<Begin Segment 7>

BS: And, this probably relates to your time, as in 2013, you became the first Korean American Seattle JACL president, so, I imagine that you brought some of the same ideals to your role. And so, what types of goals did you have going in? And what accomplishments or takeaways did you leave your time in office with? And, what types of challenges did you face as president?

HP: I'd have to say my first challenge was, I started a new job at the same time that I started this new leadership position. But what was really helpful is back then I had Elaine and Bill to kind of lean on. And a lot of the times it was Elaine where I'd be like, "What the hell?" And she's like, "I know, I know." So, it's like you get you get the best of both worlds with Elaine and then with Bill, Bill's a lot more upbeat, a little bit more, maybe more optimistic. I don't know if you've ever had met Elaine or had heard stories of her, but she's such a spitfire. She was a special ed schoolteacher, and for me, that was pretty incredible. Because she is such a kind person. And because I felt like I really identified with her. And then having Bill kind of reassuring me, they kind of tag teamed that, I'm this high functioning anxiety person, so, it was really good. But I was really concerned about my capacity. I had just started working for then Mayor Mike McGinn. I had moved away from working for Jim. And it was his real... and in McGinn's administration at that time, oh, there was like the consent decree that came down around SPD. And I had to project manage the back end of a program that was spearheaded by the mayor's office in order to address part of the consent decree around public engagement in working with law enforcement, working with SPD. That was, that was something. Very interesting experience to see how to even just be inside the precinct, to looking at the command staff, talking with the precinct captains, and each precinct is so different. That was a really big deal for me because that's such a... I just didn't even... I had never even entered that realm before. So being introduced to that, to the annals of city government, was really eye opening. And then also really realizing that it is quite the institution that's very stalwart, that's very... not flexible, that's still very rank and file, that's still very racist. And so, and we have officers that are from our communities, too. And people think many different opinions about them, whether that's from "isn't that great" to "that's not so great." We need to think about public safety in a different way. So those are those were kind of the earlier conversations that happened. But then not long after was the murder... gosh, there's so many Black lives that have been taken. Who was the... we had a resolution in 2013, at JACL National Convention in D.C.? George Zimmerman, he had gone off...

BT: You did the one on Trayvon Martin.

HP: Yeah. So, when that had happened, it was... I was really impacted by that. I had -- and I'm not really sure why, I think it's just because it triggered memories from when I was a child and like going to the store to get a treat, and people being like, "Well, how are you going to pay for that?" And, "Why are you here?" "Where's your family?" And all these invasive very, very much, very surveillanced. And I'm just a member of the committee, I'm this person's daughter, I go to this school... you can roll out as many receipts and as many validations as you want, but people are still going to be racist about certain types of things. And so, for me, when that happened, Trayvon Martin I just, I couldn't let it go. I really couldn't let it go. And so when we had discussed at the chapter I want to introduce a resolution for this. We introduce multiple resolutions, I actually can't even remember all of them, to be quite honest. But we were, we were doing really good work. And that's because of the body of people that were on that board, not because of my presidency. But the most important thing for me was getting other chapters on board, and that was very difficult. I really thought that... we had great allies, obviously a great support, and the resolution did pass. I had to leave before it even went to the floor, so I was really sad about that. I was so sad about that, because I worked so hard on the back end and having conversations with people about that. Andy Noguchi. I don't know... is Andy still around?

BT: Yes. He's with the Florin Chapter.

HP: I love that guy. I love that guy. Florin Chapter has always been super...

BT: He's always been out there. HyeEun, you're the one that offered that resolution, right?

HP: Yeah.

BT: Okay. And just for the record, it was interesting, because it passed overwhelmingly. But at the convention in the discussion part, there was pushback. We have several delegates and one district governor, who was a police officer. And it was almost as if all the issues were getting confused by positions they were taking without listening to what was being said.

HP: Or even reading the resolution. If you actually read the resolution, it was clear what we were asking for.

BT: It was very difficult. But yeah, HyeEun, prevailed.

HP: Yeah, but then I abandoned it because I had to go. It was frustrating.

BT: But the thing is, it passed overwhelmingly and made, it was a good statement for the organization. Because even though there were voices raised that sounded like there was going to be a hard battle...

HP: Yeah.

BT: But in the end...

HP: It wasn't.

BT: It wasn't.

HP: Oh, well, that's good. See? But you know, I left before all of that happened. So, I was just like, "Oh, my God, what's gonna happen?" So, you know, for me, having conversations with other JA leaders on Trayvon Martin resolution, it was really eye opening, because people are always willing to talk. People in privilege are always willing to talk. Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk talk, but they will never ever do anything, because it has their name to it. And for me, I'm a very direct and blunt person, and I just don't have time for that. I have very little patience for that. I'm working on it. But I think what is so important is if you do not move on this, people will remember, and they will not have confidence that you will be able to get things done that really crucially need to happen. So, I had some, a couple of conversations when we were in the room where -- I can't remember who was talking but I got yelled at a couple of times by people like, "Be quiet, I'm trying to listen." I'm like, I don't care, I'm talking about the Trayvon Martin resolution. So, I had to remember to my mind my voice and be respectful to elders as much as I possibly could. So that was a really great experience for me. It was the first time that I had actually authored or written a resolution and then carried it through kind of the negotiating process, and the back end, and talking to people and kind of advocating for that to go through. But the rest of the board was fantastic in making sure that that happened. So, I remember that was the year that Toshiko was... What was she? President elect? And she did something that happened. And I was like, "Oh, don't do that. Why did you do that? Don't do that." She's like, "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know." But then she was the one that actually contacted me that it had passed. So it worked out just great.

BS: Yeah, nice. I really enjoyed listening to that conversation.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2021 Seattle Chapter JACL. All Rights Reserved.