In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, the East Bay Community Law Center is celebrating our Asian American and Pacific Islander clients, staff, and supporters. This month, we asked our fellow EBCLC community members to share how they are honoring their unique AA/PI heritage. We hope you continue on to learn more:
"This month, and every day I live, I honor the lives of my grandmother who was forced into internment camps because of the color of her skin and my mother who was born there. She grew up ashamed of the color of her skin but made sure to raise me with a deep appreciation of who I am as a fourth-generation Japanese American. I gratefully carry their painful legacy on my shoulders with respect, dignity, and perseverance and strive to make them proud of whom I have become because of their sacrifices."
- Shauna Fujimoto, EBCLC Contracts Officer
"As a Filipina and member of the AA/PI community, I am celebrating and honoring my unique heritage this month by uplifting the AA/PI community's long history of intersectional activism and role in various global liberation and independence struggles. From the late Yuri Kochiyama to the Polynesian Panther Party in New Zealand, AA/PI history is filled with examples of solidarity with all oppressed peoples through resistance against colonization, imperialism, and racism in the U.S. and all over the world. As the AA/PI community continues to face the same threats of anti-Asian sentiment rooted in imperialism and white supremacy today, I honor our struggle by uplifting our unique contributions while also recognizing that all marginalized peoples must unite for lasting systemic change!"
- Jassmin Poyaoan, EBCLC Director of Community Economic Justice Clinic
"Amidst the chaos and violence of the past year, I've found refuge and comfort in all things Asian food.
The following article does a far better job in articulating this experience, so I'll share an article here: 'The Lure of H Mart, Where the Shelves Can Seem as Wide as Asia,' by Ligaya Mishan."