 Good morning or good afternoon, depending on which time zone you're in. Thank you for joining us today. My name is Anthony Chow, the director of the SJSU iSchool. Welcome to our celebration and recognition of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Month. It's the fifth installment in our EDI symposium series. Today's symposium is entitled An Authentic Lens, Understanding and Supporting the Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Community. Personally, as a top student and four sport athlete and quarterback of the football team in high school growing up in Florida, I was still unable to escape periodic and unexpected public calls of chink, gook, jab and go back to China, no matter where I went. Even for my friends who I grew up with, I watched this happen also to my three children as well. And the COVID pandemic and ensuing anti-Asian sentiment as late has just further worried me that prejudice, stereotypes and a strange cultural sanctioning of this type of behavior continues. At some point in my life, I realized that were that I cannot work hard enough or out success discrimination and racism and barring from the great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously. The expectation as he said, and as I have a dream speech to one day not be judged by the color of my skin, but rather the content of my character. In talks with our state librarian in both North Carolina now in California, we all are in agreement that our field in our nation's libraries have a role in helping try to heal our divides to educate and inform and to serve as a safe space to discuss these complex issues that we must face and figure out together. That education and understanding is the key. Equity diversity inclusion in its truest forms helps honor our unique differences while emphasizing and highlighting that we are indeed, excuse me, much more similar in our mutual belief and commitment to democratic principles in the pursuit of a higher quality of life. Then we are different as defined by the color of our skin and other differences driven by stereotypes fed by ignorance and intolerance, which helped divide us. I'm sincerely grateful to our distinguished guests that have joined us today to discuss the Asian American native of Hawaiian and Pacific Islander experience as a pathway towards both celebrating our diverse cultural heritage and greater racial and cultural understanding. So we will start with our keynote address, followed by a panel discussion. So let me first introduce our distinguished keynote speaker before she shares her thoughts with us. So Patty Wong. We're so delighted that she has taken the time to join us today as the al a president and city librarian of Santa Clara city library. She is the first Asian American to serve as a president of the American Library Association. Her term began July 2021 and closes at the adjournment of this summer's 2022 annual conference in Washington DC. She's a city librarian for the Santa Clara city library, where she's been since March 2017. In her 34 year career she's held positions throughout California at Yolo County Library, Stockton San Joaquin County Public Library, Oakland Public Library and Berkeley Public Library as well as Oakland Unified School District. Her work in managing change equity and diversity youth development, developing joint ventures and collaborations between public libraries and community agencies and fundraising has been published in a number of journals conference proceedings and edited collections. Patty is also one of our family adjunct faculty for the high school at San Jose State University where she's taught hundreds of students since 2004 to serve young people and write grants to benefit local and regional communities to make the world a better place. These are recipient of several awards including the 2012 alia equity Equality Award, Cala Distinguished Service Award and member of the year for the California Library Association. She holds a BA in women's studies and an MIS both from the University of California at Berkeley. So, we're so delighted that Patty's with us please join me in welcoming Miss Patty Wong. So thank you everyone and a special thanks to to Dr. Chow for highlighting these focus convenings. Each one is a little bit different and really lifting up our community and leaders in a unique context. Thank you also to all of my colleagues on the panel who will share their own journey as well as some responses to some of my remarks. So, one of the things that when, when Anthony asked me to do this, we think about identity. It's part of who we are. I'm a mom, I'm a friend, I'm a daughter, I'm a professor, I'm a librarian, and although my experience as a reflection of our Asian of one Asian American in this country. It is one that follows the history of this country and representative of a collective experience. My upbringing and the rich traditions from my past have allowed me the opportunity to understand the need for diversity, equity and inclusion in each of these components of my life. My history was full of joy within my family, but full of the content and context of exclusion, invisibility and the myths of the model minority outside the safe walls of my family. However, the nurturing, mentoring and guidance to face that adversity is something that I've received over my lifetime and has has forever enabled and propelled me to pay it forward. So I'm third generation Californian fourth generation from Hawaii, and I think that's an important distinction because it's influenced not only my upbringing, but how I think about the world. These are my loving parents. My, my mother is originally from Hawaii that my father is San Francisco native. They met at a Chinese bingo game sponsored by the local church in church in San Francisco Chinatown. My maternal grandparents were match made. They did not know each other before they got married. And in fact their families were from two different villages in China. My, my maternal grandfather spoke toy son and my purple, my maternal grandmother, she spoke long due to very different dialects. And so they often joked that it was like a duck and a chicken trying to talk to each other. My children are alongside me there and they are hop up a growing number of community members among us that are mixed ethnic ancestry. My mom came from a family of 10. My dad came from a family of five although I will tell you that my, my paternal grandmother had 13 births before my so eight of them were were still born before my dad came along. And he's the oldest. So I had large families on both sides. I remember reunions and and a community of aunties and uncles Calabash aunties and uncles everyone around us was part of our formative upbringing. And of course with each gathering food was our connector. So this is a photo of my mom and and my, my dad's father. So, food was a formative part of our community and the reason I share that with you is because we all retain not only memories of that food but the connection to our culture and our heritage and what we deem is important. When I began my presidential inauguration, there was a food was a very strong important part of that commitment to one another as family as Ohana. We shared a recipe book from from my family and encourage I encouraged my fellow colleagues in the divisions around tables to share their food support to the reason why this is important is because it's not just the food that represents us together. It's what that food represents in terms of the values of our traditions and our community. Because my family, because my mom side is originally from Hawaii, you see, and all of my family on the, the, the right hand image of this screen we're making one time there together as community. That was actually a big part of our upbringing is that every one of our community members helped prepare food together. But that food was very diverse. We had food was special we had rice at every meal, but there was also a strong affinity of course for the southern Chinese cuisine that that I grew up with. But we also had a cornucopia of all at Hawaii makes very special so there was one time there was Portuguese malasadas there was Hawaiian la la and and callua pig and and of course Japanese mochi and and a whole group of foods that were very reflective of the communities in which we came from. And that bottom right hand corner slide is a picture of us at a 50. My, my grandparents turned 50 years old. And so we had all of us and this is just the Hawaii side come together in terms of community and what that meant. And so, all my, the 10 brothers and sisters, all of their, their, their spouses and partners, and then all 100 and not all pictured here. First cousins that I had just on that side of the family. One of the things that we always bring with us also is is a sense of time. For us, Hawaii time, Chinese time is very integral. And one of the things that we celebrate as community is also that sense of time. And in my Chinese family, we believe that when baby is born, they're already a year old. So, and we mark the sense of celebrations and decades for birth and as well as celebrations for how long you've been married so I always had to remember is is 79 or is she 80 this year because that's how we celebrate. And, and of course there's always food. A food is part of heritage, it reminds us of memory. Also makes me remember the sense of education, the books that shaped me and balanced me and how the perseverance of my community, and for my family and still the language that's allowed me to bond with so many others. One of the things that I wanted to share with you is is is the sense of service. And that's how I, I was led to the work that I currently do. My mom served as an RN. She got oops. Alfredo. Yeah, thank you. She was an RN. She got her degree from St. Francis in St. Francis nursing school, her bachelor from Hawaii but before statehood. And so she, she loved the profession so much when she came to the mainland she couldn't practice. And so she had to get a secondary degree, also as an RN from CU Boulder in Colorado. And that's how much she loved the profession and I would dare say one of the things that I wanted to share with you as, as we have within all of our families some some interesting dynamics, culturally. The men in our families were educated and put through school. My family were not as, as given that same kind of support. And in fact, my uncle, who is my mother's brother, who became a doctor himself and practicing neurologist actually said that my mom was probably a better doctor than he was. So service was a big component within my family. My dad is a world war was a World War two vat. You can see his picture above. And I wanted to point out a couple of things. He's no longer with us. He died at the age of 42 long before long before. He wants to know him of course I was about 13. When he passed, but he passed away to complications and it is due actually to his service in the military. He was not only World War two vat and station in, among other places, post occupation Japan. My dad was a very interesting man he, he had a core group of servicemen of color that, and although he never raised rows and ranks. He was really definitely a leader among that particular group. But secretly, he, he had another life in that he volunteered to be an atomic war test test subject. And let his fellow colleagues in the army know about that process and we didn't. That wasn't revealed to us until he actually passed away, because it was part of the confidential documents. He was recently recognized with one with the congressional medal, as you see there. And we're very proud of that service. And because of not only what you did for this country. But also that he was one out of 20,000 Chinese American veterans in in World War two. So one in every five Chinese persons in the US whether they were citizens or not voluntarily contributed to the World War two effort and they were involved in every single military arena. So I wanted to share that with you because it was a very important part of my upbringing and my process but I also think it reflects what happened in this country, and a time where everyone was called to action. One of the things that I did want to point out that is very different about my dad is that there were in post occupation Japan. The service, mostly servicemen were asked to wear patches on on their military dress that shared that they were not Japanese. And they did that for a reason we understand why but my dad refused to wear it. And that's because he believed fervently that the Japanese community should be treated as individuals. And it was a he brought that story home one of the very few stories that he shared with us because he was a rifleman and as we know there's a lot of trauma associated with our service personnel, not interested in talking about the war at all, but he felt very, very comfortable actually talking about the fact that we need to treat everyone with respect, no matter what the situation. And that meant that even if he himself were to be identified as Asian. He stood in solidarity, not with the war side of things, but with the fact that he was in a community where he needed to protect the individuals that were made. You know, as a young person, I was influenced by librarians all white women, and they appreciated this voracious reader and was were in, and who was interested in books of all kinds. But none of those books really reflected or looked like me at the time when I was growing up. They had a hard time finding anything that related to my heritage that wasn't stereotypical or, or negative. And, and they were committed to finding some but they really couldn't they searched high and low, and instead of actually sharing those books that reflected what what typically white authors shared about my heritage they actually refrained from that. So their commitment to servant leadership really would inform my own professional decisions they became part of my enhanced and extended family. And they shared artifacts from their extensive travel and they encouraged my particular voice. And those librarians were the balance in my world where I would continually hear derogatory comments about my race. I know that Dr chow mentioned his own experience. I don't think there was a time in my entire educational career, except when I got to college when I didn't hear comments about the shape of my eyes and the color of my skin. Sometimes mixing me up, of course with lots of other Asians. But oftentimes I was the only one all throughout grammar school, my sister and I were the only Asians at all. And even through high school, there were quite a few other Asians but even then I experienced regular sometimes even well meaning interactions. I went to an all girls Catholic high school in San Francisco. An English teacher who I really loved because of what she shared with me. She would. She would follow my sister and I for all four years of our, our, our schooling there with her affectionate she would call us Wong Bong, all the time, identify and identifying me everywhere she never called me by my real name. And unfortunately, I accepted that she was a nun also so you know there's this other kind of relationship that we had and my respect for not only my elders but someone from the faith. One of the things that was so hard is that she shaped my formal introduction to folks like Steinbeck and JD Salinger and Sylvia Plath and Auden so how was I supposed to actually respond to this woman who was such an icon of education in my life. And yet, didn't have respect enough for me to call me not only by my name, but to understand what she was doing was harmful. However, one of the blessings in that entire experience was my high school librarian, who was a firecracker. And she, she actually said to me that she would speak to her colleague, understood exactly what I was feeling, and she brought me into a world where I could be productive and had a voice, and I contributed to the knowledge base of my colleagues because I would do all of the research for what the faculty was doing in school and so I really learned not only servant leadership, but the fact that in the library. And in my service to others, I was creating change did did did the sister in particular my English teacher ever change she did not. But she also felt I think on some levels in some misguided way that she was hoping to shaping for whatever reason. I do want to tell you also that you know one of the questions we asked when we're doing EDI work in communities is a very simple one which is where one at what time in your lifetime did you, if you're a person of color, did you see a teacher that looked like yourself. And I will tell you that I did not see anyone that looked like me until I went to college at UC Berkeley. And then my specialness at that time disappeared because as a 4.0 students. But I was then competing with other 4.0 students, I went to Berkeley at a time in in the late 70s, early 80s, where not only did I share 4.0 with almost just about everybody, but at least 30% of the population at UC were Asian. And now Asians were considered the model minority. And so that meant that Asians were not considered. They were considered at in the same classification as white during admissions time. For all purposes, we were white competition was so severe there, I would say I was in pre-med. I had even some of my Asian colleagues damage my experiments in titration and chemistry. And so I quickly turned to something that I found much more valuable, which is that I found a community in sociology and women's studies, and not only was I able to cultivate a voice there, but I understood that the yearning that I had for service to others was something that was more clearly placed in that arena. And I think that community, even though technically there was no one there who looked like me, but I was able to work with Harry Edwards and Ron Takaki and a number of people, Barbara Christian, who actually not only fostered that voice, but actually allowed me to recognize the intersection that we have as community and the accountability and responsibility that we have to one another to make the world a better place through equity. So what we know to today in terms of community is that not only are we Asian American and Pacific Islander, but the diversity of our language, the diversity of our culture, the diversity of heritage and ethnicity is so important. One of the things that we know today is that there is, you know, when the federal government created this classification of API. And we have API heritage month and there's nothing that, you know, all of this is wonderful but one of the things that actually groups us all together. And sometimes where we share a lot of things and sometimes where we, there's a lot of differences and, and one of the things that I find myself continually and my children and everywhere else that I have association with is that we're sort of stuck in the box. And so one of the things that I would ask our community today is if we were to change anything is to disaggregate the data to make sure that we recognize and value the communities that we serve and, and who we are as individuals. So I wanted to bring to your attention a few things that actually have impacted me as an Asian American, not only as an adult but also growing up is is the sense of place and purpose and language and how that valuable that is. I remember back in 1882, the Chinese Excursion Act was was approved, but it and it's very important that we remember that because that was the first significant law, restricting immigration into the United States directly targeting a specific group of people. It was passed by Congress, signed by President Tester Arthur. It provided a 10 year ban on Chinese laborers immigrating to the US. Really, for the first time in our history, federal law prescribed entry of an ethnic working group on the premise that it endangered the good order of certain localities. The Excursion Act required the few non laborers who sought entry to the US, such as diplomatic officers for instance, and to obtain certification from the Chinese government that they were qualified to emigrate. This group found it increasingly difficult to prove their status, because the 1882 act defined laborers as skilled and unskilled and Chinese employed in mining specifically. So this meant that very few Chinese could enter the country under this 1882 law. The new Excursion Act also placed new requirements on the Chinese who already had entered the country. If they left the US, they had no, they had, they had to obtain certifications to reenter. Congress refused state and federal courts the right to grant citizenship to Chinese resident aliens, although these courts could still deport them. And the Excursion Act expired in 1882 Congress extended it for another 10 years in the form of Chinese residents to register and obtain a certificate of residence. So how does this pertain to my family. So I will tell you, families did a lot to get around that they, they had paper children, which means that in order to get someone to acknowledge that they had a home and a place. And there were children that were literally on the talks that were brought over in terms of community off the boat and they were. So there were throngs of people my family and Hawaii and did the same thing. My, my maternal grandparents actually went to the docs regularly to find children and young adults who were orphans for all intents and purposes. And, and they actually adopted them into their family because they had nowhere else to go. And it also meant that families, you know, all of the men that came over to the US for a variety of different reasons to find a gold mountain, specifically, had to not only work in the mining community, but also had no access to families they couldn't, they couldn't bring their families over if they were married already and had families, or they couldn't actually find anyone to have a family with on this side of the world. So oftentimes they went home but then they had to find a way coming back. So oftentimes you will find Chinese families with two families, a family in China and a family in the US. My paternal grandparents were actually part of the results of the exclusion act meant that my, my grandfather did not meet my grandmother, and she was actually one of the women that was brought over from China to be an American. And my grandfather, actually, without, you know, he was, he was actually he self taught chef, and he used to work for the sheriff of San Francisco. And so he and a doctor who practiced who was Chinese doctor, but he practiced both Western and Eastern medicine and so a lot of the white colleagues, not colleagues, I would say, white individuals who came to him as patients, the sheriff, the mayor, many people. So my, my grandfather who worked for this doctor actually had a little bit of a standing in the community himself and he would go down to the talks all the time to pick vegetable I mean to pick fruit and vegetables and other things that were being shipped to him. And he found my grandmother who was going to be sold into the sex trade for all intents and purposes, and he bought her because he didn't know he was going to, he didn't know how he was going to get back to China. And so what I'm telling you is that it really changed the way that Chinese families have developed in this country. And it really made an impact not only in my community, but in so many others. Another thing that I wanted to share with you is this sense of belonging. So, when my dad was born he grew up in San Francisco Chinatown. It was, it's not the Chinatowns we know today. There was a lot of squalor families were living two to three in places that really were set up for one family. You know, there was, there was nothing like pets in the, in the area and in fact my dad has a joke had a joke, which is they caught a bat, one time in, and they put it in a bird cage because they didn't know what to do with it and they weren't familiar, because they wanted to keep it as a pet. And today, when you go to Chinatown you actually don't see too many pets and there is, you know, it's because pets were a sign of luxury and they were not easily affordable. And so, very, very, whenever we see a cat or something in Chinatown we were sort of instilling off because we weren't, it wasn't part of the, our communal understanding. The term yellow peril that was used so much as the vitriol in terms of the 1882 exclusion act, and then followed us actually throughout our entire history. That was actually a strong part of my dad's upbringing he he actually, you know, every day he would experience some. When he went out into the community. And so, by being in Chinatown, and for him was being part of a ghetto, and he tried so desperately to not have that impact my family. So he deliberately moved us to, to the Glen Park area now in San Francisco which was closer to Daily City and, and where there weren't a lot of Chinese around us. He wanted us to understand that we didn't have to be impacted by the squalor and the poverty. Even though was outside the safety net of Chinatown. He wanted our family to live free of the slander that we experienced every day and but still having pride, one of the things that I didn't want to share with you is the importance of language. And I went to back in the day we didn't have after school Chinese school, it was all done by community. And so it was on the weekends but as a child growing up. I really didn't want to have anything to do with that I, I preferred sandwiches instead of rice. And I didn't value as much in the in the moment. What I was, I was living through now as I look back on it it's it's changed a lot. But I didn't want to go to weekend Chinese school. And so as a result of that. I, I desperately value the opportunity to hear Chinese to to I read a little bit and speak a little bit. But I actually know mostly Spanish more than anything else is a different language. And that's partially part of the cultural upbringing. There were about 15 nationalities in on the street where we lived. When my dad passed away, but even when we were growing up there. My mom was the youngest woman on that block. And so we lived alongside our Swedish community members and our Japanese Korean community members and and across the street was one Maryshell who played for the San Francisco And that's because another example of exclusion that we shared, he could not get property, even though he was so eligible financially in St. Francis Woods which is probably one of the most exclusive areas at the time in San Francisco, where we never lived in a number of other high ranking officials but there, there were provisions that didn't allow him to enter into that community wasn't gated, but you could tell the line of demarcation when that community started and where our community which is where the Glen Park area began. You know, I want to bring this up because the Asian American and Pacific Islander group today, today is the fastest growing racial group in the country, growing over four times as rapidly as the total US population, and expected to double to 37 million people by the 2060. Despite this tremendous growth, a API, many members are probably one of the most understudied racial groups in the US. And that's from the Obama administration. Of course, a API as we all know it stands for Asian American Pacific Islander and, and I think one of the things that's been difficult for communities with all within this group is that there's been a contrived grouping. Because I don't know that these two groups would have naturally come together at unless, but there's there's reason to and there's incentive to, in terms of the federal engagement. There's been 50 ethnic groups that comprise from more than 40 countries that comprise API. And of course, may as Asian American Pacific Islander heritage month was first created in Congress by 1992. And of course, there are lots of good reasons why it happens in May. One of the things that that is characteristic about all of this is that the need and the draw that even I have within my own communities, and my own experience is the need for both strong engagement but also thinking about the importance of both and also singularity and the values that we share within each of our different community communities. In 1968, students evasion heritage first coined the term Asian American in Berkeley, with the intent to unify their efforts for political and social recognition. And to command respect. Historically, we've been called things like Oriental and Asiatic, or a, or racial slurs says, Dr. Catherine, Denise a joy, who's professor of ethnic studies at UC Berkeley, and she's the author of Empire of care nursing and migration and in Filipino American history she's also written a wonderful book about Asian American history. She continues to write this ability to name oneself was really important. So, just like, as I've shared with you my own family history. I think it's been reflective within the history that we know as as community as a whole, that the naming is so very important and the use of language is very is very important. Just a few more statistics to share with you. Approximately 16.6 Asian American Pacific Islanders reside in the US, and that's about 5.4% of the population. In 2050 Asian American Pacific Islanders will make up 9.7% of the total US population, over 40 million people. You know we represent 30 countries and ethnic groups that speak over 100 different languages. One out of four of Asian American Pacific Islander students is limited English proficient and or listen linguistically isolated household, where parents have limited English proficiency I think that's not the norm that people think of when they think about Asian Americans and Pacific Pacific Islanders. The high school dropout rate among Southeast Asian Americans is staggering 40% of among 38% of Laotian 35% of Cambodian populations do not complete high school. 14% of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders 25 years of age and older have at least a bachelor's degree, and in comparison with 27% for the total population and 49% of the Asian American population. As members of LIS organizations such as Apollo, founded in 1980. The Asian Pacific American Librarians Association was incorporated in Illinois in 1981, and formally associated with ALA in 1982. As a professor of Apollo, the Asian American librarians caucus was organized in 1973 as a discussion group of the LA office for library outreach services. Reflecting the interest in library services to minority committee commit commit communities, excuse me, and professional support of librarians of minorities during the 1960s and the 70s. Apollo and ALC before it were organized and founded by librarians committed to working together toward a common goal to create an organization that would address the needs of Asian Pacific American librarians and those who serve Asian Pacific American communities. I encourage you to read Dr. Kenneth Yamashita's APALA history, a history of Apollo and its founders to learn about the plight of Asian Americans, the founders of the organization and why this organization was created and why it is still important today and necessary. And as of right now, I've done a little bit of digging and I will tell you that the numbers are not clear. As we know, APALA and KALA Chinese American Libraries Association are both are open to everyone, which means that I'm going to share with you with the numbers that currently are are part of a number of members but they are not definitive in terms of who defines as Asian and Pacific Islander and who defines themselves as Chinese American. So APALA membership is 642 right now. KALA membership is 561. What we know to be true though is this, that our communities are very diverse and they're strengthened by community and camaraderie and collaboration. But we know that in spite of the fact that we've had spectrum for 20 plus years, the numbers on librarians of color have remained static. And we need to change that. So Dr. Russell Jones, who is co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate has identified that, you know, he's done a number of these surveys around Asian Americans and has done actually some really good training. And even his training has been banned because they based it on critical race theory. It's a little crazy out there. What we know to be true is that Asian Americans, when they are surveyed, about 68 or 70% believe that they hear this rhetoric that they are either known as model minority or perpetual foreigner, or invisible, or a hate crime victim, or the other, whatever the other looks like. And I bring this up because I think librarians play an important role to actually being engaged with this work and making sure that we don't perpetuate and also elevate the work of and the acknowledgement and respect for Asian American and Pacific Islanders in our communities. There were 10, more than 10,000 Asian hate crimes that were reported since Stop AAPI Hate was established. Quick fact though, as he mentioned, I think a lot of us think that it's, it's targeting older adults that is not the case. 99% are under the age of 18, and 8% are reported by those over 60. Women report two times more than men, and 57.2% of the respondents are non Chinese. There's a growing thinking that, you know, and of course, the misinformation that China is a COVID disease. And but that also means that Chinese, anyone from Chinese ancestry, or anyone who's Asian means that they are related to COVID. And so there's this continual resurgence of misinformation associated with with all the crimes that are being that are being committed. One of the things that that Dr. Joan actually encouraged us to do and I specifically asked him about libraries to is that to remember that collective racial trauma, which is what we're experiencing right now. He was very clear. He thinks that all AAPI individuals are experiencing this because what what is being reported is that most Asian American Pacific Islanders are actually more afraid of hate crimes than they are of COVID. And that collective racial trauma that he's talking about remains makes us feel anxious and hyper vigilant. There's 155% increase in depression among Asian American Pacific Islanders that of course is a statistic that is self declarative. People have to report how they're feeling but what they notice is that there's an increase in everything that 94% of those that are surveyed indicate that stress and anxiety is is critical right now and that they are feeling it. During the pandemic, what's little known is that 83% of all Asian Americans filed for unemployment. And one of the other things is is that that sheltering in place creates an other ring where there's a lot of blame and mistakenly placed on on people as the other and a lot of identification of others in there. What can we do as librarians, we can create visibility. We can ask for desegregation of the data. We can correct misinformation. We can provide workshops, such as the one that San Francisco Public Library actually highlighted this last one that I attended with Dr. Joe. And that using those workshops to elevate community but also just to dispel myths. And of course, we can provide for resources for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to for self care, because that's the critical area. And he spent a little bit of time talking about resiliency. And I think we need to provide that for our community, including Asian American Pacific Islander lists, etc. And one of the things that Dr. Jones said very much is that people who are hurt, often resolve and reside in that comfort space. And then they start to hurt other people so what he doesn't want us to go into is actually that pattern and cycle where we're not emerging resilient where we actually dwell in that. And the vitriol becomes part of our makeup. He did say it's actually very easy for people who are pressed to turn on other people who are like them, which means other people of color. And so one of the things I think that we as community need to do is rise up and be that advocate for our communities, where and when we see them. One of the things though that we have a commitment to as a community is to equity. And part of that equity though in looking at our entire communities, being aware of their needs, working with one another in solidarity in camaraderie. More and more, I hear so many of our, our communities beyond our API borders calling for an end to the violence calling for communities to come together calling as colleagues, working together, as we have been actually throughout history. One of the things I didn't mention is, you know, the fact that Asian Americans have been involved in every single movement that's actually occurred in this country when it comes to social justice and racial justice. And we continue to do that. As we uplift our work and become increasingly part of the framework of what we, of our accountability in terms of creating community. I call you all to action and I challenge you. And I know that you're doing the good work advocacy is core. To, to the work we need to come together as community. Whether it begins in the home, or, or it starts within the community within the library. It begins with all of us and we need to take that opportunity to, to raise our voices, and to make a statement that we are not invisible. We are, we are such a wonderful engaged group. We are different. We are also human beings. And, but we are proud of our heritage and proud of the work that we do together. And so I encourage all of you actually to take pride in all always in your community and where you come from, and the diversity of what that represents. But also remembering that we, we so are more effective when we work together in collaboration. And I thank you Dr chow and all of the panelists for being here together. It does begin with all of us we need to take that stand we need to be proud, we need to be bold. We need to be courageous. Thank you so much Patty, I can listen to you all day we appreciate the history and you're quite a gifted speaker and storyteller so thank you so much for that. And I apologize I was answering a chat so for the panel please see the questions that I just put in chat if you would like to answer those. Again thank you so much Patty for for joining us and if you have the time I would love for you to stay on and also engage in the panel discussion. That would be wonderful thank you. So what we're going to do now is, I want to introduce each of our distinguished panel. And what I'd like to ask each of the panelists to do is just take three to five minutes to introduce yourself. And maybe as an opening statement anything you would like to say, and then we will go into our panel prompts. So, let me start in in alphabetical order so we have Jeanette contrast, who is the director of the placenta library district. Thank you very much Dr child and good morning to everyone. It's kind of a hard act to follow Patty. If you've ever had the privilege to work with Patty you know she's outstanding and you can tell by her information she share. So I'll try my best to do what I can maybe an eighth of what Patty is done. I've been in library land for over 30 years. Hey, when I started in library, I started as your typical. The path of let's start with the government so my first library job was with Santa Ana library. And at the time, I did get a degree in marketing management so library was very different from the market in the field, but I was recruited by our library manager. I thought, Okay, well, I have to see how this this works because mostly in my in my, my family, I grew up with a family of nine siblings. And nine, not eight sisters and we have the one brother so the last one right because it's, we need to have carry the name. And so we have nine girls and one boy. And so library school wasn't something that my parents would have wanted for me or nor they would have encouraged, but then I did my research and thought okay well how many Asian, how many Vietnamese librarians are there in California back in 1991 right. And so there were probably just one and she was actually called a library assistant at the time in San Diego. And so I thought, Well, you know what, let's start this journey. Let's start and let's encourage others to think about library school right because as we what we learned from library school back in 1991 to now is vastly different. Our importance of our role. It's more, it's more a lot more critical that back then than now than it was back in 1991 with EDI with racism with the, the whole even representation in the entertainment field right. So I think we need as Asian to continue to advocate like Patty mentioned advocate for for this group. And we do have, there's a lot of us, and within our own, we're talking about Southeast Asian right and we're not all the same. It's not that Chinese are very different from Vietnamese from than their other part of Asia to Pakistan right that we haven't talked about really talked about or really given that form to discuss those issues with our, our counterpart. So I'm thrilled to be able to be part of this symposium. And for me personally, ever since I committed to this profession, I was committed to actually also and encouraging others to go into the field, especially the Asian so I've worked with several students who are now in the field, because they saw a need for what we need to promote and then make aware to other non Asian communities. And they see their role now, and possibly the changes that they can make it and so I'm really proud of the work that's taking place. And I hope to see more of that. Because, eventually, I don't know about some of you here, but eventually we'll all retire from our field so we'll, we'll need that new, the new crop coming up to to continue those conversation to continue the work that's already set in place so what I also wanted to share with my own personal experience from from growing up as an Asian American was the same thing. My family of there were 13 of us we came to, we were placed in Chicago with a sponsor. And then in a community that we were the only Asian there. We were fortunate enough to have the community at that particular sponsor really took us and took care of us but the community itself. They didn't accept what we looked like we were not blonde would not blue eye. We barely spoke the language. So it's really difficult for us because at the time I was eight. It was the stairs didn't didn't really affect me because I didn't know any better right, my parents taught us, you just are grateful you just say thank you you say please and you never question so at the time it was like, well, this is, this is the world I live in right this is what I have to accept I'm just fortunate like I came to the US right, and then in a second to junior high and high school then it was more even more prevalent it was like, it was almost every day that I, I get this, this this these these non connection with with with people that don't look like me with students that don't look like me. It was the way I was dressed because again growing up in Vietnamese family, you couldn't show your legs you could not wear anything that show anybody parts or even your neck. Most of the time you were stuff that was a collar or turtleneck that was your dress, and you couldn't put a makeup and stuff. And so you're competing with these kids that grew up in Mesa Verde in Costa Mesa high affluent community and they stare at you or, or you, I learned very fast not to pack lunch that have garlic in it, or fish sauce right, because everybody starts to go away from the table you're sitting right, and then even at 14 I realized, in order to get a job. I needed to change my name from trend to our age to Jeanette, in order to get a job, because I, I understood from most of the folks that spoke to me at the time said, if they can't pronounce your name, if it looks weird, if it doesn't look Caucasian like they are just going to skip your application. So at 14. Okay, I became Jeanette. And sure enough, that proved to be right. Sadly, I was able to get jobs based on that. And then, even to now right to this day I think I'm more comfortable changing back because my legal name is still trend, legally change it back to that and be proud of my Asian heritage, be proud of that, although my last name is contrivers so they also think it's Hispanic right so I'm married to Mexican. So, but those things still work, even this community in Placentia, where I've been the director for over 14 years. It, I'm the first Asian American to be directed for this library system, and it is predominantly white, very conservative. And here's this Asian crazy Asian director coming in and changing things up and letting them see different ways. And I've been fortunate that the community have been very receptive of ideas and changes that we've, we've worked on for the community itself. And also, I'm now working on, thank you so much Patty for mentioning this, I'm working on legislation with their legislator to, to protect our profession, because as you know, some of you may be aware there are states that are are happy to set in place that will imprison librarians and library workers for having or checking out materials that they deem they personally deem as as objective to them. So, what we're doing is with our legislator is putting a bill that says, hey, this is our job. This is what we do what. And to, to make sure that we protect the safety of our staff, as well, as well as the work we do, and the underlining of those is obviously censorship right. So we will continue to work on that it's, it's, it's going to be a big task but I'm fortunate to be able to have good relationship with our legislator. That takes us so that we can keep everyone can safely do their job and, and, and be proud of the work they do as well. So that's the bit of my story and I thank you for the opportunity to speak. Thank you, Jeanette and yeah, I legally adopted Anthony in college actually so we can talk about that at another time. The next is Gay 3 com director of the city Palo Alto Library Services. Hi everybody. I'm going to tell you how to pronounce my name. You know, Jeanette was spot on. One of the things I always do is to teach people how to pronounce my name think about a guy and and the number three. And the a in the middle is almost silence or it's Gay 3. So that was the first thing I actually learned when I came to this country and I was a, I was an immigrant, and my journey was a little bit like Jeanette but not like her because I came being a new bride to my husband, who is one of the software engineers that moved in the 90s. So that's how my journey started and I think even before we married and our marriage was traditionally an arranged marriage in the sense that our parents introduced us to each other and then we decided yes we will get married. But one of the things that I had talked to him is like I would, I would be interested in a career and and so moving to a different country was kind of traumatic. And then I came here understanding that thinking that I would be going to school and then found out that my visa made me ineligible to get a job or I would only go to school as an international student which we can't afford. So, what helped me was the library. So I went to my local library and you know there's, I just love to read and so I spent hours there and loved what the librarians were doing. It was just like a whole world opening and then I thought, you know what I become what. That's how I actually went to library school once I became eligible to go to library, you know, go to school. So, and then of course going to school, hardly anybody that looks like me. Right. So I was worried I thought, Oh, will I ever get a job. Unfortunately, I did get a job and I was also very lucky that my first job as a librarian was at the Cupertino library and Cupertino was changing so much. It had a huge Asian population, huge Chinese Korean and into American population coming in there right so there were people like me. But the interesting part was people refused to think I was a librarian. They, many of them thought I was a I was I had to be a library page. I could not be a librarian. And this was some of the things that you know you would experience over the years as you become a manager and then, you know, told I was told by actually nobody less than another in the American coming in saying that you can't be the manager of the library. Because you're you're Indian. And I'm like actually I am so let's talk about what you need today. So, but on the other hand I also had wonderful wonderful mentors from different ethnic groups different areas so that was really really helpful. And in some ways I also was telling this to my son as that he and I grew up together. I came here and then I had a child and so we actually grew up together and the summer thing you know in some ways we were friends learning a new way of the world. Let me think about what else I can say that will add to this. Part of the things that I was also very surprised when I came to this country is a lot of people didn't think I was Asian. So, I was surprised, because people would say oh but you're Indian, you're not Asian. And I'm like well India is in Asia. So, so that was confusing. And then also, I mean, it's interesting about the name to my name is Gayatri Kant, but traditionally when you come from South India, which is where I am from, you don't have a last name tradition at all. So your, your name is your first your husband or your father's name, the initial of that that was your initial that's that's how we, we were known. And so, when I came here my husband's name is Krishna Kant so I used to be a Gayatri Krishna Kant. And guess how difficult that was, and people could not pronounce it so when we became citizens I actually shortened it to Kant. So if anybody does if our family does genealogy, I think they could never go back beyond the Kant part so I always worry like I need to leave good documentation so they know where we are from. So I mean it's just, it's just remarkable. I think human beings are just amazing that they can survive in anything and learn new things and thrive in new things. I will say that truly like the library gave me success, I mean it's just that that's the place where I learned. And I also really credit reading as the number one thing that helped me. You know when I came from from a different country. I never thought this was a foreign place. I thought, oh, which you know this is just like reading a book. All right, except you're in the book now. So to me, you know that really helped me connect with people that came to the library, whether they were, you know, white or non white or you know, any any ethnicity or group. It was just like, that's what brought us together. And so I tried to really look at the commonality. And I also like early there I also try to look at, you know, what would I do to make myself fit into this community and then I decided on certain things but I decided on certain other things that I wouldn't do. Like for example, I'm one of the few people that still have the dot in my forehead. That that's something a lot of even in the Indians that move here, don't do that. And very early in my time here I decided I wouldn't do that I would keep it. I would not remove my nose ring. But interestingly enough, when I when I came here and I was a teen services librarian right the teens thought I was really cool. So I thought, Okay, this is good. So now they think I'm cool. That's great. And this is really like old fashioned in India. So, so you really, you know, learn to negotiate and then and then the other thing too is because it was an immigrant. And then you get back to India regularly. Really regularly. And so, trying to navigate both worlds was really hard because my parents, especially my mom used to say, You've become American. And then here, people don't think I'm American. Right. So, so how do you think they navigate these two worlds. I think ultimately, though, that you decide that you're in the world that you create. And that's, that's how I ended up where I am. I worked in Cupertino library, as well as Saratoga, for a long time, and then surprised myself by moving to Palo Alto as an assistant director and then eventually as a director now. So, I just think that I've been very, very, very fortunate to have some of the experiences and some of the introductions to, you know, the right place at being in the right place at the right time. You know, thankful to the library. Every day. Thank you. Thank you. Good to see you. And now that appreciate you sharing that. Next is Dr. Heidi Kim. She is the director of the UNC Chapel Hill Asian American Center and professor of English and comparative literature. Heidi. Thanks, Anthony. I really appreciate this invitation and this great turnout. It's really wonderful to see so many people interested in this conversation and particularly librarians who I think are so much of a first line of education, especially for children for large swaths of the public. And I consider libraries essential partners to scholarship and education. So libraries, museums, other institutions of culture and history. And I hope that it's likewise a two way street. So that has always been essential to my own scholarship. And I will, I will give a talk anywhere. I will, I will help people with educational work anywhere that that's always, I think, been central also to the work of Asian American studies, which really very much grew out of a political movement. And it's still a very young field. And it carries that political imperative because even the grouping Asian American. It is a political creation. It's not something that exists naturally. As Guy three discussed, right, people have different ideas about what that even means, let alone the group of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, which is really very much a governmental and political construction. And there are a lot of conversations that I think we have to have about representation and equity within this group, acknowledging that subgroups within here may perceive the term differently, may see themselves in conflict with other groups that fall within the rubric. So there are a lot of different challenges, even to this term to this political idea of Asian America. And the same extends outward to Asian American studies, Asian American literature, all these things. There's a lot of work to be done. The Asian American Center at UNC Chapel Hill is very new. And we are trying to do a little bit of everything for everyone at the moment. So we're working in data and demographics and disaggregation, and we're putting on artistic events, scholarly events. We're partnering with community organizations, we're fostering student work in their own communities, working on oral history to documents. And all of that is really necessary work. One of the questions that I posed to our local community recently as we kicked off our Asian Pacific American Heritage Month celebrations, which we do a month earlier in April because of our academic calendar. One of the questions that I posed was, what are we as a community, both Asian Americans and allies, going to do with the post Atlanta blooming so that out of the terrible tragedy of the Atlanta shootings over a year ago has come this really strong swell of activism, awareness, media coverage, art, authorship, all of these things. And so how are we as a community going to turn this around sustain it. And on what key issues and initiatives will the community work with the kind of unanimity that there's been around physical safety. So what else is Asian America going to sort of be able to come together on. That's a very large question. I think that what it really all starts it with is that understanding of Asian America, and how exactly Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and native Hawaiians are racialized within the United States. And that starts with, again, childhood reading starts with curricular integration. It comes in with college course offerings and media representation there are so many levels on which an understanding of Asian America has to be cultivated. So, you know, no one person can do everything. But every one person has the ability, especially the librarians and future librarians on this call to make really meaningful change for a number of people. Thank you very much, Heidi. The next panelist is Michael Lambert, director of the San Francisco Public Library. Thank you, Dr. Chow. And thank you everybody for being here. It's an honor to join this incredible panel today. My name is Michael Lambert. I'm the first Asian American to serve as city librarian for the city and county of San Francisco. I was born in Korea. My mother is Korean. My father was a dual national. He had a German and American citizenship. He passed away when I was very young, less than a year old, and my Korean mother brought me to the United States. I grew up in the South. I grew up in South Carolina and my Korean mother left me in the possession of my American grandparents and she returned to Korea. And, you know, I had a loving family upbringing. I was not really dialed in with anything about my Asian heritage. It was not until college that I was able to really lean into that and learn more about East Asian studies and learn more about my cultural heritage. And really when I went to college, that's when I started my library career. It's hard to believe it's 30 years this year. But I started in Columbia, South Carolina at the Richland Library, one of the finest urban libraries in the country. And I worked there for about seven and a half years before I earned my master's degree in library and information science. And that was really my ticket out of South Carolina 25 years was enough. I moved out to the Bay Area started my professional career in Foster City, which is in San Mateo County part of the San Mateo County Library. I was there for several years got married had a kid felt the tug to go back to the Carolinas. I worked in the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library for several years, but I missed the Bay Area. I missed the diversity, I missed the beauty, the food. So I was very fortunate I had an opportunity to come back in January of 2012 as the deputy director of the San Mateo County Library, and I was only there for a couple of years. My partner contacted me about a deputy city librarian job in San Francisco. So I joined Luis Herrera's team back in March of 2014. It's been an incredible career to date I am I'm living the dream. I am really proud to work with the team that I have in San Francisco. So the population is over one third Asian American, native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander is about 35.7% I believe, and our workforce actually is overrepresented. We have about 45% of the library staff in San Francisco, our Asian American native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander and I know one of our staff is on this today Jerry dear. I just want to give a shout out to all of my staff they're phenomenal they do incredible work to engage the community and really partner with the community to co create programming and services that celebrate the culture and heritage of our community. Thank you Michael. Very much. And finally we have Dr Alan Shoho, who is Dean and Professor emeritus University of Wisconsin Milwaukee School of Education Alan. Thanks a lot Anthony. Well, you know, my journey comes really is about. I spent 21 years at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and then I had about 12 years ago I had a provost who came and he happened to be married to a Chinese lady from Taiwan. And I have a feeling that had an impact on him somehow, because you know I was going to probably retire, you know, continue to work as a faculty member be a happy faculty member and retire soon after. But then he came in and he worked with me on some committee, and he said, you know, have you ever thought about going into leadership and administration. And I said, no, not really. That's not something that I've ever thought about. And he said, you know, I think I want you to be a part of our first leadership cohort. But the reason I tell this story is, I don't think, in general, Asian American Pacific Islanders, native Hawaiians are actually viewed upon as leadership material, especially in higher education. I think you can, with the exception of places like maybe California, and some of the major urban centers, you're not going to find too many Asian American Pacific Islanders who are presidents or provosts of universities. There's not many of them. And in fact, you know, I think the statistics bear it out that most of them are white male. Now they're increasingly female is becoming increasing. But you know, I think that's an interesting thing to happen. The other thing that I wanted to share was the fact that I'm from Hawaii as well, like Patty, except if I'm from rural Hawaii, I'm from the big island of Hawaii. The thing that I think one of the experiences I had was that when I was growing up in Hawaii, we never actually, I had never heard of the term minority. That was not a term that we ever used. In fact, we never even used the term Asian American. You know, I had Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, native Hawaiians, Samoans, Filipinos, Portuguese. And we just never referred to ourselves in that context. And then fast forward, my family moved to California. Actually, we moved to a place right where Jeanette's the library, Placentia, California. And Jeanette will tell you that, you know, Placentia is right in the middle of Orange County, which is kind of was referred to as Reagan Republicans back in the day. And it's a fairly conservative area. And when I grew up there, I went to high school there. I was one of only three Asian in my high school class. And all of a sudden, someone I remember going to school and someone said, you're a minority. And I go, well, what does that mean? I literally did not know what that meant. Because it was never a term that was used in Hawaii. And so, you know, I think one of the interesting things is, you know, trying to, I think we all have, as I listened to all the stories of everyone else, you know, we all have unique stories and backgrounds where we came from our histories. And I think it's important to learn about those. And I think they're going to come out in some of the questions that Anthony is going to really probe us here in a few seconds. So I'm going to turn it over to you, Anthony. Thank you, Alan. Thanks. Thanks everyone for your amazing stories. So reminder, for the sake of time, we have about 30 minutes, a little bit less than we had planned. So let's definitely jump into these prompts. So the first one is to Alan. What do you want non-Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific honors to know and understand about why it is important to celebrate and honor an HPI Heritage Month? Yeah. Thanks a lot, Anthony, for this question. I think it's an important question. And I think it's already been touched upon in several ways. I know Jeanette and you touched upon it all and as well as Patty. And this whole notion is, I think what I would like non-APIs to know about is the fact that there's probably more diversity within the API community than there is outside of it. And you mentioned early on, I think in the introduction how we have a lot of commonalities. And that's true. There are a lot of commonalities. But we also have a lot of distinct unique histories and cultures. Depending on, I think if you talk to Asian Americans from Southeast Asia, they came at a very later period in our history. I think their experiences are very different than like Patty noted in the Chinese and the Japanese were earlier. And so I would like, I hope people, I'd like non-APIs to really understand that we're very unique and don't just rely on stereotypes, but really try to get to know people. Because in my viewpoint, stereotypes are, I usually often use the term, that's the lazy man's way to try to get to know people by using stereotypes. And if you really want to get to know people and a group of people, really talk to them. So that's one thing I'd share with there, Anthony. And I'll open up to others. Thank you, Alan. Anyone else on the panel want to mention anything? I'll just chime in and state the obvious. Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander history is U.S. history. And that's what our role as public libraries can help further as educational institutions. Thank you, Michael Heidi. I just add to that, especially again, given the ways that librarians interact with the public to remember how much socioeconomic diversity and linguistic diversity there is. So on top of the, you know, regional and national differences, it's so important to be aware of API issues, but also to approach people individually. Thank you, Heidi. And also, given what Patty had said, the projection for Asian population worldwide will be over 46 million by 2060. Just think about that number, 46 million Asian by 2060. I mean, that in of itself, I should say is the U.S. projection, but worldwide. I'm not sure everybody's aware, but Asian make up more than 50% worldwide population and white population Caucasians make up or European 9%. Now, how then do we get the 9%, the non Asians, right, who have a higher, bigger microphone, right, and platform them, the Asians who make up more than 50% of the population, this earth. How do we get them to join in on this conversation. So I would invite those that are on this call, that if you're hearing and seeing and feeling what our panelists are sharing with you, I would invite you to participate and join us. And to get this out because Alan has a great point in of itself in our own Asian, there are different groups of groups. You talk about the moms, they're part of Vietnam department allows Thai, but they're there, they don't associate themselves as any of those country. They're indigenous people that have their own food their own language their own stuff. And so we need to think about that. And we need to have invite those our counterpart or other librarians out there to join us on this journey with us as well. Thank you. Thanks, Jeanette. Thank you very much. So the next question is going to start with Guy three. Please share your thoughts around a NHP is insistent and really systemic systemic racism in the United States. What does this mean. And how do you feel is experienced by its members. Thanks, Anthony. That's a really, that was really like an interesting question and the in the library and in me couldn't, you know resist going and doing some research about it, because I hadn't really like thought about it. But the one the one description that I was really, really intrigued was somebody who called it a. I'm going to read that because they're depicting it is as a hidden base of an iceberg. And, you know, we all know about the iceberg, you know the over thing is like racism that we could, we could see every day you know the hate racism and stuff that's just happening outside. But then a majority of everything that's happening is just underneath there. And I thought that was, there was a very apt description. What those. This is Gilbert G and Annie row. And they're talking to them systemic racism is embedded in systems that is often assumed to reflect the natural inevitable order of things. And I think that's, that's really like it was very, very spot on. In the sense that a lot of the times, we actually think that's the natural order of things. We don't even realize that that's not the national order of things, right because you're exposed to certain things. And then so therefore you assume that's the truth. So, to me that's that was like a great definition of that. Thank you very much. Yes, I completely agree. What is the rest of the panel thing. Well, as we're as you're thinking about it, I would say that in my mind systemic racism also has to do with kind of stereotypes and the expectation in which lane you're supposed to belong in. So I think it kind of ties with what Alan was saying about possibly what is perceived as good leadership material. And in my own experience, what I find is oftentimes when I do things that do not fit the stereotype, nothing is mentioned, nothing is said, and there's really not a lot of support for it either. And so I view that in some ways is also systemic racism where the stereotypes drive. Almost like a Hollywood movie, the role that we're supposed to play. And I think that that is an interesting and oftentimes hidden bias that I think in many ways were inundated and there is a question about the media and just a second. But I think that also contributes to that and the other would be, I think many of the panelists talked about it. Amalgamating the AA NHPI group into one huge group that we're all somehow we have a specific characteristic and oftentimes that leads towards the bottom minority myth which we're going to talk about in just a second as well. But Alan, go ahead. Yeah, Anthony, you know you mentioned in your introduction about you playing football in Florida. And I think you're probably about 10 years younger than me. But when I grew up in the 60s and 70s, you know, as you know, there was no Asian American professional sports athletes, none, not in any of the major sports. So there was no each year old. There was no Yao Ming. There was no Jeremy Lynn. There was nothing. In fact, even back then, they were just starting to have black quarterbacks. You know, that was a big deal, having the first black quarterback and you know that they at the time, you know, people were saying, well, are the blacks is can they are they intelligent enough to be the quarterback. And, you know, I think that was something that, you know, we I think you and I may have experienced where, you know, there was an image that because there was no one like that in higher levels. How could you become the book, you know, the first Asian quarterback or whatever it may be. So, you know, I think, you know, I think times have we've things have improved. But, you know, I think we still have a long way to go. And, you know, I think getting back to a part of the first question, I think one of the things I would like to address is and I'd like to hear other people because I may have a different take on than other people. You know, this whole notion of May being designated as API month. You know, my hope is someday that our species will evolve where we don't have to have set aside months for every ethnic group. Because, you know, part of me says, I'm not sure if that's a good thing. You know, because literally, so we're going to honor APIs for May, but then forget them for the other 11 months. Or, you know, whether it's I think February is African-American month. I think September or September is Hispanic. You know, I wrestle with that one. And so I'd be interested to hearing with the other panelists how they feel about that. Thanks for raising that question, Alan. I think we have to remember that every day, every week, every month out of the year is White History Month in this country. So we have to be intentional about celebrating the various cultures and diversity in this country. You know, and at San Francisco Public Library, we celebrate Asian-American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in a big way. But that doesn't stop us from offering lots of programming year round. I mean, this fall we'll have an international Filipino Book Festival. We celebrate Southwest Asian and North African cultures in the fall. So, you know, we don't just target May, but we're so fortunate in San Francisco. As I said, we have a diverse workforce. We have lots of resources. So we make a point to celebrate throughout the year. Yeah, and I'll just add, Alan, that as busy as we all are, having this month allows me to focus on this topic and look at the panel that we've assembled. And I believe that the comments and wisdom shared here will hopefully be useful to others way beyond today's session. So, but I'm with you, Alan, my children are actually biracial. So race in many ways is kind of meaningless to them. But as often happens, if you have a white and a person of color union, the minority part comes out to play, especially if it is easy to spot, and especially if they carry the last name Chow. So, so yeah, I completely agree. And I do think hopefully that is where we're headed solely, but surely so. All right, so with that being said, let's go to the next prompt. Do you feel you've ever faced racism and macro microaggressions because you are a NHPI. And if so, if you feel comfortable sharing, please discuss and this will start with Heidi. So, you know, what an interesting question. I mean, the answer is, of course, yes. And, you know, it would take too long, I think, to detail everything. But a lot of these things, you know, it's interesting, they've become such hallmarks of, of experience, right. They almost become a kind of basis for a shared solidarity or community. Especially as people kind of grow into an Asian American sort of identity. And perhaps Pacific Islanders would say the same. One classic that I didn't ever experience is the lunchbox moment. So we had some some reference to that previously, but that that moment of, you know, the child opening up their lunchbox and the classmates judging it and, you know, finding it stinky. And that I would say that that's the one I never experienced oddly enough. But that's because I ate peanut butter sandwiches all the time. So, you know, I've experienced it professionally. I experienced it in childhood I've experienced it just out and about in anonymous daily life, particularly in cities or more crowded spaces but not exclusively. And I've experienced it in different parts of the country as well. So I'm guessing that most of the people attending this are in or perhaps from California. And, you know, I, I know Californians by no means of racial utopia but it's very different racial landscape from any of. So I grew up in New Jersey. It's just a very different racial landscape different history. And I think awareness and understanding of Asian American populations came along at different times. So, a lot of the bullying and so on I experienced as a child came out of the fact that, you know, my parents were part of the post 65 boom of immigration from Asia. And many of those immigrants moved into suburbs, right, new neighborhoods. It was at the same time that older populations were moving out of ethnic enclaves like Chinatown. And so you had the all these new confrontations, all these new racial confrontations. And what you didn't have were, I think, the popular text to kind of support a better understanding. And that was all happening at the same time that Asian American studies and the kind of renaissance of Asian American literature was happening. It didn't happen fast enough for some of us. So I can tell you, if we have any children's librarians on the call, the one book I remember reading that had an Asian American as opposed to an Asian character was one of the sweet Valley high books, I don't know if teens are still reading sweet Valley books. But, you know, it's about these blonde twins who live in Southern California and in their entire high school there's one Chinese American in Southern California. But I must have read that book about five times. And so, you know, there's there's I think it's still such a huge problem. But I feel like at least there are some frameworks and texts and educators out there now to address these things, you know, maybe to help people to cope with these when they happen, right, that we have a language. And we have the historical information to help us contextualize them. And, you know, for some people that might help take the sting off for others I understand it won't. But it's all part of working to write some of those larger systemic issues that Anthony asked about previously. Thank you, Heidi. Any other comments on this one. And I'll just share for my children. One of the things that they identified is actually the pain and suffering of being picked out for photos to show the diversity of their schools that they attended because they were aged or half Asian. And although that seems relatively innocuous, it's still a unwelcome attention and almost kind of a, you know, using race in a way that they did not want to they did not want to have to deal with right and so I'm sharing this for all of everyone we mean well when we talk about diversity but we have to be very careful in in paying too much attention to that so Heidi you had a comment. Well that's such a good point Anthony because that's tokenism right that's right that's using your children's faces without engaging seriously in their experiences and their questions and their cultural background so that certainly I think isn't what anyone on this call would want from from serious educators. Yeah, thank you. Thank you Heidi. I appreciate that. So the next question is to Michael. What is the model minority myth and what impact do you feel does it have on a and HP eyes and are there any other stereotypes that really bug you. Thanks for the question Anthony so this morning I just looked very quickly and found a website there's an organization improving South Asian American students experiences, and they have a nice quote, the model minority myth is misguided and is a false stereotype. It hurts Asian American students, whether they are low achieving or high achieving and creates divides between these students and others. It may also lead to teachers to provide less support to their Asian American students, as they may may believe the students need less support than they actually do. I just wanted to say in spite of the fact that Asian Americans have diverse levels of education, financial success and fill varying socio economic brackets in the in the United States. They're often treated as a homogenous monolith that fits the stereotype of a model minority. This stereotype is a perception of Asian students as perfect, highly intelligent, capable, respectful and hard working. It is ridiculously misguided. It's also a view that is largely untrue harmful to those students who are furthest from the stereotype and those close to it, since it can exacerbate pressures they face so for me, you know this is personal. You know I, I grew up Asian in the south, and I grew up with relative privilege in my household and I just reflect on my experience growing up in the public school system, and you know I was not a model minority at all. I was really a juvenile delinquent but I feel that I benefited I was put in these academic tracks, talented and gifted or academically talented program or advanced academic program. You know and I feel a little guilty that you know maybe I took a slot that wasn't accessible to other minorities, because you know the south is largely black and white and I fast forward to the present. I moved to California for the second time in 2012, and I intentionally moved to Palo Alto. My childhood best friends were already living in Palo Alto but I also knew that Palo Alto had, you know one of the best if not the best public school system in the entire state. And you know I'm not one of those parents that pushes my son too hard but I've seen his friends and you know many of their parents have pushed their kids extremely hard and I see the toll that it's taken and I mean Palo Alto is notorious because of the the cal train tracks and some of the tragedies that have played out there and it is a result of the pressures that these young people have felt on the flip side, you know what other stereotypes. Do I not like so you mentioned you played football and Palo Alto the demographic there is about one third Asian and you know prior to my son attending gun high school they had one of the most horrible football teams in the Bay Area and I'm proud to say my son, who is of Korean heritage, he was the league MVP, he won two regular season championships as the quarterback for gun high school, and he just dominated, and you know, people were just shocked that gun was winning, beating everybody in the past couple of years so that's I guess my take on the model minority myth. And Michael, I want to say I want to say make sure that that I'm sure there already been articles and stories but definitely make sure that there are some stories written about that, because I can definitely say by by no means was I near as good as your son, but not a word was ever said about the uniqueness of having that position and it's important that those stories that counter the stereotypes must be shared and shared loudly. Yes, go ahead. I will just say that Michael son's name is well known here. Newspapers have his name so very proud to know that also want to add to that as another parent whose son was a water polo player and and definitely was the MVP for that and so that was like a big shock. Not only was that a shock, but it was even more of a shock when he actually got recruited by the Naval Academy. And so that's how his started the as a military navy naval officer started. And one of the things that we noticed is there's 1200 kids every year. And out of it, there were five into Americans. That's it. But my son was saying that one of the biggest things that is like nobody even knew that he was into American they would not even guess that, because it's just, you know, it could never, that could never happen. So the struggle was like they would they would try to think like, are you who are you. And, and he would say, I'm American. And I remember that really when because we were immigrants to this place and he was also actually born in India. And so we all have to get our citizenship. And so he had to go through a citizenship interview, which was much easier than mine and then you know they were asking and they said, he was saying something and he said my country and then they said which country are you talking about. And he just looked at them because he came in he was 50 days old. So, you know, for all purposes he's American and then he said what do you mean my country. This is my country. And, but, but I was thinking like even in an 80 year old child that stereotype is already there. So that was very, very profound to me when I ended in his mind there was just absolutely no confusion. That's great. That's, that's wonderful. Thank you. Thank you for you both sharing. So we don't have a lot of time for the last question, but let's go ahead and give it a shot so off to Jeanette. Let's talk about Asian stereotypes in the media and Hollywood movies so despite the fact that we've had crazy rich Asians and late as of late Shang Chi. So, do you feel that a AA NHP eyes are are fairly represented in the media. I would have to say resounding no. I think there was a study called the prevalence and patrol of Asian and Pacific Islander across 1300 popular films. It was written by Dr Nancy Yuan and Dr Stacy Smith, and it pretty much covers what we know in the in Hollywood right and the portrayal of such Asian characters are usually either martial arts, you have your Bruce Lee back in 1978 with fighting a scene with Abdul Jabbar. Right. And then you have them, what Michael had mentioned the, the model minority, right. The minority smart student, or the obedient Asian mother, or. So, and you see films over and over depicting those stereotype right. The first one. The other one was like, if you remember 16 candles right that Asian character. What was it long done, which is supposed to be long. Which they never mentioned, but I presume he's been in this, and they didn't even spell the duck name, right, they spell it do you K, instead of do you see, which is the proper name as going for that. So you, you have that. And you see people. And then so you wonder why the society see us as such. It gets repeated over and over in mainstream and in Hollywood, and. And it's not bad enough to say that of 336 rows go to. It's the white actors right and then you have 22 roles, 22 Asian that play, not even a leading role, right, for the co lead role right and then, and then, and then and to throw even slap us more is that they go and some of the Asian characters are going to the white actors. Matt Damon, the great wall, right. Come on. Matt Damon and Chinese warrior. And then you have, you also have Catherine Hepburn in Dragon seat. You have Rita Hayward in Charlie Chan in Egypt, you have till the swing play to be Tibetan monk. Right. So, to say that there's not enough Asian there to improve from that to play those role. It's really doing this service so all you're doing is portraying it not only the spiritual typical roles of an Asian character, but also now you're yellow facing that and giving the Asian character characters to a white actor. So, I think that I think we need to to work with Hollywood. We need to write the rewrite the story. We need to have a place on that table to say how we can do a better, a more accurate representation of the Asian American Pacific Islander native Hawaiian community. So, Thank you, Jeanette. Any other comments. Anthony, I not only agree with Jeanette, but you know, I think one of the interesting kind of goes to this notion of the falsehood of it is that I venture to guess if you actually were to do a study of how many Asian Americans actually do know martial arts. The percentage is actually probably pretty low. It's kind of like in Hawaii. Everyone thinks everyone in Hawaii knows how to serve. No, we don't. In fact, you'd be shocked how many people in Hawaii actually don't know how to swim. So, you know, but it's that kind of stereotype that exists that, you know, I think perpetuates these falsehoods and I think do it deserves. Now, I think one thing is going to help in and I just saw it. I think it was yesterday. Many of you may have saw that the Muffets the Sesame Street is going to come up with their first Asian American Asian Pacific Island Muffet. I believe she's Korean. I think she's Korean. And, you know, I, you know, the reason I say it's a positive thing is that think of all the millions of kids who are now going to be exposed to that. I think it will help long term. But those little things, you know, the sad thing is that it took probably way too long for that to happen. Yeah, Jeanette. Thank you, Alan. I absolutely agree. And I think you certainly things are getting better. I did want to share Jeanette that I was actually, well, I watched that movie 16 candles with a lot of my fellow teammates. And that actually that movie began my awakening of what the heck is going on here because as everybody laughed at that character. Of course, that was the only Asian character in the entire movie. And that really caused me to really think rethink my own identity. So, you know, were you going to make a comment? No, I was going to agree with Alan. I mean, to say that Alan shares with us that there's a new puppet in Asian and how many years, what 3040 years. And for me to be so elated that there's an Asian character after all these decades. It's very sad. I'm very happy that it happened. But I'm also very, very profoundly sad that it took this long to have that representation. So, yeah, thank you. And I also want to build on what Patty said about the screenwriters. So I had the privilege of being an extra or an extra in the Joy Luck Club. And so I spent some time with Michael Paul Chan. And I asked him off camera, does it ever bother you to be playing a character that's so mean and kind of stereotypical as far as his role? And he goes, I got to eat, man. I have to play the roles that are available to me. And so, and then I also want to share to all of the non-APIs here that it's when we go to a movie. And we see so few Asian characters and typically those Asian characters tend to be portrayed negatively. For me, I just want to see the counter narratives, right? So I want to see Michael's son. I want to see other things so that when you have an Asian character that's bad, you have an Asian character that's good. When you have an Asian character that's weak, you have an Asian character that's strong. And I think that what really happens, and I know that Dr. Kim could speak to this, it also impacts our youth in a very negative light when that continues. So as Alan and Jeanette said, hopefully that Muppet will begin that counter narrative where it's not inundated with anti-Asian images and it really impacts the youth in particular. Alright, so with that being said, we are over time, but I would like because we have Patty with us, I would like to just extend it a few more minutes if it's okay for everyone else to just have Patty address the question of what can libraries and educational institutions do to provide a more authentic view of the AA and HPIs. Thank you. Thank you, Anthony. And thank you so much for the panel. I think there's been really deep, rich conversation. I think as allies in the work, we need to actually create the kind of programming, I think, and training for our staff that actually activate and better inform one another. A lot of that work has to happen internally first, so I agree with everything that's been said here, but I do think we need to make sure that our staff have the training and the tools in order to actually activate in a real authentic and well-informed way. I do think that we need to engage with our organizational partners to really just like SJSU and the School of Information right now, to really articulate the conversation, have harder conversations, because it's not just a one-dimensional aspect to all of this. I think we've mentioned diversity in its broadest sense, I think, today. And I think we need to continue that conversation. I think the reading lists are very important that Dr. Jung actually mentioned, because that's what libraries are known for is information and actually also dispelling myths and having, elevating the language and the conversation to dispel myths, creating, making sure that we eradicate misinformation and call it for when we see it. I think that's the other piece. And that also means maybe training our community actually to recognize that disinformation, whether it comes in the form of a public health directive or what is considered critical race theory. All of that is part of opportunities for us. I might even dare say an accountability and a responsibility to make sure that we provide that when and where we can. I think Jeanette's doing some great work in terms of legislation. I think we should join her when that legislation comes up, because all of that that's going to benefit school libraries and protect LIS as a profession in terms of our abilities for the freedom to read. Actually, all ties into equity across the board. And as LIS professionals, I mean, I think that the last thing that I would say to you very quickly is there is the Committee on Accreditation at ALA is looking at changing their standards. If we want LIS to change, if we want to create more opportunities for librarians of color and specifically AAPI library staff to join our ranks, then we need to sometimes change the curriculum, the faculty and the student expectations. And so in order for us to do that, I would hope that you would take a look at the standards, look at the EDI questions that are being considered, because we want to change the evaluation of the work that we're doing. And a special applause to actually San Jose, because I think they've done a really fantastic job of making sure that EDI is integrated in the curriculum. It's not just the one off. And that certainly shows with the student body and the faculty retention as well. There's a lot on our plate, but I think if we work together collaboratively, I think we'll be able to do quite a bit. And we need to start, but we need to activate. So thank you. Well, Patty, Patty, I want to special thank you to you for your leadership and really thank you for the entire panel, Michael Allen, Heidi, Jeanette, Guy three. And a special thanks to our staff, TC cat, and certainly Alfredo as well. So final thoughts. I really thank you for joining us and taking the time. All of this will be transcribed the full recording will be placed on YouTube. So please join us for our future symposiums coming up next month, which will be LGBTQ plus as well as Juneteenth day. So it's a real honor to present this type of programming thanks everyone for your time, and have a great day.