Journalist Maria Hinojosa came to Clarkston two years ago to chronicle the small town as a symbol of the melting pot that is America and how demographics are shifting. The pilot episode aired on Georgia Public Broadcasting and was called "America By the Numbers." (You can read my original story here from Sept. 3, 2012.)
She hoped to turn it into a series, which she finally did by 2014 with an eight-episode run. Locally, it is seen on GPB Knowledge, a secondary channel.
She also decided to return to Clarkston to check out the 2013 local elections where for the first time, two former refugees sought city council seats, inspired after seeing the original "America By the Numbers" pilot. Another former refugee ran for mayor. This new episode debuts Friday and will air multiple times over the weekend on GPB Knowledge.
"Clarkston is my wildest dream coming true," Hinojosa said in a recent phone interview. "Democracy is being visible in a society. I gave them a voice and it empowered them." Her show shed light on the refugee community and the tensions between them and the old-timers in the fast-changing town. She spent so much time there the first time around, she said it was like revisiting old friends.
She noted how one Bhutanese refugee Birendra Dhakal, who was really shy during the first episode, blossom into a political candidate. ("Local elections are so important," he said in the special. "When I talked with my wife and children, they were not that receptive because they thought it was too quick." But he eventually sold them on the idea and they jumped into the campaign.
Hinojosa revisited Graham Thomas, who describes himself as a old-time Clarkston "redneck curmudgeon." Graham supported the existing black mayor Emanuel Ransom over an upstart white newcomer Ted Terry. "It really represents the complexity of who we are as Americans," Hinojosa said.
The city is a mere square mile with 8,000 people. But it has gone from 80 percent white in 1980 to 80 percent minority in 2010. The U.S. government resettles refugees in Clarkston and now the city has refugees from 40 countries.
Here's a teaser:
Other episodes include a city in Idaho that is still almost all white and a Native American reservation where an oil boom has brought money but problems, too. She visited Rochester, N.Y., which is a health-care haven yet has some of the highest infant mortality rates among blacks and Latinos. She also looks at how advertisers chase after the Latino consumer dollar. You can watch previous episodes here.
Disclaimer: My wife Helen Kim Ho, who graduated from Clarkston High School in 1989, is involved civic engagement work and was featured in the Clarkston episode.
TV preview
"America By the Numbers," 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., October 31, GPB Knowledge with repeats Nov. 3 at 9 p.m. and Nov. 3 at 2 a.m., 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
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