MTV news correspondent SuChin Pak spoke at Hamilton about MTV, Generation X and multiculturalism as part of the College's Voices of Color Lecture Series on March 6. Pak used examples from her own life to discuss race, identity and empowerment.
The lecture opened with a video clip from "My Life Translated," Pak's documentary series about children of immigrant families growing up in America. The clip focused on the difficulty many young women from other cultures have with body image because they judge themselves by American standards of beauty; Pak discussed her own practice of taping her eyelids to be creased so as to achieve a "Western" look when she was younger. Pak's interest in stories of the intersection of American and immigrant cultures and "kids who juggle both identities" arises from her own experience as a child of immigrants from Korea, who were still learning English while she was growing up. She described feeling an "identity crisis" between her American and Koran identities, which manifested in her desire to distance herself from her family and be a "normal American person" when she went to college, including joining a sorority just to live on campus apart from her parents. Only later, after visiting Korea and noticing the lack of racial diversity there, did Pak realize "the identify crisis is my identity, and it's not so much of a crisis."
When Pak entered the television business (as "a total fluke" after being recruited to host a show about teen issues), she realized that she knew television was "what I want to do with my life." She found she was able to "use TV to do what I had always wanted to do," including raising issues of multiculturalism. Pak has already seen some significant changes in the treatment of multiculturalism through her work, such as when she found out that her discussion of her pressure to crease her eyes had led Seventeen magazine to remove the words "fold" and "crease" from copy of their beauty articles. She was also recently selected to be the spokesperson for Girl Scouts of the USA, dispelling her prior impressions that a person had to "be an American girl to be a girl scout." Changes like these led Pak to suggest that "we've come a long way" because "all of us are redefining what it means to be American."
In terms of explicit issues of discrimination, Pak has seen her share of racism, including a cameraman who told her to open her eyes for a shot when she in fact had them fully open. She also mentioned how when she first entered the newsroom her capabilities were doubted by many male newscasters, who did not expect a woman to be able to discuss politics. However, she also pointed out that "I don't think I would have ever gotten this far" without using the "race card" to attain access to positions because of her ethnicity. The issue is also complicated by her ties to her Korean community, from which she said her "harshest criticisms" arose for stepping outside the community. Pak recommended that "voices of color" should try to attain "jobs that actually make decisions," and "say whatever the heck you want, as long as you have the smarts to back it up." Ultimately, Pak said young people of color must be proactive about choosing their identity: "you have to define those things for yourself, otherwise others will define it for you," she said.
Pak hopes to continue working on multicultural issues, either in front of the television or behind it, to "redefine and reshape what this country talks about." Her documentary series is her initial attempt at doing so, and remains much more important to her than the higher rated programs she has worked on; she believes that "getting paid to do something you like to do is the gold ticket in life." For Pak, the ability to "own your work" is "the true definition to me of empowerment" because "no one can take that away."
-- by Kye Lippold '10
The lecture opened with a video clip from "My Life Translated," Pak's documentary series about children of immigrant families growing up in America. The clip focused on the difficulty many young women from other cultures have with body image because they judge themselves by American standards of beauty; Pak discussed her own practice of taping her eyelids to be creased so as to achieve a "Western" look when she was younger. Pak's interest in stories of the intersection of American and immigrant cultures and "kids who juggle both identities" arises from her own experience as a child of immigrants from Korea, who were still learning English while she was growing up. She described feeling an "identity crisis" between her American and Koran identities, which manifested in her desire to distance herself from her family and be a "normal American person" when she went to college, including joining a sorority just to live on campus apart from her parents. Only later, after visiting Korea and noticing the lack of racial diversity there, did Pak realize "the identify crisis is my identity, and it's not so much of a crisis."
When Pak entered the television business (as "a total fluke" after being recruited to host a show about teen issues), she realized that she knew television was "what I want to do with my life." She found she was able to "use TV to do what I had always wanted to do," including raising issues of multiculturalism. Pak has already seen some significant changes in the treatment of multiculturalism through her work, such as when she found out that her discussion of her pressure to crease her eyes had led Seventeen magazine to remove the words "fold" and "crease" from copy of their beauty articles. She was also recently selected to be the spokesperson for Girl Scouts of the USA, dispelling her prior impressions that a person had to "be an American girl to be a girl scout." Changes like these led Pak to suggest that "we've come a long way" because "all of us are redefining what it means to be American."
In terms of explicit issues of discrimination, Pak has seen her share of racism, including a cameraman who told her to open her eyes for a shot when she in fact had them fully open. She also mentioned how when she first entered the newsroom her capabilities were doubted by many male newscasters, who did not expect a woman to be able to discuss politics. However, she also pointed out that "I don't think I would have ever gotten this far" without using the "race card" to attain access to positions because of her ethnicity. The issue is also complicated by her ties to her Korean community, from which she said her "harshest criticisms" arose for stepping outside the community. Pak recommended that "voices of color" should try to attain "jobs that actually make decisions," and "say whatever the heck you want, as long as you have the smarts to back it up." Ultimately, Pak said young people of color must be proactive about choosing their identity: "you have to define those things for yourself, otherwise others will define it for you," she said.
Pak hopes to continue working on multicultural issues, either in front of the television or behind it, to "redefine and reshape what this country talks about." Her documentary series is her initial attempt at doing so, and remains much more important to her than the higher rated programs she has worked on; she believes that "getting paid to do something you like to do is the gold ticket in life." For Pak, the ability to "own your work" is "the true definition to me of empowerment" because "no one can take that away."
-- by Kye Lippold '10
