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BS: And we've talked about how you're one of the pioneering young members amongst the new JACL leadership generation, so, what would you say are some of the most important contributions your generation has made to improving and developing the JACL and its agenda and mission?

HP: I have to say, really bringing in the multiracial aspect of how we're seeing -- for me as an outsider -- seeing how the Japanese American community has sort of -- in the Seattle area -- has really changed, but also hasn't, how it hasn't changed. A lot of the same very, very Japanese American traditions still, people like, "Oh you know where Blaine is?" I'm like, I know where Blaine is. That's where you get all the good food for when, for when I wanted sukiyaki or whatever. Those are institutions, and for me growing up, I never really had that. I didn't. I had never heard of Asian American families. Like "Oh, do you know the Tokudas?" And I was like, "What the hell are you even talking about?" "Do you know the Kuroses? You know?" I mean, I'm like, "What, are we talking about local royalty, or like Asian Illuminati? I don't even understand. This is just so foreign to me." And I always had thought to myself being here that, "God, how lucky are you? How lucky are you to be in a community that has had such a long standing legacy of civil rights, and have a long standing legacy of speaking your truth, as traumatizing and painful as that is, and how having everything taken away from you in one generation can just change everything, everything, and how there's such a diversity of thought within the JA community, and the politics in the JA community -- which I don't need to be a part of -- but it's interesting to hear about. And how that plays out into the larger API community.

For me, I had always identified myself as being a Chinatown ID organizer because I lived there after I moved back, after graduating from my graduate program. And the biggest thing that I learned out of that is you don't have to be tied to a place to have community. I think that's one big thing we've learned during this pandemic is not everything has to be place-based anymore. When we were having the Uprooting series -- what was it we called it? Uprooting Anti-Black Racism in the Japanese American Community. There was a group of us that had planned some of that, and I was just really happy I could be a part of that not as a board member or as a committee member but as a -- I feel like I paid my dues -- but as a volunteer, somebody who is familiar with JACL. Also, I got wound up in wanting to see JACL be more active in the Twittersphere. So that was really fun for me to tweet for JACL for a short amount of time and to get our followers up and really be focusing on Indigenous sovereignty, Black liberation, because that's liberation for us all. And, for me, that's the... that's what drives me. I don't know where it comes from, it's just something that I've always been very passionate about. And I think maybe it's just because I am a byproduct of that system. It's not necessarily one system, but it's multiple systems. Like I come from a very weird social system from Korea and that's a whole other thing, a whole other institution to navigate. Because you have a cultural, because I have a cultural barrier, and I'm gonna have a language barrier. But also, on top of that it's like you're skirting two different worlds, and you just kind of don't really know. Like, "Oh, today, I feel hella Korean." And then tomorrow, I'm gonna feel not so Korean, but I'm still really involved in what's happening in the U.S. around, just everything that's happening." And I also think the election from 2016 was a pivotal thing for me. It was pivotal to see President Obama get elected the first time and the second time, but it was really pivotal to see how strong that backlash is from progress. When we really view -- oh my god, cat -- but when we really view in terms of a real anti-racist lens and how we look at not just how we are treating people, but how our policies reflect that and how they're implemented is the biggest thing for me, and how money, and how those dollars are spent and how they're impacted by that. Because dollars are, unfortunately, at the end of the day, that's the bottom line where you need to be moved... you can't have a movement without the funding behind it and the infrastructure behind it. And that's where I start to see, like the BLM movement is changing into that direction, where they're starting to turn from coming off the streets, and some people are still very much still out in the streets, which is also very important, because you need to yes-and all of that. But the most important thing is, how do you sustain that movement? And how do you keep, how do you keep it alive? How do you keep it relevant in terms of this is something that continuously needs to be addressed. And you can be screaming --  Black women, Black trans women have been screaming and shouting about this for generations, and it's just, it's kind of like, "Well, you are right." We need to listen; we need to listen to people who are different from us who are having different experiences. And I think that's the great thing about JACL Seattle, is that it's not just like, "Oh. Well, you have to be JA to qualify to come in here." You have to... some sort of weird backwards kind of organizing. I'm so sorry about my cat. I don't know, this is like a whole new deal. I just got home a couple days ago, so sorry.

BS: No, yeah, it's okay. It's totally okay.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2021 Seattle Chapter JACL. All Rights Reserved.