October 5, 2023 • 20 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, as part of our True Diversity Series with Philanthropy Roundtable, we tell the story of Patrice Onwuka, who was born in Montserrat, moved to a town outside of Boston, and lived her American dream—from watching political pundits on TV to becoming one.
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Speaker 1 (00:12):
And we return to our American stories. Up next, a
story from our True Diversity series sponsored by the great
folks at Philanthropy Roundtable America is leading advocate for your
freedom to support the causes you believe in. Their True
Diversity initiative encourages Americans to embrace all the qualities that
make us unique individuals, because there's so much more to
(00:34):
each of our stories than what's defined by a group,
identity or other superficial traits. Today we meet a partner
of their campaign, Patrice on Wuka Take it Away.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Patrese, My story starts back in the Caribbean. I was
born in the tiny Alan call Mansarrat. For the most part,
most people work in some shape or form in a
way that is connected to the government. And even more
difficult for people is that if you are not connected,
(01:07):
if you are not wealthy already, the likelihood of your
children being able to go to college, go to graduate school,
really achieve beyond what you yourself as an adult is
doing now it's very small. And my parents they were
not connected, they were not wealthy, and they recognized that,
(01:28):
you know, for us, their children to be able to
achieve greater things, it was not going to happen in
this tiny parochial island of Mansarra. That's why they decided
to move to the United States, where there would be
so much more opportunity for them. So they filed for
us to come to this country, and my parents went
(01:49):
through the entire legal process. It was expensive, it was
very long years. It took years to get through, but
they did it. And to do it, they sold our home,
they sold the cars. We had two cars at the time,
and you know, they left a pretty decent middle class lifestyle.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
They weren't rich, but we.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Had a split level home overlooking the water, which you know,
on an island is pretty easy but still beautiful, gorgeous
views to working people. And they traded all of that.
There was not necessarily parody between the currency and our
island and the US dollars, so obviously our money back
(02:36):
then didn't go very far, and they ended up selling
everything and moving to the United States with just about
five suitcases of clothes and not a lot of money
to start over, literally from scratch. And I think to myself,
why in the world would they do this. It wasn't
like we moved to Florida to Miami. We moved to Boston, Massachusetts.
(02:59):
We lived indoor Chester, and you're leaving temperatures of seventy
degrees in sunny with a cool ocean breeze every single
day to move to cold, icy, snowy Boston, where the familiarity,
all of the things you know, the people you know,
(03:21):
you know, are left behind, all of the culture, the
experiences that you're accustomed to. The smells, I mean waking
up and smelling mangoes from the tree outside, seeing kids
playing on the streets well into the evening time, driving
on a Saturday to go get a hot, freshly baked
(03:43):
loaf of bread with cheese, and watching the sandal guy
make slippers across the way while you're under a tamerin tree,
enjoying life. Going by very slowly and calmly to Boston.
And not a van in Boston, not Beacon Hill in Boston,
not Copply you know, it's Dorchester. And this was in
(04:08):
nineteen eighty five. We moved to Boston. This was during
the height of the drug epidemic, and so it was
like going from your coloring book page where it's full
of reds and greens and blues and purples and yellows,
and you flip the page and it's all gray. It's
all shades of gray and black and somber. The joy
(04:32):
of familiarity has been replaced by the uncertainty of the unknown.
And my parents, you know, they found a little apartment.
It was in a two I guess it's a three
story house. It was the top attic apartment. It had
two bedrooms, one window in the front and a back door,
so it was it was tiny, very hot in the
(04:55):
summertime because there was no ac you know, we went
to the lawn mat to wash our clothes, but in
between that we had to wash things by hand.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
So my father was a laborer.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
He worked to for construction companies at the time, and
he would leave in the wee dark hours of the
morning and come back late into the evening, and he
would be caked, caked in mud and still my mom,
who was, you know, an entry level accountant, she would
(05:28):
come home, exhausted, understandably, cook a fresh pot of dinner,
usually rice and chicken, make sure my brother and I
had done our school work and our homework, put us
to bed, and then head right to the bathroom where
she would take my father's jeans, his work clothes and
(05:49):
fill up the tub and start washing the caked mud
out of his jeans. She'd be hunched over the tiny
tub on her knees, well into the dark night, scrubbing
those genes by hand. And I and sat once in
a while, and I would wake up just to use
the bathroom, and I would see her there. I remember
(06:10):
that those images, and it's like seared into my memory.
It's so vivid that I could just see her tired,
just the veins on her hands, you know, burgeoning as
she's scrubbing with soap, you know, my dad's jeans. I
mean that I learned quickly and early that that is love,
(06:32):
that that is sacrifice, that that is hard work, but
that you, as a parent, in a spouse, you will
do everything and anything to ensure that your family is
taken care of and has what each member needs. And
my dad needed clean clothes, and my mom would do
that and then she'd go to bed and wake up
(06:54):
early and start the process all over again. And you know,
that is part of the hardness of America, because my
parents came to this country thinking that the streets were
paved with gold. I mean, that is that's that's the
mantra overseas, everything is greater in America. When when people
(07:14):
come back home to visit, they come with money, they
have their gold jewelry, they're flashy. They talk about how
great things are, and I'm sure things are better for them,
but they don't always talk about the challenges, the hardness,
the difficulties of assimilation, the difficulties of learning how to
(07:35):
make your own way in a country that you know,
it prides itself on individualism and community, certainly community when
it comes to the church, and it comes to philanthropy
and charity, but there's an element of just you figure
it out on your own, and that was part of
the hardness and the difficulty of transitioning, you know. Part
(07:58):
of also the challenge is just the environment. Rampant drug
dealing and violence associated with it spilled over from the
groups of kids on the corner to the kids who
were just going about their day. And I remember a
young woman, I believe her name was Tiffany Smith. She
was killed just what a block or two from our home.
(08:20):
She was on a mailbox, sitting on the mailbox, probably
shouldn't have been out late at night, but she was
shot and killed and that was a wake up call
in the entire city to recognize that the street violence
had to be addressed. But again, my parents will tell
you that despite the challenges, the hardship, the difficulties of
(08:41):
living in America, it was worth it.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
And you've been listening to Patrice on Wuka share her
family's story, her assimilation to America from the small island
in the Caribbean, Montserrat and finding themselves not in Miami,
not even North or South Carolina, but no Boston, icy coal,
Boston and Dorchester, a tough suburb outside of Boston where
(09:07):
they had to make do and make their way in
a new country, no familiarity, the toughness of the weather,
the culture. I love that she pointed out the smells.
My grandfather had come from Sicily and had the same
things to tell me. When we come back more of
our True Diversity series with patrise On Wucah here on
our American Stories, and we continue with our American stories
(09:41):
and with patrise On Wuca's story. As part of our
True Diversity series, we returned to Patrice on her immigrant
parents buying their first home in America when she was
in the fourth grade.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Buying your first home is a huge deal, especially when
you've come to this country with so little where you
have where you have worked menial jobs, worked over time,
given up time with your family just to ensure that
(10:18):
you could put a meal on the table every day,
shoes on the kid's feet, and my parents somehow working
in jobs that collectively paid them less than my first
job in DC, as in my job. My first job
in DC paid very little because I worked for a nonprofit,
but I still made more in that first job than
(10:41):
my parents made together when I was growing up. But
despite that, they saved and saved for a down payment
for a home, and it was a home miles at
least forty five minutes away on the very outskirts of
the city of Boston, still within city limits, but in
a neighborhood where for the first time they could breathe
(11:05):
a sigh of relief. They weren't worried about us getting
shot or killed, my brother getting recruited to a gang.
It was far and that meant that when there was
a bus strike, I would have to take the public
transport rather than the school bus to school, and that
(11:26):
was nerve racking for my mom because I was eight
years old, a little girl, and my parents had to work,
and so two choices. Patrise stays at home for the
however long the school bus strike would be, and it
ended up being for months on end, or Patrice learns
to take the transit public transit by herself. And that
(11:49):
was a commute of two bus rides about fifteen to
twenty minutes each, as well as a thirty minute training
ride in between, a very long trip. And my parents said,
you know what, her education is too important. And so
the first day of the bus strike, my mom she
figured out the route. We took the bus, we took
(12:12):
the train, we took another bus, we got off at
my school stop, and she said, this is how you
do it every day, and she would join me in
the morning and then go to work and in the afternoon.
I was one hundred percent on my own to do
the same route going home. And even in my fourth grade,
eight or nine year old heart, I knew I could
(12:34):
do it.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
I wasn't scared one bit.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
It was nerve wracking, and I should have been scared
considering some of the things that I saw.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
I mean, even though I.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Was tall for my age, all I remember were just
legs people were walking like trees because they were so
much bigger than me.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
But imagine seeing a.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Little girl with two long braids and a backpack on
her back and a little purse on her shoulder, navigating
through the legs of grown adults going to school and
coming home every day. And I did it for months
on end until that school by strike finally came to
an end, because again, our education was paramount and even
(13:15):
and I learned at that age that I had to
be willing to make a sacrifice for my education, for
what was important. And I did it, and every day
my parents came home, they knew that I called my
mom when I got home to let her know. I
let myself in.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
And I was safe.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
And unfortunately, I look back and look at the kids
who took the other choice, who did not take the bus,
or did not find someone else to carpool with, who
literally stayed home for most of this school year. They
ended up getting left behind and had to repeat their
education at that grade level. It's just a reminder that
(13:58):
the sacrifices are worth it. And so it taught me
at an early level or early age, just to prize
my education to work hard. And there were blessings. I
call them blessings. Even in the midst of that. I
remember for.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
About a week on a stretch, every.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Afternoon when I got on at the first bus, there
would be a dollar in my chair or a dollar
in the spot where I would usually sit, and I
don't know where that dollar came from. I would look around,
there was no one there, so I would just take
that dollar up and put it in my little purse.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
And it happened one day.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Then it happened the next day, Then it happened the
next day. I truly believe that someone saw a little
girl getting on the public transit bus every day to
go home from school and said, boy, let me do
something good for her. And I will never know who
that person is. Maybe you're listening.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
I don't know, Thank you if you are. I taught
me a lot about private charity. But my education.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
I went to Boston Latin School for high school, went
on to Tufts University, where I studied economics and potal
political science, and for the first time really understood why
I had such a passion for politics. And I loved
the economy and loved understanding how the micro decisions that
people make as consumers as business owners really impacts the
(15:28):
larger economy and how the government's decisions impact the little person,
the small business owner and the individual.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
And I decided that that is what I really wanted
to go into, you know.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
And one of the things that we did very regularly
is that my parents would watch television programs at night,
specifically PBS. They loved the McLoughlin group, and over the years,
even after we moved out of that apartment and moved
into our first home, there was never a week that
political commentary shows were not on our television screen.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
And I hated it. I will be honest. I thought
they were boring, they were annoying.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
I wanted to watch cartoons or I wanted to watch
something where people were laughing. Instead, I would see people
yelling back and forth or talking about foreign policy, talking
about the economy, things that to me at a tender
age were just as foreign as you know, speaking to
someone from another country in another language. So the irony
(16:32):
is that I would become one of those talking heads
on television. And it hit me that moment where you know,
you finally made it to a place you never thought
you would be when your mom calls you and says,
I was getting ready for church on a Sunday morning,
and I hear my daughter's voice. And I live in Washington, DC,
(16:56):
and she's in Boston and she's looking around, and next
thing you know, she looks up and sees me on
television on a PBS Sunday morning show talking about policy,
and she said, I was overjoyed.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
I had not told her I was going to be
on the show. In fact, I've forgotten. You know.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
I started getting into the television commentary circuit on a
regular basis, and I very much am.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
But to me it was not a big deal.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
But to her, to her, it meant the world. Because
the little girl who she thought wasn't paying attention to
the McLoughlin group or to all of the commentary shows
that we would watch and my parents would watch and
debate politics. She never knew that I was taking notes
and in my little heart a desire to be able
to become one of those voices and be representative of
(17:49):
the viewpoints that she holds. She never imagined that being
part of my destiny only in America is something like
that possible. You know, here you are, You've got here,
I am.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
I'm a woman.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
I'm an immigrant, I'm a proud naturalized American citizen. I
believe in independence and freedom and autonomy.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
I am so many things.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Wrapped up in one ball of passion and purpose and energy.
And sometimes people don't know what to do with me
when they assume that I'm going to think a certain
way or view a particular issue from one viewpoint because
of my gender, or because of my ethnicity, or because
of my race.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
And I surprise them, and I'm happy to do that.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
And my gender should not dictate how I view life.
My race does not dictate my worldview.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
We should be.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Treated as individuals who bring different perspectives, different backgrounds, different
lived experiences to the table and treated as such. When
we start labeling people and limiting them based just on
the superficial outward categories, we miss the richness, the textures,
(19:09):
the uniqueness that makes every person an individual.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
And a special thanks to patrise On Wuco for sharing
her story. Her story has been a part of our
True Diversity series sponsored by Philanthropy Roundtable. Learn more at
trudiversity dot org. And Patrese's story is a story of
millions of immigrants who come here to improve their Lives.
What a moment it must have been for Patrice's mom
(19:35):
to look at that television and see her daughter on it.
Years before Patrise was being forced to watch the McLaughlin
group by her parents, those same parents, and there she
was now on the television giving her opinions. And by
the way, I loved what she said. I am proud
to be a naturalized American citizen, she said. My Italian
(19:57):
grandparents and my Lebanese grand parents told me the same thing.
And when that flag was flying in front of both
of their homes, it meant something to them. The story
of Patrise on WUKA part of our True Diversity series.
Here on our American Stories
And we return to our American stories. Up next, a
story from our True Diversity series sponsored by the great
folks at Philanthropy Roundtable America is leading advocate for your
freedom to support the causes you believe in. Their True
Diversity initiative encourages Americans to embrace all the qualities that
make us unique individuals, because there's so much more to
(00:34):
each of our stories than what's defined by a group,
identity or other superficial traits. Today we meet a partner
of their campaign, Patrice on Wuka Take it Away.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Patrese, My story starts back in the Caribbean. I was
born in the tiny Alan call Mansarrat. For the most part,
most people work in some shape or form in a
way that is connected to the government. And even more
difficult for people is that if you are not connected,
(01:07):
if you are not wealthy already, the likelihood of your
children being able to go to college, go to graduate school,
really achieve beyond what you yourself as an adult is
doing now it's very small. And my parents they were
not connected, they were not wealthy, and they recognized that,
(01:28):
you know, for us, their children to be able to
achieve greater things, it was not going to happen in
this tiny parochial island of Mansarra. That's why they decided
to move to the United States, where there would be
so much more opportunity for them. So they filed for
us to come to this country, and my parents went
(01:49):
through the entire legal process. It was expensive, it was
very long years. It took years to get through, but
they did it. And to do it, they sold our home,
they sold the cars. We had two cars at the time,
and you know, they left a pretty decent middle class lifestyle.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
They weren't rich, but we.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Had a split level home overlooking the water, which you know,
on an island is pretty easy but still beautiful, gorgeous
views to working people. And they traded all of that.
There was not necessarily parody between the currency and our
island and the US dollars, so obviously our money back
(02:36):
then didn't go very far, and they ended up selling
everything and moving to the United States with just about
five suitcases of clothes and not a lot of money
to start over, literally from scratch. And I think to myself,
why in the world would they do this. It wasn't
like we moved to Florida to Miami. We moved to Boston, Massachusetts.
(02:59):
We lived indoor Chester, and you're leaving temperatures of seventy
degrees in sunny with a cool ocean breeze every single
day to move to cold, icy, snowy Boston, where the familiarity,
all of the things you know, the people you know,
(03:21):
you know, are left behind, all of the culture, the
experiences that you're accustomed to. The smells, I mean waking
up and smelling mangoes from the tree outside, seeing kids
playing on the streets well into the evening time, driving
on a Saturday to go get a hot, freshly baked
(03:43):
loaf of bread with cheese, and watching the sandal guy
make slippers across the way while you're under a tamerin tree,
enjoying life. Going by very slowly and calmly to Boston.
And not a van in Boston, not Beacon Hill in Boston,
not Copply you know, it's Dorchester. And this was in
(04:08):
nineteen eighty five. We moved to Boston. This was during
the height of the drug epidemic, and so it was
like going from your coloring book page where it's full
of reds and greens and blues and purples and yellows,
and you flip the page and it's all gray. It's
all shades of gray and black and somber. The joy
(04:32):
of familiarity has been replaced by the uncertainty of the unknown.
And my parents, you know, they found a little apartment.
It was in a two I guess it's a three
story house. It was the top attic apartment. It had
two bedrooms, one window in the front and a back door,
so it was it was tiny, very hot in the
(04:55):
summertime because there was no ac you know, we went
to the lawn mat to wash our clothes, but in
between that we had to wash things by hand.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
So my father was a laborer.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
He worked to for construction companies at the time, and
he would leave in the wee dark hours of the
morning and come back late into the evening, and he
would be caked, caked in mud and still my mom,
who was, you know, an entry level accountant, she would
(05:28):
come home, exhausted, understandably, cook a fresh pot of dinner,
usually rice and chicken, make sure my brother and I
had done our school work and our homework, put us
to bed, and then head right to the bathroom where
she would take my father's jeans, his work clothes and
(05:49):
fill up the tub and start washing the caked mud
out of his jeans. She'd be hunched over the tiny
tub on her knees, well into the dark night, scrubbing
those genes by hand. And I and sat once in
a while, and I would wake up just to use
the bathroom, and I would see her there. I remember
(06:10):
that those images, and it's like seared into my memory.
It's so vivid that I could just see her tired,
just the veins on her hands, you know, burgeoning as
she's scrubbing with soap, you know, my dad's jeans. I
mean that I learned quickly and early that that is love,
(06:32):
that that is sacrifice, that that is hard work, but
that you, as a parent, in a spouse, you will
do everything and anything to ensure that your family is
taken care of and has what each member needs. And
my dad needed clean clothes, and my mom would do
that and then she'd go to bed and wake up
(06:54):
early and start the process all over again. And you know,
that is part of the hardness of America, because my
parents came to this country thinking that the streets were
paved with gold. I mean, that is that's that's the
mantra overseas, everything is greater in America. When when people
(07:14):
come back home to visit, they come with money, they
have their gold jewelry, they're flashy. They talk about how
great things are, and I'm sure things are better for them,
but they don't always talk about the challenges, the hardness,
the difficulties of assimilation, the difficulties of learning how to
(07:35):
make your own way in a country that you know,
it prides itself on individualism and community, certainly community when
it comes to the church, and it comes to philanthropy
and charity, but there's an element of just you figure
it out on your own, and that was part of
the hardness and the difficulty of transitioning, you know. Part
(07:58):
of also the challenge is just the environment. Rampant drug
dealing and violence associated with it spilled over from the
groups of kids on the corner to the kids who
were just going about their day. And I remember a
young woman, I believe her name was Tiffany Smith. She
was killed just what a block or two from our home.
(08:20):
She was on a mailbox, sitting on the mailbox, probably
shouldn't have been out late at night, but she was
shot and killed and that was a wake up call
in the entire city to recognize that the street violence
had to be addressed. But again, my parents will tell
you that despite the challenges, the hardship, the difficulties of
(08:41):
living in America, it was worth it.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
And you've been listening to Patrice on Wuka share her
family's story, her assimilation to America from the small island
in the Caribbean, Montserrat and finding themselves not in Miami,
not even North or South Carolina, but no Boston, icy coal,
Boston and Dorchester, a tough suburb outside of Boston where
(09:07):
they had to make do and make their way in
a new country, no familiarity, the toughness of the weather,
the culture. I love that she pointed out the smells.
My grandfather had come from Sicily and had the same
things to tell me. When we come back more of
our True Diversity series with patrise On Wucah here on
our American Stories, and we continue with our American stories
(09:41):
and with patrise On Wuca's story. As part of our
True Diversity series, we returned to Patrice on her immigrant
parents buying their first home in America when she was
in the fourth grade.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Buying your first home is a huge deal, especially when
you've come to this country with so little where you
have where you have worked menial jobs, worked over time,
given up time with your family just to ensure that
(10:18):
you could put a meal on the table every day,
shoes on the kid's feet, and my parents somehow working
in jobs that collectively paid them less than my first
job in DC, as in my job. My first job
in DC paid very little because I worked for a nonprofit,
but I still made more in that first job than
(10:41):
my parents made together when I was growing up. But
despite that, they saved and saved for a down payment
for a home, and it was a home miles at
least forty five minutes away on the very outskirts of
the city of Boston, still within city limits, but in
a neighborhood where for the first time they could breathe
(11:05):
a sigh of relief. They weren't worried about us getting
shot or killed, my brother getting recruited to a gang.
It was far and that meant that when there was
a bus strike, I would have to take the public
transport rather than the school bus to school, and that
(11:26):
was nerve racking for my mom because I was eight
years old, a little girl, and my parents had to work,
and so two choices. Patrise stays at home for the
however long the school bus strike would be, and it
ended up being for months on end, or Patrice learns
to take the transit public transit by herself. And that
(11:49):
was a commute of two bus rides about fifteen to
twenty minutes each, as well as a thirty minute training
ride in between, a very long trip. And my parents said,
you know what, her education is too important. And so
the first day of the bus strike, my mom she
figured out the route. We took the bus, we took
(12:12):
the train, we took another bus, we got off at
my school stop, and she said, this is how you
do it every day, and she would join me in
the morning and then go to work and in the afternoon.
I was one hundred percent on my own to do
the same route going home. And even in my fourth grade,
eight or nine year old heart, I knew I could
(12:34):
do it.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
I wasn't scared one bit.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
It was nerve wracking, and I should have been scared
considering some of the things that I saw.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
I mean, even though I.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Was tall for my age, all I remember were just
legs people were walking like trees because they were so
much bigger than me.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
But imagine seeing a.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Little girl with two long braids and a backpack on
her back and a little purse on her shoulder, navigating
through the legs of grown adults going to school and
coming home every day. And I did it for months
on end until that school by strike finally came to
an end, because again, our education was paramount and even
(13:15):
and I learned at that age that I had to
be willing to make a sacrifice for my education, for
what was important. And I did it, and every day
my parents came home, they knew that I called my
mom when I got home to let her know. I
let myself in.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
And I was safe.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
And unfortunately, I look back and look at the kids
who took the other choice, who did not take the bus,
or did not find someone else to carpool with, who
literally stayed home for most of this school year. They
ended up getting left behind and had to repeat their
education at that grade level. It's just a reminder that
(13:58):
the sacrifices are worth it. And so it taught me
at an early level or early age, just to prize
my education to work hard. And there were blessings. I
call them blessings. Even in the midst of that. I
remember for.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
About a week on a stretch, every.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Afternoon when I got on at the first bus, there
would be a dollar in my chair or a dollar
in the spot where I would usually sit, and I
don't know where that dollar came from. I would look around,
there was no one there, so I would just take
that dollar up and put it in my little purse.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
And it happened one day.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Then it happened the next day, Then it happened the
next day. I truly believe that someone saw a little
girl getting on the public transit bus every day to
go home from school and said, boy, let me do
something good for her. And I will never know who
that person is. Maybe you're listening.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
I don't know, Thank you if you are. I taught
me a lot about private charity. But my education.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
I went to Boston Latin School for high school, went
on to Tufts University, where I studied economics and potal
political science, and for the first time really understood why
I had such a passion for politics. And I loved
the economy and loved understanding how the micro decisions that
people make as consumers as business owners really impacts the
(15:28):
larger economy and how the government's decisions impact the little person,
the small business owner and the individual.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
And I decided that that is what I really wanted
to go into, you know.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
And one of the things that we did very regularly
is that my parents would watch television programs at night,
specifically PBS. They loved the McLoughlin group, and over the years,
even after we moved out of that apartment and moved
into our first home, there was never a week that
political commentary shows were not on our television screen.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
And I hated it. I will be honest. I thought
they were boring, they were annoying.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
I wanted to watch cartoons or I wanted to watch
something where people were laughing. Instead, I would see people
yelling back and forth or talking about foreign policy, talking
about the economy, things that to me at a tender
age were just as foreign as you know, speaking to
someone from another country in another language. So the irony
(16:32):
is that I would become one of those talking heads
on television. And it hit me that moment where you know,
you finally made it to a place you never thought
you would be when your mom calls you and says,
I was getting ready for church on a Sunday morning,
and I hear my daughter's voice. And I live in Washington, DC,
(16:56):
and she's in Boston and she's looking around, and next
thing you know, she looks up and sees me on
television on a PBS Sunday morning show talking about policy,
and she said, I was overjoyed.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
I had not told her I was going to be
on the show. In fact, I've forgotten. You know.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
I started getting into the television commentary circuit on a
regular basis, and I very much am.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
But to me it was not a big deal.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
But to her, to her, it meant the world. Because
the little girl who she thought wasn't paying attention to
the McLoughlin group or to all of the commentary shows
that we would watch and my parents would watch and
debate politics. She never knew that I was taking notes
and in my little heart a desire to be able
to become one of those voices and be representative of
(17:49):
the viewpoints that she holds. She never imagined that being
part of my destiny only in America is something like
that possible. You know, here you are, You've got here,
I am.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
I'm a woman.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
I'm an immigrant, I'm a proud naturalized American citizen. I
believe in independence and freedom and autonomy.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
I am so many things.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Wrapped up in one ball of passion and purpose and energy.
And sometimes people don't know what to do with me
when they assume that I'm going to think a certain
way or view a particular issue from one viewpoint because
of my gender, or because of my ethnicity, or because
of my race.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
And I surprise them, and I'm happy to do that.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
And my gender should not dictate how I view life.
My race does not dictate my worldview.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
We should be.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Treated as individuals who bring different perspectives, different backgrounds, different
lived experiences to the table and treated as such. When
we start labeling people and limiting them based just on
the superficial outward categories, we miss the richness, the textures,
(19:09):
the uniqueness that makes every person an individual.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
And a special thanks to patrise On Wuco for sharing
her story. Her story has been a part of our
True Diversity series sponsored by Philanthropy Roundtable. Learn more at
trudiversity dot org. And Patrese's story is a story of
millions of immigrants who come here to improve their Lives.
What a moment it must have been for Patrice's mom
(19:35):
to look at that television and see her daughter on it.
Years before Patrise was being forced to watch the McLaughlin
group by her parents, those same parents, and there she
was now on the television giving her opinions. And by
the way, I loved what she said. I am proud
to be a naturalized American citizen, she said. My Italian
(19:57):
grandparents and my Lebanese grand parents told me the same thing.
And when that flag was flying in front of both
of their homes, it meant something to them. The story
of Patrise on WUKA part of our True Diversity series.
Here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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