Progress in Saigon 40 years after the Fall of Saigon, perspective on the youth of Baltimore from people in the community, this week's weird stories in science.
Black and young in Baltimore: a roundtable discussion
For young people of color, growing up in Baltimore is often anything but Rockwellian.
Most of the community lives below the poverty line and there’s a widespread distrust of law enforcement. Consequently, for many of those young people, the recent death of Freddie Gray was a tipping point. On Monday, the frustration of a community boiled over into rioting and looting.
Kimberly Moffitt is an associate professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She says that the riots that took place earlier this week are just an outward expression of the local community’s dissatisfaction with what they perceive to be a severely biased criminal justice system.
“Young African American boys feel like they’ve become targets. Especially if they’re in particular communities,” Moffitt tells Take Two. “There’s this shift that starts to happen that we don’t any longer look at them as young children, but we’re actually viewing them as young adults who we consider to be guilty already, and to face levels of political violence as if they’ve already been accused of a crime. If that is a bias that, as adults, we’re bringing to the table or bringing into situations with young children, then what that does is breed an energy among young people where they’re reacting to what they’ve been subjected to for so long.”
Community activist
grew up in Baltimore. He says that members of the black community begin to understand their social status early on in life. “I remember being in some spaces where my school book was almost as old as my parent’s college degree, and my parents both graduated in the 1970s,” Thomas tells Take Two. “Because of the existential absurdity of what a lot of our young brothers and sisters in Baltimore have to deal with, this is a result of years and years of neglect and ignoring their cries for help and for justice.”
Many of the environmental factors that lead to Monday’s riots are not exclusive to Baltimore. USC law professor Jody Armour says that things may have been worse, had it not been for the Rampart Scandal. “As a result, there was a decree between the DOJ and the L.A.P.D., and the LAPD underwent some real reforms. Bratton was brought in, he had to move away from [the] broken windows approach and adopt those reforms and take a more community-oriented approach,” Armour explained. “Over the last five years, we’ve seen a 50% reduction in gang-related violence in L.A. under this new community-oriented approach at the L.A.P.D. [The] Sheriff’s Department is going to have to follow the example of the L.A.P.D. and undergo reform; [then] we can start to stave-off some of the issues going on in Baltimore.“
To hear more of today’s Baltimore youth roundtable, click the play button above.
A new Little Saigon emerges as food, cultural scene evolves
At first glance, the mini-mall at the southeast corner of Brookhurst Street and McFadden Avenue in Westminster looks much dozens of other mini-malls in what's known as Little Saigon. Walk its length and you'll find a string of traditional businesses: A flower shop, a hair salon, foot-massage spa.
There are the time-honored mom-and-pop restaurants that line much of this stretch of Brookhurst. One place advertises Vietnamese hot pot; another tiny place sells food to go, its menu posted on the wall, all in Vietnamese.
Then from a building at the very end, wedged between a doctor’s office and a pharmacy, emanates the sound of loud hip-hop and whirring blenders: The Tebo Tebo Cafe, one of several newer businesses that caters to what you might call Little Saigon 2.0.
Forty years after the fall of Saigon in Vietnam created Orange County's Vietnamese diaspora, the pocket of northwest Orange County known as Little Saigon is changing. Children of immigrants have come of age and opened their own businesses, some distinctly American — but still Vietnamese.
At Tebo Tebo, a young waiter with Buddy Holly glasses and a spiky crew cut describes the menu as "Authentic Asian food with a twist." A traditional snack like the pork belly bun is rechristened as a "Poison Kiss."
An avocado and condensed milk dessert drink is referred to as a "Sticky Mess," a vanilla and strawberry smoothie as a "Sunburned White Boy." Milk tea with boba is served in glass containers reminiscent of old milk bottles.
The decor is decidedly funky, the crowd young. Jessica Vu, 25, sits with a friend while she waits for her lunch. She says she likes the vibe.
“We have a lot of options for traditional food," Vu said. "But it's a more modern atmosphere. I think that’s why a lot of people come here."
Little Saigon's food scene especially has become a mix of old and new, the traditional married with the modern. It’s something local businessman Tam Nguyen has seen take off in the last few years. He grew up in Little Saigon.
“Now, it’s like, wow! When I look at it now, it’s run not only by those founders who were around 30-40 years ago, but by the second generation," Nguyen said. "There are so many cool restaurants and hip things and places and juice bars and tea places.”
Nguyen used to chair the local Vietnamese American Chamber of Commerce. He says the last five years have given rise not just to new restaurants, but all kinds of businesses – print shops, fashion shops, you name it – run by children of immigrants.
Some inherited them, like he and his sister did - they run a local beauty college that their parents founded. Others are doing their own thing.
Samy Nguyen (no relation to Tam Nguyen) trained as a professional chef and went to work for the high-end Patina chain. He spent time living in Pasadena. But he recently returned to Garden Grove to head up the kitchen at Tra House, a new restaurant that bills its menu as “twisted Vietnamese cuisine.”
“It’s like a French technique, but it’s basically American food," said Nguyen, 39. "I grew up on American, food, meat and potatoes, and that is what I do well.”
Along with versions of Vietnamese street food and other dishes, are straightforward steaks and pork chops, on which Nguyen says he uses just a hint of Asian seasonings.
Now that he's back, Nguyen sees other second-generation Vietnamese Americans investing in Little Saigon.
“They are actually staying here, but they are building bigger homes. So they are keeping the money in the community," he said. "And they’re keeping it cleaner. The community was...dirtier and more infested before, there were more gangsters and what not. Now it’s more college kids and families.”
Quinnie Nguyen, who’s also not a relative, runs the restaurant along with her two siblings. They learned from her parents, who had their own restaurant in the early 2000s.
They started out with a super-hip tea bar, then expanded into a bigger space last year with the restaurant. The tea bar is still attached.
Nguyen describes a complicated-looking layered drink concocted by her younger brother: "It’s made from black tea and mixed with peach and lychee flavor. On top of that we put fresh strawberry, lychee seeds and lychee jelly. The drink itself is called a New Yorker.”
Perhaps, but it's distinctly Little Saigon. Nguyen is aware of her clientele.
“Foodies," she laughed. "We have Caucasians, we have non-Asians, we have Filipinos, we have Vietnamese."
And lots of locals, among them younger Vietnamese Americans who bring their kids and their parents. Chef Samy Nguyen says his family drops in sometimes.
“They love my cooking," he said, laughing. “My mom — not really, because she’s very old fashioned. But everyone else loves my food.”
But she needn’t wander far in search of classic Vietnamese food. Just a few steps to either side of the restaurant, Little Saigon continues to thrive — the old along with the new.
The Wheel Thing: Motorcycles star in summer movies
In 1953 the motorcycle industry saw a nice bump in sales after Marlon Brando rode a Triumph 6T in the film, The Wild One.
This summer, cycle makers are hoping a crop of action films featuring hot bikes will boost their business, which has been dicey since being hit hard by the recession.
Maybe the sight of Scarlett Johanssan astride an electric Harley-Davidson will spark some interest. She's riding the Harley in The Avengers: Age of Ultron, which opens tomorrow. The studio that produced the film, Marvel, has a long relationship with Harley. The film maker and bike maker have worked together on franchies including the Iron Man and Captain America series, with Harley designing special models, and often teaming up with Marvel in cross-promotions.
In the Mission Impossible series, as has been noted, Tom Cruise will always pick a bike over a car if he has the choice. His character, Ethan Hunt, used to prefer a Triumph, but in this summer's release, Rouge Nation, he's atop a screaming German superbike, BMW's S 100 RR. And he's not alone. The bad guys ride them, too.
Don't feel bad for Triumph. Some of their models show up in the latest installment of Dinos Gone Wild, Jurassic World.
As long as we have cars, nothing will probably replace car chases in action films. But motorcycle chases can be every bit, or even more exciting. The actors are exposed, and it's a lot easier to pull off stunts with 450 lb. bikes than it is with muscle cars tipping the scales at almost two tons.
Listen to The Wheel Thing with Susan Carpenter, auto and motorcycle critic for the OC Register, every Thursday on Take Two.
Use of the word 'thug' and the Baltimore riots
This week's riots in Baltimore have prompted many politicians to condemn the violence.
Many chose to use one word to describe the young people who have taken to the streets to protest and riot: Thug. The word has roots in the Hindi language, and it's been used to describe wrong-doers for nearly 700 years.
Now, Baltimore community leaders are concerned that the word has become a slur. Some are even calling it "the new n-word."
Jamell Bouie, who's been covering the Baltimore riots for Slate, provides an analysis of the usage of the word for people in Baltimore.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
The African American community has used the word "thug" to describe a certain urban lifestyle for decades. How do you think the community feels about being called thugs now?
"I think this word is very context-heavy. In Baltimore, the mayor initially referred to the people who looted stores, and burned cars and participated in the riots as 'thugs,' as did President Obama in his statement on the riots as well. There, the context is very much and intracommunity criticism. It's people looking at bad behavior and labeling it with a word that generally has been used to describe people who are engaged in criminal behavior, people who disregard social norms. But there's also a second usage that's a bit more specific -- and a bit more particular. The trouble with talking about this is it's hard to point to numbers to prove anything here. People have used the word thug in such away as to specifically refer to young African American men. And that is a usage that is also being thrown around and discussed in the Baltimore riots, and that is a usage that people find disturbing because often times, from their vantage point, the young men involved here -- they're certainly not doing anything good -- but they're not thugs. They're not wanton criminals. They're misguided."
In a recent interview on CNN, Baltimore City Councilman Carl Stokes recently asked, "Why not just call them the 'n-word'?" Do you think that the word carries as much weight as the "n-word" in this situation?
"I don't think it does. The 'n-word' is a word that does carry a pretty much singular meaning, a very particular meaning, when used in most cases across American history. I don't think thug is like that. Thug is a much more flexible word, thug is used in a nonracial context, but it is also used in a racial way as well. Again, it's very context-dependent. Last year, I think, Rush Limbaugh on his radio program referred to President Obama as a 'thug.' I would count that as a racial usage of the word because there's no reason to describe President Obama as such if you're not trying to invoke a particular image of a threatening African American male."
In your recent piece for Slate, you make the case that these riots were a long time in the making. What are some of the key factors that contributed to these riots?
"If you go through west Baltimore -- and east Baltimore, for that matter -- and these are referring to areas bordering downtown -- and if you ignore the riots for a moment, ignore this last week, if you've ever driven down part of the city at any time ever, you'll notice vacant homes, burned-out homes, boarded-up storefronts, really nothing in the way to indicate that there's any thought or care given to the people who live in these areas. There's obviously something fueling the anger right now, and that is not an accident. That's not something that happened, that's not something that people in those places wanted to happen, it was sort of by design. If you go back to the 1910s, you see groups of white citizens concerned over the influx of African Americans into the city and afraid, citing social Darwinist theories, that these African American workers and families would end up tainting the stock of Baltimore. [They created] a committee for segregation to lay down plans for cordoning the black population in Baltimore in these two areas...so what we see today is an enduring fact of those past policy decisions, and those past policy decisions created the conditions for real devastation when large shocks came to the city."
State of Affairs: Greenhouse gases, water projects, and Brown's green legacy
On this week's State of Affairs: cutting greenhouse gases, water projects, hefty fines for water-wasters, and Brown's green legacy. Plus, a check-in on the vaccine exemption bill and Tim Draper's new "Shark Tank" style plan to get Californians involved in the political process.
San Francisco Chronicle senior political writer Carla Marinucci and Capital Public Radio's state government reporter Katie Orr join Take Two.
'LAtitudes' book gets unconventional release party
Chances are you've heard of speed dating, and that you've been to a book reading at some point.
Imagine if those two events were combined? That's what will be happening this weekend at an event called Uncovering LA.
It's an untraditional book release party for a book called "LAtitudes: An Angeleno's Atlas." Editor Patricia Wakida and contributing writer Michael Jaime-Becerra tell more.
Libraries promote multilingual books for kids on Mexico's Children's Day
Today is Children's Day in Mexico. Across the country, "El día del niño" is marked by gift-giving, concerts and festivals for children.
Here in the U.S., libraries and literacy organizations have adopted the celebration as a day to promote diverse, multi-lingual children's books.
But even in a city like Los Angeles, with such close ties to Mexico and other Latin American countries, quality Spanish-language books for kids can be hard to come by.
It's a problem that Chiara Arroyo noticed and set out to change when she and Celene Navarette founded LA Librería, LA's first bookstore specializing in Spanish language books for children.
Chiara Arroyo joined Take Two to talk about promoting bilingual literacy.
We'll have more on this topic Sunday May 31st at our Crawford Family Forum with an event called "Lost in translation: The search for quality diverse books for kids." To save a seat, RSVP here.