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BS: All right, so just getting right into it, then. Hi, HyeEun, it's nice to meet you. My name is Brent. I'm a junior at the University of Washington. I am studying Political Science and Law, Societies and Justice. So I'm really interested in international institutions as well as legal institutions and how that shapes our society. And then I guess... I got interested, and I was like, "I'd like to join the JACL." And I was a... my focus here was that I would like, I was hoping to reconnect with my Japanese American identity. That's something that I've been meaning to do, and I felt that college was a great time to do it. I was recommended to the organization by one of my professors that I had for a Japanese American course. And I've just really been hoping to reconnect with the community in that sense, and that's been my main focus. And also, just to echo what Bill said, the questions I'm asking, if they're long, they might be a little complex, and there's really no pressure for time. Just take your time answering them and that type of thing, as well as if there's any problems hearing me because of my mask, let me know, I'm more than happy to accommodate that as well. But then, I guess just getting right into the interview questions, can you tell us a little bit about your family history? How and why did you come to the United States, and what was life like growing up in Minnesota? Were there any challenges you faced growing up in a white family as a person of color? And did your community treat you differently?

HP: So, we're starting off light? Yeah. No problem. So, a little bit about my family history is I was born in Korea during the '80s. So, I was born in a southwestern part of Seoul, which was known for, actually starting to get into manufacturing. And so, my eomma or my Korean birth mother, was not highly educated when she found out that she was pregnant with me. And then also, she was engaged to her current husband. I think it's still her current husband, I don't know. But it's what stuff K-dramas are made out of. So it's often used as kind of like a plotline, that has been used a lot in K-drama. So, there are a lot of different Korean adoptees that came out of the wave from the 1950s because of the Korean War. So, there are a lot of multiracial children that were born. And in Korea, they are very Confucian and very patriarchal, and so they base their family trees off of the male. So, if you were to have -- so I don't actually belong to belong to a family tree per se but I started my own, because that's how the government is able to kind of relinquish those parental rights in an effort to start the international adoption process. And the reason why they do that is because the social welfare programs are not geared towards keeping Korea's children within its boundaries. It's been known to be a bit of a problem during like the '80s, when the Olympics were in Seoul, that Korea tried to tamper that down, because it was such a part of their, noticeable part of their GDP. So that was really interesting learning about that. That's where I got really politicized was in Korea. And I mean, also getting into college. But that's kind of how I came to the States, because my adoptive family had seen many other people in the community. Minnesota is known for being a large bastion of Lutheranism, and so there are a lot of pastors, a lot of Christian practicing families would adopt children who are transracial, because it was accessible to them. Because they had the money and the means to do so. And they felt also like they were not necessarily doing me a favor, but kind of in that vein around white savior complex, where it's a charitable effort, where you go and adopt a child from another country, and so that's what wound up happening. I'm the only child that was adopted in my family. Sorry, my cat is going crazy.

And so that was really difficult because the first instance of racism, that I experienced, I was really, really young. I was in kindergarten, and there was a girl that was just asking me, "Why are you here? Why is your face like that?" And she was like, "Why is your face so flat? Why are your eyes like that?" And I just said, "Because I was born this way." And I wound up talking to my mom about it in the car, my adoptive mom, and she just didn't know what to say. Because she doesn't have that lived experience herself. Even though she's actually a registered tribal member of the Oneida tribe, she's very white presenting, and so she has that privilege of being able to kind of blend in really. So, she didn't really have much of an answer. She's like, "Oh, tell him to go jump in the lake." And I remember thinking to myself like that, "How do... what? That doesn't make any sense. I'm so confused." And it was at that point, I knew, like, I cannot go to them for any kind of advice, because it would just confuse me further. So I would say that would be the biggest challenge growing up in a transracial family and you're the only person of color. It can be very difficult and challenging, but it's also really shaped me into the person I am today. And the emphasis on community for me, was born out of that, out of my childhood. Like we were, I was very much part of the church, because that's what your social life revolves around. So when you're in the Midwest, particularly in small rural communities like that -- sorry -- that it can be really insular. And so, it kind of comes to the fact where everyone knows your business, even though you don't want them to know your business. And they would ask really inappropriate questions, really racist questions. And just because they're never, they've never been exposed to a person of color before and don't know how to act because they're so homogenic in their community. Just very, very, very white. Very comfortable, very white.

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