Khakpour’s discussion of television and popular media reflects themes common in the writing of recent generations of the children of immigrants to the United States. As she notes in the selection’s...

Khakpour’s discussion of television and popular media reflects themes common in the writing of recent generations of the children of immigrants to the United States. As she notes in the selection’s opening line, “If anything made me an American, it was television.” What, specifically, did television teach Khakpour about how Americans see the world? At the same time, as Khakpour also notes, she never saw her own family—or families like hers—represented on television. What lessons did she learn from that fact?