Why ‘children are like bread’
Wise words from writer Natalie Jabbar — and her mom — on this Mother’s Day weekend
Issue #37
Hi all —
On this Mother’s Day weekend, I’d like to share dear friend and writer Natalie Jabbar’s piece that she published this week in Serious Eats. It’s about how her mother’s baking ritual taught her how to love what we create — and when to let go.
I love the metaphor Natalie’s mom uses about the parent-child relationship:
“Children are like bread,” she explains to me one night at the kitchen table as we talk about the kind of person I am and the kind of person I will become. “You can choose which ingredients you will add to the mix when they are younger and there is still time to shape them after the dough has risen. But once you put them in the oven, it’s difficult to do much else.”
“You’re already in the oven,” she tells me. “It’s all you now.”
Read the full essay in Serious Eats.
So a cheers to all the moms this weekend — including my own — for shaping their dough. Happy Mother’s Day, this weekend, and always.
Also, noting Red, White and Brown’s next Twitter Spaces live audio interview is scheduled for Thursday, May 19 at noon ET/ 9 a.m. PT. I’ll be interviewing Taiwanese Canadian writer Panthea Lee about her recent piece in The Nation about the roots of violence against Asian women.
Thanks for joining the conversation,
Vignesh Ramachandran (@VigneshR)
Co-founder of Red, White and Brown Media
Twitter Spaces conversations
Past audio conversations are archived on Twitter for a month.
Dec. 9: The year in Asian American politics 2021 — with Axios’ Shawna Chen and AAPI Victory Alliance’s Varun Nikore
Dec. 13: Misinformation on private messaging apps — with PBS NewsHour’s Saher Khan and Disinfo Defense League’s Jaime Longoria
Dec. 29: The year of South Asian Americans 2021 — with comedian Rajiv Satyal
Jan. 4: Grieving during the pandemic — with The New York Times’ Ryan Mac
Jan. 13: Following up on all that anti-Asian hate — with Stop AAPI Hate’s Manjusha Kulkarni
Jan. 20: Building Muslim representation in pop culture — with /Pillars Fund’s Kashif Shaikh
Jan. 27: Building your own seat at “the table” in Hollywood — with “Definition Please” director Sujata Day
Jan. 28: “Go back to where you came from” and other South Asian American experiences — with author Wajahat Ali
Jan. 31: One year of the Biden administration and South Asian Americans — with IMPACT’s Neil Makhija and Sarah Shah
Feb. 1: Casting Brown people to play Brown people — with writer Taz Ahmed and writer/director Fawzia Mirza
Feb. 3: How to cover Asian Americans with nuance — with Jeong Park/LA Times, Srishti Prabha/India Currents
Feb. 9: Why South Asian Americans face disproportionately higher risks of heart disease — with Dr. Alka Kanaya and Dr. Kevin Shah
Feb. 17: How to break the “bamboo ceiling” in the workplace — with former Sodexo executive Rohini Anand
Feb. 18: Why children’s books are finally getting more representation — with author/actor/producer Sheetal Sheth
Feb. 22: The guy behind NBC’s “This Is Us” music — with musician Siddhartha Khosla (Listen to recording on YouTube)
Feb. 23: Why data disaggregation matters for Asian American & Pacific Islander communities — with UC Riverside’s Karthick Ramakrishnan and University of Maryland’s Janelle Wong
Feb. 28: Telling our own stories — with comic artist/author Laura Gao, “Angry Asian Man” founder Phil Yu, CNN columnist/author Jeff Yang and Wong Fu Productions co-founder/author Philip Wang
March 16: The push for Asian American history education in schools — with Drew University Political Science Associate Professor Sangay Mishra
March 22: “You cannot resist me when my hair is in braids” - Poems and lyric essays on Asian American experiences — with journalist Frances Kai-Hwa Wang
March 29: Sh*t Brown people say - Everyday South Asian American biases
April 6: Comic artist/author Laura Gao (“Messy Roots”) and illustrator Julia Kuo (“Let's Do Everything and Nothing”) discuss their new books and visual storytelling
April 19: How are young AAPI votes being engaged in the political process? With Linh Nguyen of Run AAPI and Axios’ Shawna Chen (Listen to recording for a limited time)
May 19 at noon ET/9 a.m. PT: The roots of violence against Asian women — with Taiwanese Canadian writer Panthea Lee for The Nation
How do you tune into Twitter Spaces conversations? It’s free! We try to keep them to about 30 minutes. The experience is better on Twitter’s app for iOS or Android smartphones where you can listen and request to speak in any Space. Think of it like an audio-only Zoom conversation. Red, White and Brown’s Twitter Spaces conversations are all accessible via @VigneshR’s profile on Twitter:
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