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AI: And so then, then in the first few weeks, you must've been receiving more phone calls because your name was now out there associated with this thing called Hate Free Zone --

PJ: Right.

AI: -- Campaign of Washington. And in the first month, what, what was actually happening? You were working out of your house without a desk. Calls were coming in to you, and what happened in that first month or so that created this, an organization -- or did you make a conscious decision that you would then become an organization?

PJ: No. If you look at some of the first documentation, it said that we were, that Hate Free Zone Campaign of Washington was sort of a coordinating body for existing organizations that were doing work. But it became very clear that nobody had, nobody was taking the issue on. So in terms of figuring out the help line, for example, the Arab American community immediately established a help line for the Arab American community, which was amazing. And, but they were only really taking calls from the Arab community, so what about the Sikhs and what about the Somalis and what about all the other communities? And so there was just a lot of work that had to go on to figure out, well, if we want a help line, what do we do? Sharon Tomiko Santos was at that first meeting with the Washington Association of Churches. And she came over immediately after the meeting and said, "I'd really like to talk to you." And so I remember having a meeting with her to figure out, is there something that the state should do. Should we get the state legislature to try and pass a resolution? What should the city council do? I wanted the city council to pass a resolution, which they finally did, but it was a little bit late and it was sort of like, well, what does this really do? Because people recognized, as I did, that that's the easy part, getting Governor Locke to come to the Seattle Center and say, "Washington is a Hate Free state," is one thing, but how do you really make it true? And I suddenly felt this responsibility to do something about that because I had put the idea out there. And so, and also I think, in a completely selfish way, those times of crisis, you define yourself by what you do or don't do, and I firmly believe that. I think that people, the very few people that stood up for Japanese Americans during the internment, they did so in spite of the fact that nobody else was standing up and they had that to hold on to for the rest of their lives. And so I don't necessarily think it's about what you do successfully or not successfully, I think it's about: do you do what's consistent with your own belief in how the world should be? And so it wasn't so much that I knew that I was gonna make a difference, I think I just felt that I would never be able to look at myself if I didn't act.

AI: Is there something, looking back at that, that very early time, the first couple of months, is there something that comes to you now that in some way explains why it was that other groups were not stepping forward, established organizations, that already had, in some sense, had some mission for civil rights or related interests, was there something that...

PJ: I think there were a lot of things. I think a lot of the groups that came forward and wanted to do something were groups that really didn't know the immigrant refugee community. So they didn't have ties to those communities. Those community groups that either were established out of September 11th or the community members that came forward, like the Arab Americans and other groups, didn't have the organizational expertise to be able to figure out, "What do we do?" And so I think, you know, the fact that there were organizations that had organizational expertise and could put that to bear, or resources and put that, bring that to bear, and then there were individuals who had the experience of the community, somehow they weren't able to hook up. And I remember some of the first meetings at the WAC, 'cause there were meetings, I think, every Monday or every, twice a week or something. And I remember being so frustrated because I, I'm kind of like a... what's the analogy? I don't know what the analogy is. Maybe it's a pit bull or something, but once I -- [laughs] -- once I get my teeth into something I'm like fierce about it. And so I had this whole action plan drafted up, you know, like here are the things, here are the four platforms, and here's what we need to do and this is... and people wanted to, at those WAC meetings it was admirable in some ways, but people wanted to come up with a statement about purpose of this coalition. And I remember at one of the meetings just saying -- and I was reminded of this recently by somebody who was at the meeting that I had not met before -- I remember just saying, "It's great to argue about whether we're gonna condemn terrorists or whether we're gonna say United States is a, is a great country." Or whatever the languaging was of it, 'cause every organization had its own political thing about well, "We can't be political," or, "We can be political." I said, "It's great to think about that and I hope we do come up with a statement that everybody feels good about, but there's people that are being hurt right now, so what are we gonna do about that?" And I remember just feeling the intensity of the need to do something then for the people who were being affected. Whereas I think for organizations, part of, part of what they were saying is, "Well, we have a board," and... I mean, it's probably the way we sound now, on certain issues, though I try very hard not to. "But, but we have a board and we have resource constraints and we don't have any staff and we have this and we have that." Whereas for me, it was just, I couldn't keep getting these calls anymore without doing something.

AI: So at what point did you decide that yes, this was going to become an organization, or did, or at what point did you kind of take on a position as a, and say, "Yes, I am Pramila Jayapal with Hate Free Zone"?

PJ: Well, I think by about October I realized, first of all, that if I was gonna keep -- and I kept thinking I was gonna do this for three months or four months and then I was gonna find somebody else to run it. And it really, here I am, two-and-a-half years later, still thinking about that. But I guess by about October I realized "a," that I was exhausted and I needed help and that if I was gonna be able to get help I needed money, I needed resources to do that. And if I was gonna get money, then I needed to have a 501©(3). And so I contacted the Tides Center in San Francisco because I had actually been, they were interested in having me work for them about a year before and so I knew the director very well, had a really good relationship with him. I called him up and I said, you know, "We need this and we need this quick. Is there any way that you can do this for me?" And typically the process is a six-month process, and he jumped through all kinds of hoops and said, "We'll get you, you can be a project of the Tides Center." And so I think --

AI: Excuse me, as a tax-exempt non-profit.

PJ: Right, exactly, a 501©(3), which is a tax-exempt non-profit. Because I knew we needed that if we were gonna raise the money. And think personally I was realizing that I needed to actually earn some money if I was gonna do this for -- I mean, 'cause it's different to say, okay, I'm gonna take six months off and I'm gonna write, versus this was twenty-four hours a day working. And so, so I think our first grants probably came in, in November. There was a check from an individual donor, a substantial check, and then the Gates Foundation, believe it or not, very quickly came in and gave us a seventy-five thousand dollar grant, really on a two-page concept paper and a series of phone calls. The Virginia Wellington Cabot Foundation on the East Coast gave us a grant. I think by December or January the Seattle Foundation gave us a thirty or thirty-five thousand dollar grant. So, there were a number of organizations, a number of funders that came in and we moved into our office, our official office on, I think it was December 4th or 5th of 2001, by which time the first attack against the Somali money transmitter businesses had happened. And the second one hadn't, because I remember that happening after we were in our office.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.