Ramtin Arablouei
speaker
199 appearances
5 recordings
3 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard 29 Mar
Ramtin Arablouei’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Mar 2026 with 1.
Appearances
That's over $10,000 in today's money.
Today, on the corner of Jackson Street and Grant Avenue in San Francisco, you'll find a huge mural depicting the faces of some famous Asian American people. In the bottom is an image of a 30-something Wong Kim Ark. He's wearing all black, his eyebrows are raised, and has a slight smile on his face. You could almost call his look hopeful. Hope.
That can be easy to miss in this tale of struggle and resistance. But the truth is, Wong Kim Ark, decade after decade, continued to live his life between his homeland, the United States, and where his wife and children lived, China. He was even able to bring some of his offspring to live in the U.S.
Wong-Yuk Jim grew up in the U.S. He would eventually join the U.S. military and worked as a merchant marine. He would get married to a Japanese-American woman and start a family.
Wong Yook Jim would name one of his daughters Sandra, Sandra Wong, Wong Kim Ark's great-granddaughter.
Wong Kim Ark would go back to visit China one last time in 1931. He was in his 60s. He never came home to the U.S. It isn't just on that street in Chinatown that Wong Kim Ark's image looms large. The ruling in the U.S. versus Wong Kim Ark has remained firmly in place even though it has and will continue to be challenged.
Wong Kim Ark's fight for recognition may not have made his life that much easier, but his sacrifices cleared a path for his descendants and for the descendants of millions of others. For my son, whose rights as a citizen are secured by birth. For the millions of others whose rights are secured by the soil and not by their skin color or ethnicity.
And he helped make real the aspirational language of our nation's founding document.
That's it for this week's show. I'm Ramtin Arablui.
This episode was produced by me.
Lawrence Wu.
Victor Ibeez.
Thanks to Casey Murrell, Don Gagne, Corey Turner, Blaise Adler-Ivanbrook, Lawrence Wu, Casey Miner, Amiri Tulla, Christina Kim, and Devin Katiyama for their voiceover work. Thank you to the Chinese Historical Society of America for all their help. Thanks also to Tamar Charney and Anya Grundman.
This episode was mixed by Josh Newell.
And finally, if you have an idea or like something you heard on the show, please write us at ThruLine at NPR.org.
The year is 1960.
You've got an urge to hit the open road, to touch the black asphalt of the nation's new interstate highways that are being built all around the country.
Now, all you need is the perfect car.
Compact, sleek, a thing of beauty. Have a safe drive. You turn on your car radio and that iconic summer place song starts playing. When you hit the highway, you roll your window down, letting the wind rush through your hair. This is the American dream, riding in an American car on an American road, boundless and free.
When you come up across a slight turn, you keep your foot on the gas, cruising along. For a moment, you feel the wheels slip, the car no longer in your control. But then it comes back again. You think it's fine. It's a brand new car right off the dealership block. You come up on another turn, this time a wider one. You stay the course when...
Showing 121–140 of 199 · page 7 of 10
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