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Third Culture Kids and the Political Landscape: A Field Ripe With Possibility
By Doni Aldine
As the term Third Culture Kid (TCK) becomes more well known in our global collective, with it also comes assumptions and revisions that often don’t speak to the complex and evolving nature of the actual TCK experience. This, along with restructuring of and sometimes omissions to the original definition of TCK, actually enhances confusion and limits understanding for an already complicated term.
Those committed to the study of this eponymous lifestyle are keen to see how many TCKs are rising in prominence across the globe. In reality, they always have been there, but perhaps our digitally connected global citizens can now look for celebrated TCK traits and observe them in ways that never seemed quite so accessible in years past.
This is especially true for the United States (U.S.), which, historically, has enjoyed isolationist status and upheld individualistic attitudes as argued in the History.com article, “Why the U.S. Has Spent 200 Years Flip-Flopping Between Isolationism and Engagement.”
The author, Margaret Macmillan, writes, “From the moment of its creation out of the 13 colonies, the United States has swung between wanting to keep the rest of the world at bay and itching to set it straight, between economic self-sufficiency and engagement in trade and investment, or between welcoming the world’s immigrants — those huddled masses referenced on the Statue of Liberty’s inscription — and keeping them and their dangerous foreign ways out.”
The U.S. “melting pot” indeed has birthed notable TCKs in its political ranks. From Sen. John McCain to President Barack Obama and now Vice President Kamala Harris — the cultural fluidity is prominent — and prominently displayed in how each of these individuals approach civic duty.
The Maverick
Most people would never guess McCain to be a TCK, but any TCK scholar who had the opportunity to observe his runoff against Obama in the 2008 U.S. presidential election could see each contender’s traits clearly.
John McCain
According to Author Robert Timberg’s Book ”John McCain, An American Odyssey,” McCain’s journey began in the Panama Canal Zone, late 1936. He was born at the Coco Solo Naval Air Station to parents Roberta and John Sydney McCain II, who was stationed at a local submarine facility. Young McCain’s grandfather was the base commander at the time. McCain III also soon would become the son and grandson of U.S. Navy admirals.
Timberg cites McCain’s birth as auspicious since military families typically endure separation by long distances in geography among their members, “But for that brief period, Panama became the epicenter of three generations of a family whose distinguished naval service would eventually span the great national upheavals of the twentieth century.”
Conversely, McCain also had “strong Southern roots — his great-great-grandfather, William A. McCain, owned a Mississippi plantation with more than 50 slaves and died fighting for the Confederacy in 1863,” according to “Encyclopedia Britannica.” Britannica also emphasizes that the younger McCain always believed his heritage lay almost entirely inside the military.
A 2008 “Wall Street Journal” article by Douglas A. Blackmon, “Two Families Named McCain,” discusses the Black-and-white history of McCain’s lineage, which eerily paralleled how people viewed the run against his presidential opponent. “For the Black McCain family,” descended from their slaveholding and of no blood relation, “it is a story of triumph over the legacy of slavery.
“For the white McCains,” Blackmon writes, “it is the evolution of a 19th-century cotton dynasty into one rooted in an ethic of military and national service.”
He notes that though McCain’s immediate family lived primarily on military installations around the world, young McCain spent long periods during childhood visiting the former family plantation at Teoc, Miss., U.S.A. Though McCain’s family contains an all-too-familiar historical past, the roots of his TCK nature showed a stronghold that developed into a “go-my-own-way” outlook that shocked his mother (she previously had been used to a quiet, unassuming and well-behaved son), and earned him the name “Maverick,” during his political career.
Calm, Cool, Collected
Obama’s international background, on the other hand, is well known. Born in Hawai’i, to an American mum and father from Kenya, he grew up in in Hawai’i, Indonesia and the mainland U.S. In a DailyBeast.com article titled “Obama’s Third Culture Team,” Author and Speaker Ruth E. Van Reken writes, “John Quincy Adams lived in France, and young Franklin Delano Roosevelt visited Europe often enough to master French and German, but Barack Obama is the first modern American president to have spent some of his formative years outside the United States.” Van Reken is a third generation TCK and coauthor of “Third Culture Kids: Growing up Among Worlds,” which is in its third edition.
Barack Obama
She penned the “Daily Beast” article in 2008, citing research that suggests TCKs share common psychological traits that could have shaped Obama’s administration. Van Reken points out that a cross-cultural childhood was shared by Obama’s White House advisor, Valerie Jarrett, who was a child in Tehran and London; Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner — raised in east Africa, India, Thailand, China and Japan as the son of a Ford Foundation executive; National Security Advisor James L. Jones, who was raised in Paris; and former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (who had been nominated for Secretary of Commerce, but stepped down), who grew up in Mexico City.
“According to a body of sociological literature devoted to children who spend a portion of their developmental years outside their ‘passport country,’ the classic profile of a TCK is someone with a global perspective who is socially adaptable and intellectually flexible. He or she is quick to think outside the box and can appreciate and reconcile different points of view. Beyond whatever diversity in background or appearance a TCK may bring to the party, there is a diversity of thought as well,” Van Reken writes.
In our email discussion, however, she pondered that one issue Obama may have had was surrounding himself with too many Adult Third Culture Kids (ATCKs). She wondered if they were so open for global interaction that they lost sight of those who felt forgotten. Those forgotten are the ones that vice presidential hopeful “Sarah Palin went to and said ‘I’m so glad to be back in the ‘real’ America...’ and the Tea Party was born, and the rest is history, as they say.”
Van Reken adds that “TCKs’ identity struggles can be painful and difficult. The literature documents addictive behaviors, troubled marriages and fitful careers. But meeting this challenge can become a TCK’s greatest strength.” She points out that taking the positive from disparate experiences can create a strong sense of “This is who I am, no matter where I am,” and can provide steadiness in a chaotic world in flux — something most everyone can relate to having just closed out the most historic year so far this century.
And Then Came Kamala
The illustration on our cover of Harris amongst lotus flowers was drawn specifically to signify a partial meaning of the name Kamala. “In Samskrtam langage, or Sanskrit, a word has more than one meaning,” Shanthi Yogini explains. The International Best-Selling Author and Culturs columnist continues, “While the word ‘Kamala’ set as a masculine or neuter gender word, indicates ‘lotus’” it indicates many other things like water, copper, species of deer, wealth and so much more. Used as a feminine gender (with a long “a” at the end), interestingly it indicates ‘excellent woman’ and ‘orange.’”
Many would agree that Harris, as the first woman to break the glass ceiling to reach the uppermost echelon of the U.S. government, is an excellent woman indeed. And almost embodying the spirit of the hearty lotus flower plant, which can withstand harsh conditions on any end of the weather or environmental spectrum, Harris said at her vice president-elect acceptance speech: “While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last.”
With parents who immigrated to the U.S. from India and Jamaica (Harris’ mother, Shyamala, was a cancer researcher and the daughter of an Indian diplomat; while her Stanford professor father hailed from the Caribbean island.) The two met in graduate school at the University of California, Berkley and shared a passion for civil rights.
An Added Layer
In a "New York Times" opinion Piece “For Obama, Estranged in a Strange Land, Aloha Had Its Limits,” Lawrence Downes writes about Obama’s first book “Dreams From My Father.” He notes, “The New York Times listed the ingredients of [Obama’s] young psyche as ‘racial confusion,’ ‘feelings of alienation’ and ‘disquietude.’ The Los Angeles Times suggested that it was not just angst, but boiling angst.” Downes continues, “So who was this brooding Barry, taking lessons in African-American swagger from a black high-school buddy, Ray, studying black nationalism and going to Black parties on Army bases?” What the writer didn’t realize is Obama’s global background has as much of an effect, if not more, than his perceived race.
President Obama with the Dalai Lama
I spoke with Third Culture Adult (TCA) and mum to four TCKs, Paulette Bethel, Ph.D., who also is a licensed family therapist. We discussed how those lacking in knowledge of the TCK experience can conflate racial identity with identity issues as a whole.
Barbara Schaetti is an ATCK and dual citizen of Switzerland and the U.S. who holds a Ph.D. in intercultural communication with a focus on intercultural identity development. In a blog post titled “TCKs Come of Age,” she addresses Downes’ observations:
“Although a very good article and synopsis of [Obama’s] experiences, the Downes op-ed missed a wonderful opportunity to tie some of his observations about Sen. Obama to his lived TCK experience and how it helped to inform his worldview. This lived TCK experience, most likely has contributed to Obama’s broad appeal and to his earning a reputation as an incredibly unifying figure.”
Bethel concurs, “Obama clearly knew the emotional challenges of transitioning between cultures and growing up in strange lands and having experienced his own, at times painful, personal search for identity from the perspective of being a TCK, biracial and [from having] a perpetual lifestyle as an insider/outsider.”
What's The Difference?
While we’ve heard quite a bit about Obama’s struggle with identity, why is it that not much of that has been reported with Harris or McCain?
One could argue that as a white man in the U.S., McCain had every privilege in his upbringing. TCKs know that geographic mobility and Military B.R.A.T.s can attest to pressures children feel being reared in mobile families with the weight of a parent's work filling their psyches. But McCain clearly acted out, often got into trouble and was known for fighting. Timberg writes of McCain’s time at a spartan, old South Episcopal school, “Rives Richey, one of his closes friends back then, remembered McCain as rambunctious and combative, at times ‘just repelling,’ the type of kid who had a few good pals with a student body that either actively disliked him or gave him a wide berth.
“Said another schoolmate, ‘He prided himself on being a tough guy. He was seemingly ready to fight at the drop of a hat. He was easily provoked, ready to be provoked.”
Riley Deeble, an Episcopal master (the title for teacher at McCain’s school), “ascribed McCain’s behavior to his pre-Episcopal years as a ‘Navy junior,’ trailing his father around the country and going to many different schools. ‘Most of these kids have a little bit of a shell,’ he said. ‘ They have to develop it to survive.’ Deeble describes kids like McCain as skeptical — that they don’t allow rules to be imposed on them and do as they please, ‘I think you could call it constructive irreverence.’”
The One That Got Away
While Obama searched and McCain rebelled, how did Harris escape this scourge on identity and seemingly only absorb the gifts that come with the TCK lifestyle?
When it comes to identity solidification, Harris enjoyed strong role models on both sides of her family.
In a 2019 “Los Angeles Times” article, Shashank Bengali and Melanie Mason go in-depth about “The progressive Indian grandfather who inspired Harris.” It describes five-year-old Harris’ sojourn with her parents to visit her Indian grandparents in the African nation of Zambia. “My grandfather was really one of my favorite people in my world,” Harris has been known to say. According to the “Times” article, Harris and her younger sister also themselves often made extended trips to visit family in India during their formative years.
Though her parents divorced before Harris was 10, her father reflected in an article he wrote for “Jamaica Global Online” that Harris accompanied him on “frequent visits to Jamaica” in her early years.
During Black History Month 2020, Harris posted on her Instagram, “My mother was very intentional about raising my sister, Maya, and me as strong, Black women. She coupled her teachings of civic duty and fearlessness with actions, which included taking us on Thursday nights to Rainbow Sign, a Black cultural center near our home.” The post also served as a tribute, as Harris’ mother died of colon cancer in 2009.
True Perspective
The crux of all three, however, is the TCK perspective: Whether lucky enough to receive guidance, or not; resilience, tenacity and a strong sense of giving back made a difference for all three.
With the current rise in citizen interest in social justice and politics, the field seems to be a hotbed suited for well-honed TCK traits.
Van Reken ruminates, “In 1984, Michigan State University Professor Ted Ward called TCKs ‘the prototype citizens of the future’ anticipating a time when a childhood lived in various cultures would be the norm rather than the exception,” concluding, “It seems that time is now.”
