April 2021 Newsletter
PAAWBAC News | April 29, 2021
Dear Friends,
Happy Spring! We are feeling cautiously optimistic that the increasing availability of vaccines will allow us to slowly return to a “new normal” way of life, as restrictions are lifted and venturing out is less worrisome. We were relieved that the Chauvin verdict held a police officer accountable for an act of brutality against a Black American, although too many are still needlessly victimized far too often at the hands of law enforcement.
At the same time, the struggle to stem the surge of anti-Asian American Pacific Islander hate continues. For its part, PAAWBAC has made donations to three organizations actively engaged in addressing racist crimes and other incidents directed towards AAPIs: Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus, Chinese for Affirmative Action, and Hollaback!
Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus is the nation’s oldest civil and legal rights organization advocating on behalf of AAPIs. It has undertaken a multi-pronged approach to address the root causes of anti-AAPI hate in ways that lead to restorative justice and healing. In this newsletter, we interview Angela Chan, Policy Director and Senior Staff Attorney at Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus, and a 2008 PAAWBAC Monarch Leadership Awardee.
Chinese for Affirmative Action is a co-founder of the racial justice coalition Stop AAPI Hate. The coalition had the foresight to begin collecting reports of hate incidents against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders over a year ago. CAA and the coalition continue to advocate for civil rights protections, community-based interventions, and culturally-competent resources for victims and survivors.
Hollaback!, a global organization working to end harassment in all forms by transforming the culture that perpetuates hate and harassment, has partnered with Asian Americans Advancing Justice to offer free bystander intervention trainings. Hollaback! adapted its pre-existing courses to offer a bystander intervention training to stop anti-Asian/American and xenophobic harassment, as well as a de-escalation training adapted to support the AAPA community.
Finally, May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. PAAWBAC is again proud to be a community sponsor of the local celebration by the Asian Pacific American Heritage Foundation. This year, the Foundation is collaborating with the Asian Art Museum, the Center for Asian American Media and the San Francisco Public Library to produce an online guide listing events in May celebrating Asian Pacific Americans in Film, Leadership, the Arts, Culture, Literature, and History.
Sincerely,
PAAWBAC Board of Directors
PAAWBAC Community in the News
A memoir by U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono, Heart of Fire: An Immigrant Daughter’s Story [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/636264/heart-of-fire-by-mazie-k-hirono/], was released April 20. Sen. Hirono, a Democrat representing Hawaii, is the first Asian-American woman elected to the Senate, and the first Japanese immigrant to hold that position. She has been a fierce advocate for health care access, women’s equality, and civil rights. Just last week, her legislation, the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, passed the Senate on a bipartisan vote of 94-1. The bill, which addresses anti-Asian hate crimes and violence against the AAPI community, is headed to the House of Representatives. Sen. Hirono has generously supported PAAWBAC by serving as keynote speaker for our Network 2013 event and, when she was a U.S. Representative, as special guest speaker at our 2008 Monarch Leadership Awards ceremony. Sen. Hirono’s book, which chronicles her journey from a rice farm in rural Japan to this country’s highest legislative body, has garnered praise in advance reviews. “One of the finest political memoirs in the history of the genre,” according to Library Journal. Find it online or at your local bookstore.
Upcoming Events
May 7 | Asian American Donor Program: Laugh for Lives
Free Virtual Comedy Benefit featuring Pauline Yasuda, Rick Gutierrez, Tom Thakkar, Atsuko Okatsuka, Ali Lu. Hosted by Rommel Conclara
RSVP: Free Tickets at https://www.AADP.org/LFL21
7PM-8PM
Celebrate the launch of AADP’s Latino and Hispanic donor education and recruitment program.
May 7-9 | 140 LBS + OVER 140 LBS: A Virtual Double-Feature
Virtual screenings of 2012 Monarch Awardee Susan Lieu’s 1-woman show, followed by themed Q&A sessions with curated topics and guests.
Various dates/times, including Mother’s Day
Eat & Watch Together: Order chocolates by 4/30 for guaranteed Mother’s Day delivery
May 13 | On Lok: Celebrates
Join On Lok for the first virtual gala celebrating 50 years of serving Bay Area seniors.
Register for the FREE gala at https://support.onlok.org/
5PM-6PM
May 13-23 | Center for Asian American Media: CAAMFest
Celebrate the best in Asian & Asian American stories through live virtual film screenings, on-demand screenings, and at San Francisco’s only drive-in theater at Fort Mason FLIX.
Get tickets: https://caamfest.com/2021/
May 20 | JCCCNC & National Japanese American Historical Society
Japantown History Series with Dr. Meredith Oda: JA’s & African Americans in SF’s Western Addition.
FREE admission, Advance registration required: http://bit.ly/jtownhistorymay2021
6PM-7PM
May | Virtual Events Guide
APA Heritage Foundation, in collaboration with Asian Art Museum, Center for Asian American Media and San Francisco Public Library, celebrates Asian Pacific Americans in Film, Leadership, the Arts, Culture, Literature, History
Spotlight
INTERVIEW WITH ANGELA CHAN 2008 MONARCH & POLICY DIRECTOR, ASIAN AMERICANS ADVANCING JUSTICE-ASIAN LAW CAUCUS
interviewed by 2008 Monarch & Board Member Yuri Futamura
(Edited for length and clarity)
Angela Chan and Yuri Futamura both received the Monarch Leadership award in 2008 and have connected at PAAWBAC events ever since. Nearly thirteen years later, Yuri, now a PAAWBAC board member, had the chance to interview Angela for this spotlight interview. Angela shares her passion and role in social justice and civil rights movements while discussing the current societal climate and what being a PAAWBAC Monarch means to her.
PAAWBAC: Please tell us about your background and how you got into the work that you are doing today.
ANGELA: Today I’m Policy Director and Senior Staff Attorney at Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus, formerly known as Asian Law Caucus (ALC). Founded in 1972, we’re the oldest civil rights organization serving low-income AAPI immigrants in the country. I was fortunate to start at ALC in the summer of 2002 as a law clerk, and I totally fell in love with the organization.
My work began from a very personal place. My parents are immigrants from Guangdong, China. They came to this country in the 1970s fleeing the Cultural Revolution. Their families were persecuted. My grandparents on both sides were incarcerated in China, so those may have been the early seeds of my focus on criminal justice reform. My parents resettled in Portland, OR where my mom worked at a sewing factory and my dad worked as a dishwasher and sous chef at a Chinese restaurant. They eventually worked their way up to co-owning a Chinese restaurant. I, along with my brother and sister, worked there as waitresses, dishwashers, we did everything. That experience opened my eyes to how immigrants are treated in our society.
In high school, I started to make the connection between the personal and political. I saw the xenophobia and racism my family faced being weaponized into law, such as Prop 187 in California, which prohibited immigrants from accessing vital services like healthcare and education. I learned about the civil rights movement and decided I wanted to become a civil rights attorney to navigate and change the legal system that made life so difficult for immigrants.
P: How are you and AAAJ-ALC navigating the current state of anti-AAPI violence and hate?
A: While the media and the public have focused on the recent rise of horrendous interpersonal acts of hate violence against API community members, it’s important to also recognize the large-scale and multi-generational impact of systemic violence against our communities. In particular, the criminal legal system and immigration system’s policies and practices are shaped by a long history of racism. As a result, policing, incarceration, and immigration detention disproportionately target communities of color, including the most vulnerable and low-income segments of the API community.
That’s why we are moving a state bill called the VISION Act (AB 937). The VISION Act would stop transfers of immigrants being released from state prisons and local jails to ICE. These transfers, which result in double punishment for immigrants, are having a devastating impact, particularly on the Southeast Asian refugee community. Many Southeast Asian refugees originally came to the US in the 1980’s fleeing war and violence perpetrated by US foreign policy. They were resettled in low-income, predominantly black and brown neighborhoods, which were under-resourced and over policed. As a result, thousands of Southeast Asian refugees were incarcerated as youth in the 1990’s during the height of California’s failed experiment with mass incarceration. Decades later, some of these refugees are finally getting released. But rather than be allowed to reunite with their families, these refugees are being handed over to ICE and detained in immigration detention, often in other states. The VISION Act would stop this cycle of trauma and violence by allowing these community members to return home to their families in California.
To address interpersonal hate violence, I developed a Policy Guide that provides community-based solutions and interventions. Learning from past experiences, we do not want these tragedies to be used to funnel yet more money and power to law enforcement and the carceral system. We know that does not keep our communities safe. Rather, we want to be proactive with local, state and federal officials to promote policies that invest directly in our communities. This includes mental health programs that are language accessible and culturally competent, ethnic studies that is inclusive of API history, ambassador programs where community members accompany elders home, and rapid response networks run by trusted community-based organizations.
P: Without being humble, what is your role in all of this?
A: As Policy Director, I collaborate with my colleagues at the ALC to identify the patterns that they’re seeing through the legal service work. For example, we have an immigrant rights program that specializes in representing detained immigrants in deportation proceedings. They’ll lift up trends they are seeing and share client stories with me. I then use those lessons learned to draft legislation and find a policymaker to carry the legislation as the bill author. I work in coalition with many partner organizations to develop and roll out a campaign to move the bill through the legislative process and use the bill as a vehicle to organize and educate the public. Once a bill becomes law, we spend a lot of time implementing it through creating know-your-rights materials in many languages and developing a system for monitoring compliance on the ground. We file lawsuits if there are violations of the civil rights protections we have passed.
P: You were recognized as a PAAWBAC Monarch leader in 2008. What did it mean to you?
A: That was a really memorable experience. My mom flew down from Portland to attend the award ceremony, and it was one of the first times she saw the work of ALC, and my work there, be recognized. Like many immigrant parents, my parents don’t fully understand the idea of me working at a non-profit when I could make a lot more money in the corporate world. I get that. They’re immigrants and they had to struggle. Their hard work enabled my siblings and me to have the opportunity to choose jobs that are fulfilling and not just to survive.
It gave me such a boost to receive that type of recognition and support so early in my career. I was warmly welcomed and embraced by the fierce and inspiring women who lead PAAWBAC and immediately felt a part of the community.
P: What are you most proud of since 2008?
A: In 2011, I helped to found a statewide coalition, known as ICE out of CA, that over the course of a decade has passed a trio of state laws to turn California into a Sanctuary state that is welcoming of immigrants. We passed the Trust Act in 2013, the Truth Act in 2016, and the California Values Act in 2017, which moved our state away from the ugly history of Prop 187 that denied immigrants access to basic services, to a state that recognizes the contributions of immigrants and sees them as integral to the fabric of California. After passing the California Values Act, we saw a 40% decrease in people being turned over to ICE by local law enforcement and a 25% decrease statewide in terms of ICE arrests overall. It’s incredibly rewarding to see community members who have been incarcerated for decades finally return home to their families because of laws we’ve passed. But our work is not done yet. We are focused on passing another bill, the VISION Act, that would completely sever California’s entanglement with deportations.
P: How can PAAWBAC support you to succeed in your goals?
A: PAAWBAC already does a lot to support AAPI women and that impactful work needs to continue. But if PAAWBAC wanted to do more, it could provide more opportunities to PAAWBAC’s network of supporters to get involved in policy change and local actions, such as campaigns to stop the deportation of AAPI community members.