Discussion with Hye-Won Shin
On August 5th we had a discussion with Dr. Hye-Won Shin, the Director of Korean Relations at the UCI Office of Global Engagement, Director of Asian American Community Outreach at UCI MIND, Managing Partner at Chiron Total, Vice President of Research at RIIID Medical Group, Community Advisory Board Member for UCSF CARE, and Advisory Board Member of the Somang Society.
When posed with the question of how her work has changed since the pandemic, Dr. Shin noted that the pandemic had given her an opportunity to achieve more given the situation. She noted how the US population, especially elderly Korean Americans, were unprepared for the coronavirus in terms of scientific education and access to resources. In addition, due to language and cultural barriers, access to resources are particularly difficult for non-English speaking citizens. In order to address this issue, Korean language educational videos were prepared for the Korean community. (For more information, please refer to this video)
Through her work as Vice President of Research at RIIID Medical and work at UCI MIND (a National Institute of Health-funded institution), they have also prepared research data as well as a mobile clinic in efforts to reduce the inefficiencies in healthcare and reach into the community in a culturally competent manner. Dr. Shin also notes that although the pandemic is the hot-topic issue at the moment, UCI MIND’s long-term focus is on addressing Alzheimer’s disease, which is the third leading cause in Orange County and unlike the coronavirus, will be here to stay for much longer.
While discussing the topic of medical research, Dr. Shin emphasized the importance of increasing the Asian American’s participation in medical research, since in the last 30 years, less than 1% of the National Institute of Health’s funding has been used towards Asian American groups. She stated that the importance of education will be helpful in dispelling the negative stigma that surrounds medical research. She hopes that through her work, more Asian American voices can be heard in this field and that the data sets can be used to improve the lives of our community.
For the full discussion, please refer to this link.
Discussion with Harvey Dong
On July 23rd we chatted with Professor Harvey Dong, a Professor of the Asian American & Diaspora Studies at the University of California, Berkeley and owner of Eastwind Books, about his experiences in the 1969 Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) Protests and thoughts on recent protests.
Professor Dong noted that at its core, the TWLF was a push for self-determination and the big lesson from 1969 was the commonality of the struggles between Black communities and Asian American communities. He noted that by working together to push for ethnic studies, he was able to see the similarities of the types of struggles that communities of color face. Any differences that do spring up serve as a way for communities to foster closer ties and forge stronger coalitions.
When posed the question of why Asian American communities should have an interest in the BLM protests of late, Professor Dong responded that in addition to wanting fair treatment for our Black community members, he noted that the Model Minority stereotype that Asian Americans face is something that we need to overcome in order to receive fair treatment. This is because the Model Minority Stereotype entails the ideal of the perpetual foreigner, where Asian American communities are always seen as not-American, even if one is born in the country, and scapegoating, where communities of color are the first to be blamed in times of crisis.
For the entire discussion, please refer to the video here.
Discussion with Chang Lim
On August 4th, we chatted with Chang Lim, Partner at Knobbe Martens, to see how the pandemic has affected this practice. He stated that because he deals with many clients in the field of tech, the transition to remote work has not been too impactful, as the industry is already familiar with remote work. Other than not being able to meet with clients in person or travel for work, much of his work and business have not been heavily impacted by the transition to work-from-home. However, he did note that networking with other lawyers in the area has been impacted because many of these interactions tend to happen at in-person social events.
We also discussed his promotion to partner within the firm, and the need for greater Asian American representation in leadership roles within the legal profession - When posed with the question of what advice he would give to aspiring attorneys, he stated that it is important to have an owner's mentality and to beat the expectations of the people you work with, whether it be your supervising attorney or your client. He stated that when choosing a law firm, one should consider all facets of the firm, including training, growth opportunities, office culture, billing expectations, and partnership prospects. As his last bit of advice, he emphasized the importance of effective relationship building and suggested that law school students continue to maintain good relationships with their peers from law school as well as undergraduate institutions, because one never knows if a former classmate can be in a position to help you in the future.
Summer of LIstening: Anti-Blackness and the AAPI Ethnic Media: How Can We Amplify Stories of Our Intersectional Struggles?
The event was moderated by Thuy Vo Dang, Curator for the Southeast Asian Archive.
Panelists included Anh Do, a reporter for the LA Times; Jeong Park, a reporter for the OC Register; and Wendy Kim, author of the book “Beyond Blending In: An Immigrant Daughter's Guide To Overcoming Cultural Bonds For A Life Of Authenticity and Abundance,” and motivational speaker.
Anh Do began the discussion by giving the advice to curate our own “portfolio” of news sources we like to hear and to diversify it so that we are cognizant of the news sources we consume. This could be in the form of a twitter account that contains all the news sources that you choose, or an email account with newsletter subscriptions to reputable news agencies. In addition to a variety of news sources, making sure that the reporters of the articles vary geographically as well as in age allows for a better overall view of how news is being reported, rather than a locally-portrayed view of an issue. Wendy Kim noted that even reputable news outlets such as NPR present a white-centered perspective on news. Therefore, it is important to educate oneself on matters of diversity. She also mentioned that one of the benefits of living in the era of “fake news” is learning the ability to distinguish reputable sources and to rethink what it means to live in a society where white supremacy is still prevalent. Jeong Park stated that there is bias prevalent in every news outlet, which is a result of human nature. To combat this, he suggests reading from a variety of sources, including local papers. In addition, being able to listen to others and recognize when one is wrong is also important.
Thuy Vo Dang reiterated that listening to grassroots organizations that report news and avoid the pitfall of falling into fake news is part of civic engagement. The next topic she brings up are examples of recent projects that addressed AAPI perceptions of the BLM movement/protests.
Jeong Kim gives the example of his work for the early June BLM protest in Garden Grove. What makes this protest notable is that many of the protestors were younger Asian Americans, who in interviews acknowledged their privilege and want to use this privilege to fight for racial justice for their Black community members. Wendy Kim mentioned her podcast “Beyond Blending In,” which features women of color, and how there are few people of color that podcast. She wanted to encourage the voices in the minority communities in order to bring to the public eye their experiences. Anh Do states how the AAPI community has not made enough effort in bridging the gap between the Black community and AAPI community. Rather than try to understand each other’s struggles, AAPI communities had traditionally been more reticent to reach out.
As a solution, the panelists propose a symbiotic relationship between mainstream media and ethnic media, where one can pick up issues or stories that may be considered too taboo for one group as a way to bring into the conversation these harder topics. To close, it is important to draw from the voices of different communities as well as age groups, and feature groups that have traditionally been underrepresented, such as Black-Asians, Amerasians, among other groups.
For the full discussion, please refer to this link.
