PODCAST: UCLA’s Natalie Chou speaks about about her identity
An important voice in these times
Natalie Chou didn’t seek the spotlight to express what the Asian-American experience is right now. The moment found her.
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“There were some really inaccurate words said by our president a week ago, and just the ramifications that occurred right after, like he said, it was just really evident to me,” Chou told me on a podcast this week. “So I had come home from UCLA to Dallas, because everyone was just at home to quarantine, and I just hanging out with some friends, and then there were just some comments that really did not sit right with me. And it really hurt and offended me.”
Chou has decided it is her time to tell people about her own perspective, about what it means to be an American basketball star and the daughter of a Chinese national team member.
It is worth considering her experience, to put yourself in another’s shoes, as we all navigate the current moment and international emergency.
“We’re seen as the model minority,” Chou said. “We’re self-reliant. We don’t really talk about these kinds of stuff. We just go under the radar in this country. So I really felt the pressure of even my culture, because I mean we saw that Jeremy Lin tweeted, and I also saw some other actors in the industry tweeting about this kind of stuff, but no one else really.”
Listen to the whole interview. Chou is absolutely a vital voice for these times.
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