Fung’s videos eschew immediate categorisation by virtue of their cultural mobility and interest in offering a composite reading of social politics and personal histories through an unpretentious approach to storytelling. Richard Fung’s work is positioned at the intersection of plural identities, reflecting on the artist’s roots, his sexuality and the Asian diaspora.
And then it becomes part of their story.Fung’s unmannered and deeply personal videos relating to being a gay Asian man in Toronto during the 1980s are finding new audiences “It may not be everybody, but someone will listen to that story and take a little bit of it away with them. “At the end of the day, if we continue to tell our story, and we continue to be storytellers, people will listen,” Mahi said.
“The Talk Continues” can be viewed at /the-talk, where the power of the individual story and the importance of documenting it are on full display. If we don’t have these talks and we bottle it all up, this will just continue to happen over and over and over.” “Use this as a tool to be able to have this conversation with other folks. “Don’t be afraid to have this conversation,” Mahi said.
And while he knows a single video series may not change the world, the veteran journalist hopes people will use it as a catalyst to start the tough discussions. With widespread support from across the university, Mahi is quick to credit the team behind him for bringing this idea to life. “It was a moment where we sat people down in a chair, turned on the camera and let them talk,” Mahi said. The storytelling format of “The Talk” series is both simple and effective in its delivery, an approach that is less polished marketing or documentary in style and more about raw vulnerability. “It opened up another path for us to continue having this very complicated conversation,” Mahi said. “For me, those conversations were so poignant,” Mahi said.Īnd through these stories, the conversation is expanded to include additional viewpoints, such as those from the LGBTQ+ and Asian communities. A gay man who is a kidney transplant survivor, a white foster mother who adopted her black son and an Indian immigrant are just a few of the voices from the CSUF community who share their stories by looking through the lens of their own lived experiences. In this newest iteration, “The Talk Continues” features eight Titans as they look at their journeys toward anti-racism through their own identities. “We have to allow a space in the university where people can still talk about racism.” “For us to continue doing our part, we have to continue that conversation,” Mahi said. Two years later, as racial and social unrest across the country continued, Mahi and his team felt, “if we’re going to talk the talk, then we need to walk it, too,” and that meant being intentional about continuing the anti-racism discussion. “If things happen in the world, and you don’t talk about them at a university, where else are you going to talk about (them)? If you don’t engage your students, staff and faculty members to talk about issues like this, no matter what the pushback might be, then you’re not doing your job as a university.”
“Universities are a marketplace for ideas,” Mahi said. The video series, which received high praise and support from CSUF President Fram Virjee, put a spotlight on that conversation and subsequently became a model for the school’s annual Social Justice Week, as well as a tool incorporated by many faculty members into their curriculum as a framework in which to discuss racism. “We hit upon this idea that if we don’t keep this conversation going, what’s the point in doing this?” Mahi said. As a former journalist with more than 30 years of experience covering local social justice and law enforcement stories, including the beating of Rodney King in 1991, Mahi had seen history repeat itself too many times, he said.
Headed by Michael Mahi, who serves as CSUF’s senior director of digital media in the Strategic Communications and Brand Management division of University Advancement, he and his team interviewed 13 members of the Titan community, asking them to share, in their own words, their journeys toward anti-racism. A collaboration between CSUF’s Strategic Communications and Brand Management division and the Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Equity Programs, “The Talk: A Journey Toward Anti-Racism” centered around conversations that young black males often have with their parents as they learn to navigate racism while walking through today’s society. The original project was born out of the racial and social tension that bubbled to the surface across the nation after the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. Building upon anti-racism conversations that began during the summer of 2020, Cal State Fullerton has added a new chapter to its powerful video series, “The Talk: A Journey Toward Anti-Racism” with the university’s latest release entitled, “The Talk Continues.”