Hey, it’s Independence Day – the official birth of our nation! Watching fireworks on July 4th may be as close as some of us get to expressing a shared love of country with fellow citizens. As you very well know, there is a great deal of polarization in our nation. To work through many of our differences, we have to do more than just stand next to each other on patriotic holidays. In the spirit of celebrating our country’s founding and with the hope of encouraging the bridging of some of our nation’s divides, we’re re-releasing a piece that features a friendship between Vassar College professor, Hua Hsu and one of his more unconventional students, Dave Carrell, an Iraq War veteran.
Tag: Vassar College
Us & Them: The Elephant in the (Class) Room
We’re at the end of graduation season. Over the past few weeks, young grads donned in hard-earned caps and gowns, have gathered on college greens to pose for an endless number of photos with proud family members, fellow co-eds … and professors.
Back in 2016, I produced a piece for the New Yorker Radio Hour, which featured an unlikely friendship between a professor at Vassar College and one of his students. What made this bond unusual? Well, even though Vassar — located in Poughkeepsie, NY — may be considered your typical liberal northeastern college, the student body defies categories. But even among all of this student diversity, one particular student made a strong impression on English Literature Professor Hua Hsu: 35-year-old Army veteran and self-proclaimed Texas Republican Dave Carrell.
So like oil and water, here we have the makings of an “us and them” culture clash before the backdrop of a liberal college campus in New York’s Hudson Valley. But Dave Carrell, the elephant in the room — or the classroom — surprised Professor Hsu, and Hsu responded in kind.
On this week’s episode of the “Us and Them” podcast: embedding yourself in the other part of America and finding common ground.
From West Virginia Public Broadcasting and PRX, this is “Us & Them” the podcast where we tell the stories about America’s cultural divides.
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