<Begin Segment 29>

DM: You've been involved in many, many causes over the years. Are there a few that stand out for you as really close to your heart?

AM: Well, when I was teaching, one of the things that I realized was that issues of race were... I mean, kids would say to me, "Well, I never think of you anything but, but just like the rest of us," and I said, "What does that mean? Are you not seeing me for who I am?" "Oh, no, I know who you are." But then I said, "Then why are you telling me that I'm just like you? But I'm not. Because if you look at me, I don't look like you, but you're still telling me that I am okay because I'm just like the rest of you. So what does that mean? What is it you're really saying to me?" And I've said this to adults, too, as well, other teachers who have said the same thing. And it's that whole idea that, "You may be different, but you're gonna be accepted because you're okay." And why am I okay? Because I do things just like you do, so that's okay. But what I look like is not something that is being accepted. So that was sort of the beginning of my looking at how do you make that change from people, to go from, "You're okay because you're just like us," I mean, "You behave like I do, you do the things that I do, so therefore you're acceptable. But the fact that you look different is something that we're gonna forget, we're gonna forgive you for that." Right? And so that's the beginning of my crusade -- if that's the word I want to use -- to make people think differently about this.

In fact, last night I was working with the city human services department, and I'm working with a hotline to try to be available to people who have problems of discrimination or anti-, hate kind of crimes. And the city funded us for one year, they didn't fund us anymore. So my question was, "What are you going to do about that?" And they said, "Well, the city council says we can only fund you for one year." But I said, "But the need is there, so why would the city human services not see the need and want to continue to fund it?" So the conversation was about that. So she said, the head of the human services said to me, "Well, what do you want me to do?" and I said, "I want you to try to understand what we're talking about." And she said, "Well, I've gone through diversity training and I know what I'm supposed to do." I said, "Well, then what does that mean? How do you play that out?" So it's a, it's a never ending journey, I think, and every time I talk about it, I tell people, "It's not something you do one time. You have to accept it as a way of life. You have to accept it that when you see me, then you have to see me for who I am. But at the same time, appreciate who I am rather than say, 'Well, you do this and you do that.'" But it's not that, it's, "Who am I and how do you accept that?" I don't know that we came away from it last night with a whole lot of way forward, but at least I said, "Just got to remember, this is the beginning of a conversation that we need to continue to have." I don't know how successful we'll be, but I think that we'll have to continue to have that.

<End Segment 29> - Copyright ©2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.