<Begin Segment 39>

LH: Let me ask you, you're a professional man, you can choose to move around the country and practice wherever you'd like. Why, why do you choose to be here on Bainbridge?

FK: It must be my karma. [Laughs] I don't know... it's, it's, when I first got out of dental school, I looked around, I, in fact I wasn't thinking about coming to the Island at all. And I looked around, mostly in Seattle, tried to practice there and while I was looking around, this guy was already practicing on the Island, contact, contacted me and said you know, you want to buy my building because I'm going, to be going to work for Group Health. And he was going to semi-retire and all this stuff. And I thought, oh, you know I never thought about working on the Island. And people tell you to, never to go home, because everybody knows you and they don't (pay their bills), and all this kind of stuff. So, well, I really can't pass that up. So, he didn't sell me his practice, but he sold me the building here. And when I said yes to that, I found out two other guys were looking at the Bainbridge, at Bainbridge in my class and were really upset when I decide to, to buy the guy's building. And it just never dawned on me that people would even think about wanting to come to the Island. But I, it was a choice that probably wasn't made by chance, it just happened.

But, sometimes I think things happen because they're supposed to happen. And I'm, and I've... I've always felt like, gosh, my life would be so different had I lived someplace else. I would never have gotten involved, learning about my history and my own background, and, and being able to do this. So, I wouldn't, probably would not, trade this place for the world. It's just, it's interesting because most everybody who goes through high school here wants to get off the "rock." They want to move off and go someplace else. And, but when they get to where they have kids they feel like oh, this is a good place to raise kids, so they come back here. But at the same time, this Island is very... it's not like the very, real world. You know, it's...

LH: In what way?

FK: Multiculturally... it, it's mostly Caucasian. The only people that are of color here, are people that have been here for a long time, like the Japanese or the Filipinos or the Mestizos, which are Filipinos that married Canadian Natives. And we have a few Blacks, but not very many. And I, and I really think, like maybe that might have been because it was desired to be that way. I think we sometimes talk to Blacks about moving to the Island, they just laugh because it was, it was kind of an unwritten thing you don't come here. And it may not be as true now, as it was there. So it, so it's not like the real world here for our kids. And because of that, it's makes some unique situations, as far as multiculturally. And it makes it, that in a lot of ways you have to work with that, because a lot of the kids here are real sheltered from the real world as far as, not becoming involved with a more multicultural world, which is really the way the world is.

My firm belief is that multicultural education is not for just kids of color, but it's for majority kids as well, because they're the ones who are most likely going to end up with leadership roles in our country. And I'll show a slide to the kids, in it that has, when, little girls and little boys of different color and I always ask them, "Who do you think is going to be, have the best chance of being President?" And they'll pick the white male. And that's true because he's the person that's probably going to be a, the head of a corporation or head of government or whatever. And...

LH: And what do you say to that?

FK: Huh?

LH: What do you tell the kids?

FK: I say, I say to them, Well, you know, in order for you to be effective as a leader, you have to feel real comfortable working with diversity. And you have to work, and you have to be able to feel like it's a plus and it's okay. 'Cause if you don't, this, this world is really changing, you know, our nation is changing. Even the Hispanics are now the majority in California. There are more women getting in the work force. There's a significant amount of people that are getting in the work force that are people of color. And that if you're the person in power and you're a white male or a white person, then the only real effective leader is a leader who not only has power but also has responsibility. It's when you don't have the two things together that you really run into problems. That's when you get the Hitlers and the Husseins of the, Saddam Husseins of the world because you have power, but you don't have the responsibilities. So in order for you to feel comfortable with working with people of diversity and color, you're the ones who really need the multicultural education. So, and I don't know how they feel about that, but I really firmly believe that, that's it's not only for kids of color, but it's for everybody. Because they're the ones who make things happen, and they're the people who shape the world because they make the decisions.

<End Segment 39> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.