Director of USC’s Program for Environmental and Regional Equity Manuel Pastor

Whatever You Do, Do It With Passion and Purpose

Manuel Pastor, is a Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. He is also director of USC’s Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) and co-director of the Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII). Pastor describes the focus of his research as “movement-building and the economic, environmental, and social conditions facing low-income communities.”

Before joining a Zócalo/California Wellness Foundation panel discussion—“Is South L.A. an Urban Success Story?”—he talked about working as a forklift driver, watching Scandal, and the pleasure of asphalt at the beach.

Q:

You’ve spent a lot of time studying the changing communities in South Los Angeles. What single word best sums up South LA right now?


A:

Change.


Q:

What superpower would you most like to have?


A:

The ability to see the future and change it so it’s more just and inclusive.


Q:

What’s the last great thing you read?


A:

I have two. First, The Penguin and the Leviathan: How Cooperation Triumphs Over Self-Interest, by Yochai Bankler. It’s about how people want to have solidarity with one another, but our social systems beat our connections right out of us, and how we might redesign our social systems to recover that cooperation. The other book I’m really impressed by is a novel, The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen. It just won the Pulitzer Prize.


Q:

What’s your guilty TV-watching pleasure?


A:

Scandal. There’s no redeeming social value I can attach to it.


Q:

You’ve cited social media as providing a hopeful window into the future of South L.A. What’s your preferred form of social media?


A:

Twitter.


Q:

What Southern California beach could we find you at?


A:

Venice. It’s got lots of asphalt. I like that. I’m an urban guy.


Q:

If you didn’t live in the U.S., what country would you want to live in?


A:

Cuba.


Q:

If you could play any musical instrument, which would you choose?


A:

Voice.


Q:

What’s the strangest job you’ve ever had?


A:

There were two. One is my first job, which was throwing up chain link fence around construction sites. It was a strange and very exploitive job. The other was unusual, I suppose, for someone who wanted to become a professor. I was a forklift driver.


Q:

What advice do you give students who are considering going into academia?


A:

The advice I give students who are considering going into academia is the same advice I give to all students: Do what you love. If you do what you love you’ll be good at it and you’ll be a success. If you do something for money alone, you’re not going to enjoy it and you probably won’t be a success. I chose to become a sociology professor mostly so I could contribute to social justice movements. It’s really worked out. It gives my life total meaning. Whatever you do, do it with passion and purpose. The rest will follow.


*Photo by Aaron Salcido.