return to do more service.

When Deluzio went with his church to build a school in Haiti, he remembers his older siblings laying tile while he painted the walls.

“Serving is our calling,” Deluzio said. “To be people of service, to be of service to people in need as that sees those in a community who are not as fortunate.”

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The Franco-Prussian War began

European leaders divided up Africa at the Berlin Conference

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How One Delicious Salad Can Create Global Citizens With a long history of forced assimilation and cultural erasure, is the “Great American Melting Pot” really something to strive toward? Many scholars prefer the metaphor of the “Great American Chopped Salad,” and a prime example of that is right in Pepperdine’s backyard.

Irene Ruiz smiles for a photo in the shop she works at on Olvera Street, where she sells Mexican-imported items like pottery and leather goods.

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Construction of the Trans-Siberian Railroad began

Russo-Japanese War began

by Marley Penagos ­­ photos by Megan Williams

C

olorful flags wave and the smell of Los Angeles’ most famous taquitos float through the air as Mariachi music plays and vendors call out in Spanish from their booths.

This is Olvera Street — a little slice of Mexico nestled in Downtown LA — only a 34-minute drive from Pepperdine.

Short drives of 10 miles or less can transport a person from Mexico to China, then to Tokyo and Ethiopia, all without leaving Los Angeles. Many believe that the city serves as a living example of the “Great American Melting Pot” metaphor Schoolhouse Rock made famous.

But scholars today take issue with the melting pot metaphor and have begun pushing a different metaphor that sends a contrasting message: “The Great American Chopped Salad.”

“The problem with the melting pot metaphor is that it implies that all of this uniqueness and all of this difference is going to finally disappear and even out and that we are moving toward some kind of standardization of the American experience,” said Jeffrey Schultz, professor of Western Culture and English. “I don’t think that is a good way to approach it and I think we would do well

Nikki, a Japanese immigrant from Tokyo, owns a store called Blooming Art Gallery. Nikki has lived in the U.S. for 25 years. to preserve as much uniqueness as we can.”

Why salad?

While comparing America to a melting pot suggests assimilation and homogeneity, the chopped salad metaphor allows for various cultural groups to come together as ingredients and form one cohesive American “dish” while still retaining their unique cultural flavor.

“It’s a better ideal,” Schultz said. “It is a better thing to reach toward — to preserve these differences and come to appreciate how these very different [cultures] can sit with each other and all be a part of the same wonderful thing. That would be a wonderful way for the world to work.”

Yet Schultz also said there are deeply rooted economic and societal forces at play that push Americans toward sameness and melt away important differences.

All immigrants to the United States have historically been viewed as an “ethnic other,” History Professor Tuan Hoang said. They experienced forced assimilation into the dominant Anglo-Saxon culture at the hands of the American government and sociocultural pressures.

The U.S. government enforced The Native American Assimilation Act from 1790 until 1920, giving indigenous people “American” names and forcing their children to attend “American” schools, Hoang said. There they would cut their hair despite its significant spiritual meaning, and punish any show of Native culture with brutality.

Enslaved African-Americans, who were brought to America, were intentionally divorced from their culture and ancestral stories and forced to obtain the last name of their enslavers, Hoang said.

The slave trade and all that followed has led Black people in the U.S. to lack a significant understanding of their ethnic heritage and ancestry.

As recently as the 1960s, The Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 diversified the groups entering the United States, eliminating the national origins quota

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1918

World War I began

Spanish Influenza Pandemic started to spread

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The founders and owners of Flavors from Afar, Christian and Meyuna, pose in their restaurant in Little Ethiopia, LA. Every month, the restaurant hires refugees to cook their native dishes.

system and increasing the number of immigrants allowed from each nation-state. This drastically increased the influx of immigrants to the U.S. from Asia, Hoang said.

The metaphor of the chopped salad poses a challenge to the history of the melting pot and encourages America’s various cultural groups to stand out and embrace what makes them special.

And in downtown Los Angeles, they are doing just that.

The salad bar of Los Angeles All less than 10 miles from one another, LA’s cultural districts provide an opportunity for locals and tourists alike to learn about other cultures without ever leaving Southern California.

“I do feel like growing up in

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the LA area I got to be exposed to cultures that I would be unfamiliar with otherwise,” said Arianna Shishoian, Pepperdine first-year and recruitment chair of the Armenian Student Association, who grew up in Glendale.

Schultz agreed. After living in Oregon and Michigan, he said living in LA was a culture shock in the best way.

“I lived in East Hollywood my first year in California,” Schultz said. “I have this specific memory, walking four or five blocks down to the post office, and I think I would hear probably a dozen languages on my way there. It was fantastic.”

The people who live and work in these communities are eager to share their stories and their culture with the people around them.

Aki, an Ethiopian immigrant who declined to give her last

name, has owned a shop in Little Ethiopia and watched the community evolve over her 30 years living in the United States. She believes that anyone interested in Ethiopian culture should visit Little Ethiopia’s various shops and restaurants.

“This is a good place. The food, the coffee ceremonies, the culture,” she said. “The whole thing you can learn here. Everything right here.”

She said that while Ethiopian immigrants own most of the shops and restaurants, the surrounding neighborhoods are very American.

“Ninety percent of the [customers are] American because they love our food; the community is safe,” Aki said.

“They have everything. They have restaurants, the market, they can buy any spice. If he wants to cook at home, he can

1920

1929

19th Amendment for Women’s Suffrage was passed

The Great Depression began

The Choice Dental Center, a dentistry office in Chinatown, features three languages on its exterior, showing that many cultures are mixed within LA. learn everything here.”

Aki said getting to share the traditions and customs of Ethiopia with the city of Los Angeles has been both interesting and lovely.

“Oh my God, I love it!” Aki said. “I love enjoying it, to learn another people. I’ve explained to a lot of people how [Ethiopians] cook, how they eat and handfeed each other. Coffee ceremonies are such a nice get-together for people to learn like that.”

Nikki, who also declined to give her last name, has been in LA for 25 years since she immigrated from Tokyo. She owns a store called Blooming Art Gallery, and while she said Tokyo is bigger, cleaner and more spacious than LA, Little Tokyo is a great place to be exposed to Japanese culture.

“In Little Tokyo, I think it’s built up by a generation of Japanese immigrants, but these days it is all mixed,” Nikki said.

Nikki recommends that any-

one new to Little Tokyo checks out the cultural center and museum, or the stores that sell more authentic Japanese goods.

“I go to Japan often, once every three months, I bring things from Japan here to sell at my store and introduce people to more real Japanese culture,” she said.

Jumel Labo, who was raised in LA and is a barista at Cafe Dolce in Little Tokyo, agreed that Little Tokyo is the perfect place for someone who is interested in Japanese culture.

“The people at the Japanese Museum are really knowledgeable, and there’s a lot of artwork too so I think that’s a great place to start,” he said.

Irene Ruiz works on Olvera Street, selling Mexican imported items like pottery and leather goods. She has only been living in the U.S. for three months.

“The first thing they should know is that the Mexican culture is very friendly,” Ruiz said. “They have to know about the food because there is different food from all of the different parts of Mexico.”

She said she loves the people on Olvera Street and that the food and goods are authentic for people coming to experience Mexican culture.

Glendale, which is heavily populated by Armenians, is Shishoian’s favorite place to bring new friends at Pepperdine who are interested in her culture. Her family enjoys sharing their culture with people who are unfamiliar and always go out of their way to prepare huge meals.

Some of the dishes Shishoian recommends to her friends are​​ Kibbeh nayyeh — a Lebanese dish of raw filet mignon, traditionally eaten with olive oil, bread and fresh herbs — and Baklava, which her family gets directly from Armenia.

Within the distinct cultural districts of LA, there is a visible mixing of cultures. While a person can feel as though they have left California and entered a different country, small things remind one that they are still only a few miles from home.

Chinatown, which is not as heavily saturated with tourists and is much more geared toward

Aki, an Ethiopian immigrant who works at and owns the shop Merkato, watched the Los Angeles landscape evolve around her over the last 30 years in Little Ethopia.

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1941

World War II began

Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor

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Pepperdine’s backyard garden

Dresses hang outside of a shop on Olvera Street. These dresses on display provide a window into the Mexican culture. the Chinese-American community, shares a few blocks with Olvera Street.

Businesses post signs with translations in English, simplified Chinese and Spanish, in order to appeal to all of the cultures populating the area.

Spanish-speaking families run shops selling live seafood and Chinese spices and condiments. Their customers are mostly Chinese restaurant owners and local families.

This is how LA truly embodies the metaphor of the chopped salad. While one can see the distinction in the cultures — the Chinese language versus the Spanish translation — they exist together. Like two delicious flavors in the same bite of salad.

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Pepperdine has become a more multicultural place over time, Schultz said, but he still does not believe that global citizenship can be achieved without venturing off of the Malibu campus.

“We’re an exclusive community within a very exclusive community, so this is not the place to encounter difference,” Schultz said. “There is the problem of being here, being isolated, being in Malibu. I think everyone who can, should go into Los Angeles as much as possible. Like, one of the great global cities is right there. And you could go eat in a different neighborhood, go find a different cuisine once a week.”

Shishoian agreed. While she loves to visit home for a traditional Armenian or Lebanese meal, she also looks forward to

exploring LA even further and venturing out of the comfort zone of her own culture.

“My suitemates and I will go get boba in LA all the time, or we’ll go grab Thai food or Mexican food from places we know will be authentic,” she said. “It’s cool to introduce girls who are from other states to California in that way.”

Schultz echoed Nikki and Aki and urged any Pepperdine student who may be interested in cultures other than their own to come and explore the cultural districts of LA. “The restaurant that you should go to is the one where there aren’t any people who look like you,” Schultz said.

“If you express any interest in someone else’s culture you will learn about it because they want to talk to you about it and are proud of what they’re doing.”

A restaurant-grocery store combination in Chinatown, LA, features pan-Asian dishes and Vietnamese sandwiches, rather than strictly Chinese food.

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1945

D-Day occurred in Normandy, France

U.S. dropped bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Diana Martinez Emphasizes Global Interconnection

by Addison Whiten ­­ photo by Megan Williams

T

|he question “Where are you from?” seems fairly straightforward for most people. It’s usually answered with the name of a city, a state or a country, with little thought or worry for how to reply.

For Communication Professor Diana Martinez, however, answering that question is not so easy.

She immigrated to the United States from Ecuador as a child, and therefore has a multicultural identity.

“I’m from here in some ways — I grew up in LA — but I’m not from here in that I was born somewhere else, and home is also here and somewhere else,” Martinez said.

As a child in Ecuador, Martinez said she frequently traveled around South America with her family, although she can’t remember much of it now. One formative experience she does remember is a trip to Quito, Ecuador’s capital city, where she and her mother touched the Earth’s equator.

“It was just this beautiful moment of me and my mom recognizing where we’re from and what that meant to us,” Martinez said.

The traveling Martinez did as a child fostered a lifelong love. She said she took trips to Europe in

high school that further opened her eyes to how big the world is and how many places there are to see.

While spending time in Europe, both as a high school student and later as a professor working abroad, Martinez said her own identity was at times hard to pin down amongst all the different cultures surrounding her.

“I was having these really interesting moments where I wasn’t sure if I was American or if I was South American or Ecuadorian, and in those conversations it depended on the context what identity would spring up a little bit more,” Martinez said.

In her professional career, Martinez researches communication along the borders of various identities people belong to, connecting her work with her own life.

Martinez’s travels and life experiences taught her that everyone in the world is deeply intercon-

nected. Her family began the process of coming to the U.S. because a couple of her great aunts married men who worked on a U.S. military base in Ecuador during World War II. “These events that we’re experiencing collectively all affect how we all end up where we are,” Martinez said.

Much like a world war, Martinez said the COVID-19 pandemic also demonstrates how every action matters for other people.

Even though there is perceived distance between countries, their actions can have consequences internationally. This is important to remember as people strive to be better global citizens, she said.

“The actions that I take where I am today affect people all over the world, and equally speaking, how people behave and act and communicate and engage with one another in other spaces also affects us here as well,” Martinez said.

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Vietnamese Refugees’ View on the American Dream Vietnamese refugees reflect back on their experiences and memories of leaving their homes to avoid an imminent Communist takeover after the Vietnam War. While coming to a foreign land, the United States, Kat Le’s parents, Hung Le and Tuan Hoang all experienced the American Dream first-hand.

Kat Le’s grandparents, Tram Le and Nam Le, pose with her father, Kiem Le, in Hong Kong in 1982. Le said her paternal grandparents brought her father to the U.S. for educational opportunities and to grow his faith. Photos courtesy of Kat Le

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1945

1948

United Nations formed

U.S. Marshall Plan was enacted

by Ryan Bough

G

reat Books Professor Tuan Hoang was one of over 120,000 Vietnamese refugees who fled Communist Vietnam in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. He and his family left for Indonesia in 1981. Like many refugees, Hoang’s family used small fishing boats to cross through the Gulf of Thailand, burdened by the threat of capsizing and potential pirate attacks. Due to the clandestine nature of the trip, being caught meant imprisonment or even death.

To make it to the United States, Hoang’s family had to split up when he was a pre-teen. Hoang, his father, one of his siblings and his aunt arrived in the United States in 1982. Hoang’s mother and younger siblings were formally sponsored and migrated to the United States in 1990.

“It was very common for Vietnamese families to be broken up,” Hoang said. “The father and the oldest kids would leave first, and if it’s safe the mother and the younger kids would follow. [They] would try to escape, like we did.

And that was actually what sort of happened because my mom and my younger siblings tried to escape the way we did it. They never succeeded.”

Hoang is not the only Vietnam refugee at Pepperdine today. University Registrar Hung Le escaped when he was 11, and senior Biology major Kat Le’s family escaped to Hong Kong before moving to the U.S. Though the Vietnam War was

decades ago, the U.S. is currently seeing an influx of refugees from other war-torn parts of the world like Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and several South American countries.

Safety in a new world One of the leading causes of the world’s refugee crisis is wars or conflicts, according to a 2018 Journal of Travel Medicine study. There can be refugees for numerous other circumstances. The UN Refugee Agency defines a refugee as “someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war or violence.”

U.S. citizens have long been divided over the idea of opening borders and accepting refugees. A 1975 Gallup poll asked 1,491 Americans if Southern Vietnam refugees should be permitted to reside in the United States, and according to the New York Times, roughly 54% said they should not be allowed and 36% said they should.

Despite this, Hung Le said he felt safe in the United States after leaving Vietnam.

“First of all there were no bombs, I felt very safe,” Hung Le said. “There was incredible peace, I lived in Seattle and it was colder than I imagined and the people were kind. I just remember ‘Oh my gosh, these are the most amazing people.’”

At 11, Hung Le’s parents sent him to America to avoid the imminent Communist takeover in 1975. His parents sold everything they could so Hung Le could be sent with his cousin who only had one extra ticket. Hung Le had to go without his immediate family, but his parents knew sending him to

America was the best option and the only way to keep him safe.

For many Vietnamese refugees, America seemed like a distant paradise.

“My siblings and I and my friend’s neighborhood used to take our suitcases and pretend we were going to America. That was the dream,” Hung Le said. “We used to play, ‘Come to America’ and just dream of, you know, being in a place where there were paved streets, and we didn’t know what snow was but we knew it was cold.

But it was just such a neat picture I had in my mind.”

Unlike Hung Le, Hoang did not know much about America before traveling. Although he was born before the war, Hoang said he was too young to remember much of the outside world. The little he did learn was during his time in Indonesia.

“I think what I learned about the U.S. was very interesting,” Hoang said. “There were two sides that I saw with the limited amount of information I learned about the U.S. It is a wealthy country, you know, and it could be very difficult because of crime and because of different types of individualism.”

As he grew up in America, Hoang immediately took notice of some of the key differences between Vietnam and his new home.

“At the time, it was very white,” Hoang said. “I mean it was 90% white. It’s less than that now but we were thrown right into it from like 95% Asian groups in Indonesia and Vietnam. Even though it was familiar to see a Catholic Mass, which is celebrated in a safe fashion in most parts of the world, it was still alien to us.”

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Korean War began

Vietnam War began

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Holding on to heritage in pursuit of the American Dream While Hoang and his family were evacuating Vietnam in 1981, Pepperdine student Kat Le’s father was also fleeing Vietnam, escaping to Hong Kong. Kat Le’s mother also fled from Vietnam to Hong Kong just two years prior in 1979. Both of Kat Le’s parents moved to the United States in the early 80s.

“We’re very proud of our heritage and I think the whole experience was one that really shapes us as a family,” Kat Le said. “As Vietnamese people, we connect over this kind of experience. Even though I didn’t immigrate, my parents’ immigration and their way of life is really reflected in who I am and how I grew up.”

Like many refugees, Kat Le’s family came to America with very little after the Communist takeover of Vietnam. They also faced a rising anti-Vietnamese movement in the U.S. that made it difficult to adapt, Kat Le said.

“The Communists took everything from them,” Kat Le said. “So, they had to start from scratch. And I think being poor you’re already discriminated against.”

Kat Le said she also believes anti-war sentiment added to the anti-Vietnamese sentiment.

“But during the era of the Vietnam War, a lot of people were against the Vietnam War,” Kat Le said. “You know, Vietnam didn’t want the U.S. mangling the United States, people didn’t want the U.S. lingering and so because of that, since we were Vietnamese, a lot of people didn’t want us to be here.

Because they didn’t want the war to happen.”

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Despite the hardships her family faced in the United States, Kat Le said the choice to move was a necessary one. ”It was kind of like you’re going to the States, or you’re gonna die here in Vietnam,” Kat Le said.

The American Dream in the eyes of a refugee With three different experiences of immigrating to the United States away from a war-torn country, Hung Le, Hoang and Kat Le all expressed the same views on one idea that Americans may take for granted: the American Dream.

The American Dream is unique for each individual. For many immigrants, it signals nearly endless opportunities that might not be available in other countries and is a driving factor to come to the United States. For many refugees, it’s no longer the concept of white picket fences and perfect families, it’s the idea of freedom and liberty.

“I think for my family, the American dream was kind of being able to provide for your family in means like education, having food on the table, having job opportunities,” Kat Le said. “But beyond that, like being yourself and being allowed to do that.”

Hoang added that America offers freedoms that refugees might not be accustomed to, freedoms he said that allow them to go further in their careers and goals.

“For refugees, liberty and freedom are big things, obviously, political freedom and economic freedom as well,” Hoang said. “This is a place where I could, you know, receive higher education, my children could receive higher edu-

Kat Le’s maternal grandfather, Binh Vu Pham, stands next to an altar of flowers in Da Nang, Vietnam. cation in order to become something like a physician or a lawyer or business person or professor or such.”

As new generations of refugees come into the United States from countries like Afghanistan, Hung Le acknowledged the difficulties of being a refugee in a new place, but said everyone must keep pushing forward.

“My advice to not just refugees, but to all of us, is to believe in the reality that light overcomes darkness,” Hung Le said. “Even in the darkest of days, I pray for a glimmer of hope. And no matter how dark the world is, we have to believe that light is designed to overcome darkness. That’s all it is.”

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1967

First man traveled to space from the Soviet Union

Loving v. Virginia case opened up interracial marriage

A name can connect someone to their heritage, carry symbolic meaning and shape a person’s identity. Three individuals discuss their relationship with and understanding of their names, showing the power one word can have on a person’s life.

by Emily Shaw photos by Megan Williams

F

or junior Psychology major Anitiz Muonagolu, his name connects him to his Igbo, Nigerian heritage — but it also points to the hope he will one day reconnect with his African roots.

Muonagolu is one of many individuals on campus who struggle to connect with the names they have been given, especially if they have an “ethnic” name in an American-English context.

This exploration of one’s name shapes one’s identity and sense of self.

“My name being Nigerian, being Igbo, being ‘ethnic,’ isn’t just something that’s like, ‘Oh, it’s just something that goes in my Pepperdine ID,’” said Muo-

nagolu, who is also the Graphic Perspectives editor. “It is something that I have to live with, that shapes me, and that is part of the first way that I identify with the world.”

A sense of connection (or disconnection) Muonagolu’s first and last name were passed down from his grandfather to his father and then to him. When Muonagolu’s grandfather came to the United States, however, he “Americanized” his first name, going by “Joseph” instead, Muonagolu said.

To maintain a sense of his heritage, Muonagolu said his father passed down his name to his son, making Muonagolu technically the third Anitiz Muonagolu in his family.

Despite the cultural and famil-

ial significance behind his name, Muonagolu said he is disappointed by how disconnected he still feels from Igbo culture. Rather, his culture revolves more around being Black in the United States and growing up in the South.

“My name for me makes me think about and reflect on the ideas of what it means to be Pan-African despite being in America,” Muonagolu said.

“There’s still these roots that are either present or un-present to me that are etched in African spirituality and practice and culture that hopefully, with enough digging, I can one day connect.”

Sociology Professor Rebecca Kim said she also feels a disconnect with her name, and is sometimes even burdened by the symbolic meanings her parents instilled into her name.

“When I hear my name, I don’t

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1968

Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated

Civil Rights Act of 1968 was passed

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even know if that’s my name,” Kim said. “I know it’s my name, but I don’t feel like it’s mine. I didn’t have any choice in the matter.”

Kim said her parents named her after Rebecca in the Bible, and to her, the name represented someone who serves others and is a caregiver, particularly in a gendered context. Kim’s Korean first name, Yi Sook, which is also her English middle name, refers to a Christian martyr. Ahn Ei Sook risked her life by staying true to her Christian faith instead of bowing to the Japanese emperor during Japanese colonialism in Korea, according to the Gospel Coalition.

Junior Chun Tung Jackie Chan said he also goes by his Chinese name: 陳鎮東 (Chen Zhen Dong). Chan said his first name, Zhen Dong, means “to conquer the east.”

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“[A name is] like a very personalized categorization that has a lot of symbolic meaning,” Kim said. “Whether about religion, whether about gender, whether about race, nationality, foreignness or not, and so the fact that you don’t have any choice in the matter — although you could change your name, of course, I know that — but fundamentally, it’s something that you’re born with, you’re given this name.”

Junior Business Administration major Chun Tung Jackie Chan said he also goes by another name, his Chinese name: 陳鎮 東 (Chen Zhen Dong). Chan said his first name, Zhen Dong, translates to “town” and “east,” and means “to conquer the east.”

In regard to his English name, Chan’s parents love martial arts films, so Chan speculates that they named him after the actor Jackie Chan. The actor also goes by the name 成龍 (Cheng Long), which means “to become the dragon,” to be one in a million or to be successful.

“In both names, they want me to be really successful, and to be someone that’s really great and a leader,” Chan said.

When Chan grew up in Hong Kong, people called him by his Chinese name. When he was 13, he moved to the U.S. with his family, where Chan would introduce himself as Jackie.

At first, Chan said he felt embarrassed by his English name because people would always reference the actor, but he still appreciates how his name would act as an icebreaker.

Chan said he identifies more with his English name because

he started using it during pivotal years of his life. However, his Chinese name feels closer to his heart since his family and childhood friends use it.

“Having both names is kind of having two different lives,” Chan said. “And so far, they haven’t mixed together yet, or they haven’t met each other yet, so it’s pretty interesting.”

Chan said he hasn’t considered going by his Chinese name in the U.S. because having an English name is easier for others to pronounce and also helps people remember him. In his classes, even though his Chinese name is also written on the roster, Chan tells his professors to call him Jackie.

A broader societal dynamic at play Muonagolu said before he came to Pepperdine, he mainly went by the name AJ, partly to appease his white peers and make his name simpler for others.

Echoing both Muonagolu and Chan, Kim said people who have more than one name often choose to go by the name that is “easier” and more “acceptable” in an American, English-speaking context.

“Research shows that it’s going to be harder for that person to gain access to all these various forms of capital, and they’ll be stereotyped in all these ways,” Kim said. “So it’s this kind of existential dilemma, ‘Do you give the name of your heritage and not the name that you want your child to have? Or do you change?’”

1969

1989

U.S. put the first man on the moon

The Berlin Wall fell

Kim said names are social cues and symbols at an individual level that can sometimes even point to negative, threatening stereotypes.

Kim said her brother views their last name as identifying him as “the other,” “the foreigner” who does not belong. When her brother shared his last name with others, for instance, people would often ask him if he was related to the North Korean leaders Kim Jong-il or Kim Jong Un. “By just listening to or hearing our name, people can guess about all those factors,” Kim said.

“And it’s not just about guessing.

There’s also a hierarchy, unfortunately, attached to that, you know, who’s more or less American, who’s more or less of a leader, who’s more or less of a citizen.”

French Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu argued that individuals may possess various forms of capital — such as symbolic capital, which comprises symbols that allow or prevent people from certain privileges. Kim said a person’s name is an example of such symbols and gives people the currency to access cultural and social capital, communicating a level of prestige to others.

“Our names give us a lot of clues,” Kim said. “It symbolizes various social categories that are put on us in our society. Everything from our sex or gender, or religion, ethnicity, nationality and even our race.”

When Muonagolu was a firstyear student, he said he decided to introduce himself as Anitiz to professors and others he met as a sign of respect for his name.

Junior Anitiz Muonagolu’s name connects him to his Igbo, or Nigerian heritage. He said he hopes to reunite with his roots.

“My name has power and has prominence,” Muonagolu said. “It’s reflective of me, and I shouldn’t be ashamed of having a name that isn’t ‘white.’”

Bourdieu’s theory also points to a language hierarchy that exists globally, Kim said.

“Behind it [a name] is a structure of a language hierarchy,” Kim said. “And beyond that, what countries have power to make their language the language of

the world because the default language of the world is English.”

Kim said she encounters students who tell her to call them by a name different from the one listed on the class roster. For instance, she has a student who changed her first name to one that is more gender neutral and connects to her African heritage.

“That’s real power to be able to call yourself what you want to be called,” Kim said.

1991

1994

The first Gulf War began

Rwandan Genocide began

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“Is it Worth It?”

Examining the United States’ Complicated Past with War and State-Building The collapse of the Afghan government in August 2021 started a greater conversation worldwide surrounding the consequences of war and global intervention. With a track-record of state-building successes and failures, the United States and each person must decide if state-building is “worth it.”

Four newspapers chronicle a sampling of the U.S.’s history in places of conflict.

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by Annabelle Childers ­­ photos by Megan Williams

S

uddenly, everyone was talking about it.

Google search trends spiked to alltime highs: “Afghanistan,” “Taliban,” “Kabul.” A general understanding swept the nation that something had gone terribly awry in Afghanistan, where the United States military had served since the initial invasion to fight terrorism in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

For those unaware of Afghan-U.S. relations prior to the country’s fall — those searching for the answer to “What happened in Afghanistan?” — a general timeline began to assemble.

Feb. 29, 2020: the United States — under the Trump administration — signed the Doha agreement with the Taliban, agreeing to withdraw the U.S. military from Afghanistan by May 2021 in exchange for a Taliban commitment to not harbor terrorism.

April 14: President Joe Biden announced a modified timeline for the complete withdrawal of troops in Afghanistan, adjusting the completion date to Sept. 11.

Aug. 15: The Afghan government collapsed.

The withdrawal of the final U.S. soldiers from Kabul in August triggered a rapid series of events: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled, the Taliban took over the capital and Americans were inundated with stories of Afghan allies unable to evacuate. They watched news of a suicide

bombing at the Kabul airport that resulted in over 100 casualties. They saw horrific images of three men falling from the sky, after they clung to the wings of a U.S. military plane in hopes of evacuation. By Sept. 11, as the United States commemorated the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Taliban sat in control over Afghanistan.

The world watched in anguish, wrestling with the complexities of how 20 years in Afghanistan could have unraveled into the scenes unfolding on their television screens. *** Meanwhile, as civilians wrestled with “why,” Dan Caldwell, professor emeritus of Political Science, was receiving messages — emails and calls from veterans of Afghanistan haunted by a personal connection and a far more personal question, “Was it worth it?”

After conversations with Caldwell, International Studies Professor Felicity Vabulas and students with roots in countries where the United States intervened, it is clear each person must answer that question on their own: Was “it,” that is the cost of the intervention and successive war in Afghanistan, worth it?

And are any wars or state-building initiatives ever worth it?

What is state-building?

The RAND Corporation, a global policy think tank,

defines nation-building as involving “the use of armed force as part of a broader effort to promote political and economic reforms, with the objective of transforming a society emerging from conflict into one at peace with itself and its neighbors.”

Caldwell said he prefers the term “state-building” over “nation-building.”

Though media outlets and scholars use the terms interchangeably, Caldwell said a nation is a group of people who identify around a shared history, culture and language, whereas a state is an organization of people in a territory with a government, military and economic system.

The United States’ aim is not to build a shared national identity in countries; the U.S. is in the business of building governments.

But the U.S. rarely enters into conflict against foreign actors with the planned intention of rebuilding a country’s structure. Instead, state-building is a byproduct of intervention, Vabulas said.

“There’s some sort of military intervention that is trying to either topple a regime or change some sort of major policy direction of that particular country,” Vabulas said.

“And usually, that results in some sort of overthrow of a government or some kind of massive decimation of the political institutions that are there.”

Vabulas said the intervener — a role the U.S. has predominantly filled — is faced with a pressing question.

“What happens when you’ve decimated those in

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stitutions, toppled the regime?”

Vabulas said. “I think oftentimes it’s an afterthought.”

“You break it, you own it”: A perceived moral obligation Colin Powell, who died in October 2021 and was the U.S. secretary of State from 2001 to 2005, had an answer, coined the Pottery Barn Rule: “You break it, you own it.”

The phrase introduces the concept of moral obligation, that the intervener bears responsibility for rebuilding what it has broken.

“I do think we have an obligation to not just walk away when we have decimated things,” Vabulas said.

The challenge, however, is determining how that moral obligation should be fulfilled.

“And that’s where a lot of people are like, ‘Hey, if we hadn’t have done that in the first place, we wouldn’t have had to be asking this state-building question,’” Vabulas said. “But sometimes that’s unfair too; we have hindsight bias. We have the Monday morning quarterbacking of, ‘Oh, no, we definitely shouldn’t have done it,’ but we have 20 years’ worth of data now to tell us that.

In the heat of the moment, when U.S. security is at stake, it’s not necessarily as clear.”

In state-building, Vabulas said the U.S. can better partner with local organizations and pay more attention to fundamentals like food, shelter and infrastructure.

“And so where a lot of tension lies is trying to find out the sort of grassroots of what the local population wants and needs,

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aligning new institutions with local environments and not coming in as sort of the white savior,” Vabulas said. “And not doing it in a sort of imperialistic, ‘The U.S. wants to put their own stamp on the world’ and build everybody else in our own likeness.”

Additionally, Vabulas said the United States frequently adopts a mindset of authority in state-building, that because of America’s functioning democracy, the government is thus equipped to teach others how to best govern their people. Because of this, therein lies a risk of self-righteousness that “can really lead us astray.”

Caldwell said he believes the United States must balance the idea of moral obligation with the potential consequences of intervention.

“It depends on the threat that is posed and what cost the United States is willing to pay,” Caldwell said.

Wars of necessity versus wars of choice The United States must think critically before engaging in international affairs, Vabulas said.

“To ask, ‘Should we be state-building or not?’ is not really the question, because usually that happens after we’ve intervened,” Vabulas said. “And so you kind of have to peel back the layer of an onion and say, ‘Should the U.S. be addressing this in the front?’ You know, ‘Should the U.S. be going into Afghanistan in the first place?’”

Caldwell said the deciding factor for intervention is necessity;

there are certain world events the United States has a moral obligation to address.

“World War II, in my view, was a war of necessity,” Caldwell said.

“Imagine the type of world we would have if there were concentration camps all over the world to kill Jews, to kill Roma, to kill gays, on down the list, because those were the targets of the Nazis in World War II. Imagine if we had a world like that; it would be a world I wouldn’t want to live in.

And so World War II was a clear war of necessity.”

Since 1900, the United States has led state-building initiatives in the countries of Afghanistan, Haiti, Panama, Grenada, Cambodia, South Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, Japan, West Germany, Cuba, Nicaragua, Panama and Iraq.

Caldwell said the 1948 Marshall Plan is one of the most clear successes in U.S. state-building because of the motives for rebuilding and the end results. This involved rebuilding Japan and Germany after World War II. “Rather than imposing a vindictive peace on the countries that had been responsible for the war, the United States actually helped to rebuild those countries,” Caldwell said.

In addition to World War II, Caldwell said he classifies the Korean War, which occurred from 1950 to 1953, as justifiable.

“If you look at the contrast between North and South Korea today in terms of economic development, in terms of democratic freedoms and so on, there’s absolutely no comparison,” Caldwell said. “So those, that seems to

2001

2003

Sept. 11 terrorist attacks

Invasion of Iraq began

A newspaper is flipped open to an article about families’ skepticism about the release of their family members who were prisoners of war in Vietnam.

me, are really the best examples of intervention on the part of the United States for good purposes that achieved spectacular ends — democratic governments, the defeat of fascism, the defeat of the obscenity of the Holocaust and the concentration camps that Germany set up and operated.”

In contrast to those successes, Caldwell said the Second Iraq War is a case study for state-building gone wrong. The issue was not the intervention; the issues began with the process of rebuilding the Iraqi state.

The George W. Bush administration decided to intervene in Iraq in March 2003 to overthrow the Saddam Hussein regime. In that endeavor, they saw success.

“But then the United States took on the more onerous, more difficult task of rebuilding the

Iraqi state, since it had gotten rid of the old government under Saddam Hussein, and that proved to be very difficult,” Caldwell said.

While intervention can lead to state-building out of moral obligation, it doesn’t always.

State-building, adversely, cannot occur without a prior intervention, Vabulas said.

Within Afghanistan, Caldwell categorized the initial intervention as successful and necessary.

The United States acted on intelligence that Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden planned the 9/11 attacks from Afghanistan. Caldwell said an estimated 60,000 terrorists from 60 different countries trained there in terrorist camps.

“They were given sanctuary by the Taliban government,” Caldwell said. “And so, Afghanistan

posed a very clear and present danger to the United States.”

After the Taliban rejected an ultimatum Bush delivered to hand over Osama bin Laden, the United States intervened, destroying the terrorist training camps and overthrowing the Taliban.

“It then took on the objective of state-building in Afghanistan and attempted to build a new state in Afghanistan over the past 20 years,” Caldwell said. “We saw how difficult that was and ultimately how unsuccessful it was when the Taliban government was established following the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan.”

Both Vabulas and Caldwell agreed that the failures in Afghanistan related to an American inability to connect with the Afghan people.

2004

2008

Boxing Day Tsunami hit shore

America elected its first Black president

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“As an outside intervening force, one of the things that we’re up against, in addition to all the challenges I just said, is trying to win over hearts and minds of the local population,” Vabulas said.

“Convince them that what they had was not that great, but then that what we’re trying to establish, that we did through the use of force and destruction, is a better solution.”

Caldwell said key considerations must be made before intervention — including wheth-

er building a democracy is feasible and whether the people will accept U.S. interference.

Yet it’s not enough to have local support, Vabulas said.

“The other tension that exists is we don’t necessarily have a group that is trained to do this really well,” Vabulas said. “In the United States, we have a military that is trained to fight, that is trained to win against enemies. And usually that group, the different branches of the military, are the ones that stay and try to rebuild. And yet, that’s not necessarily what the U.S. military is trained to do.”

This isn’t a controversial statement, she said.

“I think if you ask the military, ‘Are we good at state-building?’”

Vabulas said, “many of them would probably say, ‘No, but it is necessary and who else is going to do it?’”

Lasting influences: The human side to state-building

The front page of the Daily News Tribune discusses Vietnam interference in 1973.

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First-year Natsuko Ichikawa didn’t have a say when choosing a second language to study. Growing up in Tokyo, Japan, the decision was made for her: English.

“English always comes first,” Ichikawa said. “And then not French or Spanish, always English.”

At 15, Ichikawa moved to Massachusetts to attend boarding school in Boston. At 19, she attends Pepperdine as a first-year student.

Ichikawa said she sees the lasting influence of the United States on Japanese culture through technology, news coverage and history.

Having learned history in Tokyo and Boston, Ichikawa said she searches to understand past events, specifically the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. She reasons that the participants in World War II were all desperate to win.

“So maybe dropping a bomb was expressing how desperate the United States was,” Ichikawa said.

Ichikawa said she still feels sadness and anger when thinking of the people killed in those nuclear detonations. But when she thinks of foreign influence on Japan, she does not think of America. She immediately thinks of North Korea and China.

They, Ichikawa said, are the biggest threats, and she sees the United States as trying to protect Japan from them. But Ichikawa said she doesn’t always know how to perceive the past and present, because of the American and Japanese influences on her education.

“It’s really hard to see the truth of what happened from those perspectives,” Ichikawa said. *** Junior Kyle Hacek grew up in a town 50 miles south of Chicago.

A Filipino American, Hacek was raised in Manteno, Illinois, by his white father — a native Illinoisan — and his mother — an immigrant from Iloilo in the Philippines.

Hacek’s mother immigrated to the U.S. at 20 to start her nursing career and start a family.

Hacek said her appreciation for the United States started in high school.

2011

2020

U.S. killed Osama Bin Laden

COVID-19 global pandemic began

“Where my mom was in high school,” Hacek said, “it was actually required where every Filipino citizen, man and woman in high school, would have to do a year of military training, where they’re kind of taught the basics sort of like a boot camp, if you will.”

Hacek said his mother holds a positive view of the U.S. as her interactions with the U.S. military in Iloilo fostered a lot of respect.

“She really looks highly upon the U.S.,” Hacek said. “Because after facing harsh imprisonment by the Japanese and with some harsh Spanish influence in the Philippines, America was sort of the first country to put its arms out and welcome the Philippines as a nation of its people deserving to be treated how they should be.”

The U.S. took over the Philippines as a colony after winning the Spanish-American War in 1898, leading to a two-year battle between the Filipino people and the U.S. military. The country became independent in 1946.

Even though the U.S. intervention positively impacted his mother, Hacek said he doesn’t encourage further state-building initiatives in other countries. To him, past success does not necessitate future action.

“I’m not sure there’s a right answer, but my personal opinion would be overall that we should take more of a hands-off approach,” Hacek said. “I understand the United States has surfaced a lot of its money towards its military-industrial complex, and we take pride in being one of the strongest military forces in

the world, but it doesn’t necessarily mean we need to exercise and police that power, and it doesn’t mean we need to extend a hand necessarily over countries that may otherwise need it, because it’s not always our job to intervene, or at least it shouldn’t be.”

“Were they worth it?”

In 1970, Caldwell had just gotten married and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in History from Stanford University. Having participated in the naval ROTC throughout college, he knew he would be serving his country soon, but he also knew he didn’t want to immediately say goodbye to his wife. So Caldwell hatched a plan — he would go to graduate school.

Caldwell attended the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University where he earned a master’s degree in International Relations. When he went on active duty in the Navy, he was tasked with teaching international relations to Navy pilots, Seals and returned prisoners of war from Vietnam.

“It was a tough teaching assignment, but after the first year I figured out how to turn lemons into lemonade,” Caldwell said.

“And if I said ‘Singapore,’ nobody thought it was in Africa or Latin America and probably more than half the class had been there.”

Caldwell spent the majority of his three years in the Navy teaching. Today, as he speaks with veterans on the idea of “worth,” he redirects the question away from the field of action and to their soldiers in arms. From “Was it worth

it” to “Were they worth it?”

“And I think if that question is posed, I think there’s close to unanimous agreement that it was worth it, or they were worth it,” Caldwell said. “The war in Afghanistan, or the war in Iraq, might not have been worth it, but the people with whom members of the military served were worth it, and worth trying to save.”

Vabulas also refuses to approach the idea of “worth” in the traditional sense. In analyzing the unraveling of Afghanistan, Vabulas wrestles with the duality of the consequences of state-building.

“If the Taliban can take that stuff away really quickly, did we set up long-term institutions?”

Vabulas said. “On the one hand, yes, we’ve empowered girls and women to want this and to maybe fight for it themselves. On the other hand, we’ve got a pretty bleak future for many of them for years to come, where they had school for a couple years, and now they’re not going to.”

Vabulas wears an academic lens to view state-building, but she is also influenced by her family background. Vabulas has three military siblings — a member of the 82nd Airborne, another in the Air Force, and a surgeon with the Navy. She said each of them has served multiple tours in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“I would never tell you that what they did and sacrificed was worth nothing,” Vabulas said.

“But the question of, ‘Did it have to be that way if we’d made some different choices earlier on?’

Maybe. It’s really hard to roll back the clock.”

2021

2021

President Donald Trump’s supporters invaded U.S. Capitol

The Afghan government collapsed

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“The Oath Never Stops”: A Marine’s Heart for Service

by Lydia duPerier ­­ photo by Megan Williams

P

52

urpose, service and leadership — Marine veteran Eddie Castillo lived by those words long before he enrolled in Graziadio Business School and heard them as part of Pepperdine’s mission statement.

For as long as he can remember, Castillo has had a heart for service. Whether it be fighting for his country, coaching a special needs baseball team or volunteering to help fellow veterans, Castillo is passionate about giving back. He served two enlistments as a Marine in Afghanistan from 2008 to 2015.

“The oath never stops and global citizenship never ends, you get back home and you just do good,” Castillo said.

Castillo grew up in Compton, California, and knew he wanted to be a Marine from the age of 10. He said people had the tendency to laugh at this idea because he was known to be a lazy kid. This didn’t affect Castillo much — when the opportunity presented itself, he followed his childhood dream and started his journey to becoming a Marine.

“I wanted to give back to my community, my country,” Castillo said, “And once I turned 18, I was like, ‘Alright, time to do it.’”

A young and determined Castillo first enlisted into the Marine Corps at 18 as a logistics manage-

ment specialist, his first military occupational specialty. In this job, he was in charge of making sure his troop had everything they needed to be combat ready.

Castillo then became a Marine Corps martial arts instructor.

Castillo said he trained his fellow Marines to properly defend themselves by using a combination of different fighting techniques: kickboxing, Muay Thai, Jujitsu and Judo.

At 22, Castillo re-enlisted as a forward observer, making him responsible for directing the artillery and mortar fire onto a target.

This was a drastic change from his first position because he now spent his time directly in the field.

Castillo said each position and his collective time serving molded him into the man he is today.

“I mean I can’t even put into words the benefits that come with something like this,” Castillo said.

“I think it’s probably the best decision I, as a young man, could have ever made.”

During his time in the Middle East, Castillo said they did as much

as possible to help the Afghan people. American soldiers trained Afghan soldiers in proper weapon technique, how to save lives and basic life skills. He also said they opened education centers for the Afghan people, where one female student attended school for the first time.

Castillo served a total of seven years with three different military occupational specialties. He took part in the benefits and services that Veteran Affairs offers and decided to come to Pepperdine as a Graziadio student. He is a part of PeppVet, where he connects veterans with other veterans from each of the schools and serves as a voice for the campus-wide veteran community. After graduating, Castillo said he hopes to work for the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.

“I think for anyone who’s committed, you know, who’s raised their hand and done the oath, they think their service is continuous,” Castillo said, “Because I know that I find myself still trying to find ways to give back to the community.”

The Perfect Angle

by Hattie Pace art by Whitney Powell

The train rocks back and forth On the edge of the Earth, it seems.

Valley and falls below, And above us, snowy white peaks.

Deeper into the unknown we trek, But we do not know how to rest.

We are pilgrims of the modern era, Social media taught us how to see.

We are pioneers of the common day, Striving for the perfect angle, and self-discovery.

We flip foreign currency in our hands, Markers of our dual and daily intentions.

One side the clean, admirable and brave; The other grimy, contrived and out of place.

We march in our black winter boots Over cobblestones older than our traceable roots, Wearing down the stones underneath, In search of an encounter with ourselves.

We are pilgrims of the modern era, Pinterest taught us how to see.

We are pioneers of the common day, Our goal is a shiny and new, windblown face.

We drink up our cappuccinos, The fuel to dig deeper into ourselves — And to reach for that next photo op too.

Endlessly catching trains at ungodly hours, Gazing up and out of our boxes; Endlessly learning about the world and ourselves, Staring into mirrors of train window glass.

We seek what is fake, But in an admirable way.

Perhaps it’s the other way around; It’s hard to tell these days.

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Professor Anastasia Triviza Adjusts to Life in LA

by Sarah Best photo by Megan Williams

C

54

ommunication Professor Anastasia Triviza experienced culture shock when she first moved to Los Angeles.

Having grown up in Greece, she later studied in New York City for her master’s degree. Once in LA, she soon realized she needed a car to get from one place to another.

“I thought I could take the bus to go to work in Redondo Beach from Newport Beach,” Triviza said. “I had to take three buses.”

Triviza has been an adjunct professor at Pepperdine since 2009, teaching communication graphics.

After completing her undergraduate degree in Athens, Triviza, then 24, first moved to Brooklyn to study at the Pratt Institute School of Design. Her interest in graphic design grew from her love for both drawing and writing, providing a solution as to how she could engage with both mediums in a more applied way.

Triviza moved to Los Angeles after completing her master’s to commence her career as a maga-

zine writer for Marie Claire magazine, a women’s publication.

The sheer population density of LA was far bigger than New York and Athens, both places where everything is within walking distance.

“Both Athens and New York have easily accessible culture like art exhibitions and museums that you can walk to,” Triviza said.

Comparing LA to Athens, Triviza said they share a culture of being “laid back” and “chill.” She emphasized that there’s an undeniable culture of humanity and hospitality in Greece, a notion she compared to the culture she has experienced while in LA. Now living in Santa Monica and working at Pepperdine, she loves living by the ocean — a char-

acteristic of Pepperdine’s campus she appreciates considering her lack of easy access to the beach while in New York.

Having previously taught at other LA schools, including Santa Monica College and University of Southern California, she sees differences among the students across these schools. Triviza said Pepperdine students have an optimistic and cheerful way about them that she appreciates.

“It’s a very kind culture,” Triviza said. “You feel like people look after each other.”

Triviza still visits Greece at least once a year to see her family, but firmly appreciates the life that she has created in the United States alongside the community she’s established at Pepperdine.

Grow Your Global Mindset Pepperdine students pursue global citizenship through International Programs.

research by Anezka Liskova photos courtesy of International Programs Tanzania, Africa

Faculty-led Programs South Africa Honduras Costa Rica/Argentina C.S. Lewis program St. Petersburg, Russia Vietnam/Cambodia Fiji medical mission Edinburgh theatre program Kenya

Barcelona, Spain

Camino de Santiago Australia film studies program Middle East program Thailand New Zealand sustainability program* Uganda Japan India

Finland

Academic-Year & Summer Programs

Heidelberg Florence London Lausanne Buenos Aires

Shanghai* Washington, D.C. Hong Kong* Lyon*

*These programs are no longer active.

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