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IM: So a lot on JACS and the drug efforts. Just before this gets lost, I wanted to just circle back really briefly to this women's group that you mentioned. So did, what came out of that for you, participating in this group? I take it it was kind of like study group as well as kind of a political action group as well, because you're doing these skits, but what came out of it for you?

KM: You know, things were moving very quickly in those days. This is the beginning of 1971. I met a lot of women that I didn't know, and for the first time, I think that I liked women, got to like women, right? Because before that, it wasn't JA women and Asian women. Like you said, I didn't really meet that many women in the classes, even though I had roommates that were women that I liked. But women that were both political, involved in community, and different, and from L.A., they're L.A. women. None of them were from Maryknoll, or from my Immaculate Heart days. So they were very different, lot of west side type women. But I did notice within the women's group, there was kind of a hierarchy, some of us talked about it, I remember, but some don't remember this. But there was like, they're called the Heavies, like the women that sort of dominated and you didn't really want to contradict too much. Then there were like the middle group that was, people were accepted or didn't rock the boat too much, likeable, and then there were the people that were kind of the outs. Not outs, but they were the people that may have... you know, it's almost reminiscent of women treating women in Maryknoll, like not picking on them but kind of picking on the women that maybe cried too much or weren't strong enough, stuff like that, too vulnerable. Yeah, I observed that. And then, again, watch out for that kind of thing. But a lot of those women I did become close to, and still close to the day, not all. And then eventually lived with some of them in the collective. So that was, several of them moved into the collective.

IM: For posterity's sake, who were some of the women who were involved, and also, was it a kind of racially, class-wise, diverse group, or was it mostly just kind of Sansei?

KM: It was both Chinese and Japanese. Because like May Chen, Sandy Wong, Miye Iwataki, Evelyn, Merilynne was in there, Wendy Mori. I remember meeting Carrie, but I don't remember being in the meeting. And Carrie...

IM: So that's Carrie Wong?

KM: Yeah. Candace Murata. But there were a lot of different women. Anyway, I can't really remember all the names now.

IM: So within... you said that there's this hierarchy. Where did you fall in this hierarchy?

KM: I'm the safe middle at that time. I didn't want to be on the bottom, the picked on one. Maybe I was too new, I was too unknown. I didn't grow up with a lot of them, and I didn't go to school with a lot of them. They had either gone to Cal State Long Beach together or they grew up together on the West Side. So I was probably safe in that way.

IM: So who were the heavies?

KM: Oh, I have to say they probably don't think they were.

IM: Well, that's something that a heavy would say.

KM: Oh, really? I didn't know what. I think I brought it up one time. Well, I think Carrie, Miye Iwataki, probably May Chen, there was one more person I can't remember. I don't know if Evelyn was a heavy. Maybe.

IM: Do did you... I take it you discussed all of these, you discussed books and you kind of studied together, questions of male chauvinism and things like that?

KM: We didn't study male chauvinism. I mean, Sisterhood is Powerful is the only book I remember reading and studying. And then we had more like discussions. But to be honest, again, so you're talking about Asian American Studies class, what did I learn, what did I study, what did discuss? I don't really remember a lot. I just remember the people and I remember what we did, places where we met.

IM: So where were the places that you met? There was this house in Crenshaw, right?

KM: That was her mother's home. The first place I went to was like, oh. It's a big living room with everybody surrounding, sitting in chairs, and wow. Never saw so many women like that together.

IM: So it really was just...

KM: Impressed me.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.