<Begin Segment 10>

PW: This is a perfect segue, then, too, though, to explore that your spiritual work with the church went beyond the church walls. You were starting to go out further into the community to other racial groups and other social causes. And I'm guessing this is maybe in the mid- to late-'90s. So in earlier conversation we had, there was a spate of racist incidents that were happening in Alameda and that were becoming something that you just couldn't ignore. Tell me a little bit about that.

MY: Yeah, I think that was in 1991, there were a couple of key racial incidences that took place. One with the school district, where there was an Asian administrator, his name was Niel Tam. And he was kind of the center of a firestorm at a school where he was serving as administrative intern, but that population of Asians was really growing in the city of Alameda. And their school, I'm not exactly sure on the demographics, but I think was becoming almost fifty percent Asian, Amelia Earhart Elementary School. And there were parents and grandparents who really loved him, but he was being, planned to be moved on to another school. He had taken over for the principal who was on pregnancy leave. So he became a lightning rod and kind of a catalyst for Asians to begin to speak up about the lack of Asian representation. Not only around administrators, but also teachers across the board, and just this feeling that the district just didn't have cultural competency. And so that was one issue that took place, and then later that year, there was a racial incident that was really targeting the Black community where Alameda police officers made some comments, disparaging comments over computer terminals that were brand new, they were kind of being distributed in the police department about putting their KKK hoods on or something and getting, meeting down at Johnny's Bar down on the west end, and "barbequing some Ns." And it was quite inflammatory and quite disturbing for a lot of folks, particularly for the historic Black community in Alameda. And so that was kind of, '91 was kind of a key year that took place.

And for us, the key thing, I and I go back to this notion of civil liberties theology. It's about how are we understanding what this was in terms of a gift to us from God that we had reparations, how do we now play that forward with other communities? And that becomes a theological pivot point to say that the work is not done. The work of what happened with the Civil Liberties Act does not stop with us getting a check, but it actually begins a new chapter of us being spokespersons for others who are undergoing issues of injustice.

PW: Well, it just sounds like because of the work that you put in to each other over ten years, there was a willingness and an understanding of that, not responsibility per se, but that compelling need to fill that sense of, well, we can actually help others with their civil liberties when they're being violated.

MY: Uh-huh, absolutely.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.