Blog #6 [Make Up]

This week, this month, this entire calendar year has been incredibly difficult for the enormous tent that makes up the Asian and Asian-American community. Recent news has rightfully put Anti-Asian hate crimes into the center of national conversation on race and ethnicity. As overwhelming statistics point to a sharp raise in Anti Asian hate crimes. 

For the leader of my Community partner, this issue is central to his life, and service of his community. My community Partner is the Office of Supervisor Otto Lee of Santa Clara County-District 3. Supervisor Lee is the first Chinese-American to serve as a Supervisor in the County’s proud history. Before becoming Supervisor, “Otto” was the mayor of Sunnyvale, a city councilman, a planning commissioner, and a commander in the United States Navy, but before all that Otto was a 15-year-old immigrant from Hong Kong. Thus, with the rise of Anti-Asian and anti-Asian immigrant violence, some of which has been proclaimed as “patriotic” or nationalist, Otto was obviously and rightfully disgusted. Because all of Otto’s life, he has selflessly chosen public service, showing a person deeply and entirely committed to serving his fellow humans. Yet because of the color of his skin, and the fact that Covid-19 (*a naturally occurring virus) started in Wuhan China, he is less American than the close-minded villain that attacks an elderly Chinese woman? Otto retorted this ridiculous idea himself “I’m not an alien, or a foreigner, and I’m certainly not a virus,” telling local news organization San Jose Spotlight “Please don’t judge by staring at me and think you know me. I am a Chinese American and patriotism has run deep in my family.”

So far this blog has talked about the need for many additional protections and long overdue social services for the Asian American community, and the why of my Community Partners involvement. Now let me explain the major move that Otto undertook, to do his part and why I am proud to work in his office. On Tuesday Supervisor Lee brought forward a mass of proposals to research, investigate and fight hate crimes against Santa Clara County’s Asian and Asian-American population.  The entirety of the proposals were adopted unanimously by the board of supervisors, a major political win and show of support. What the approval means is that the county will create multiple community outreach and educational campaigns to combat race-based violence against Asians specifically.  It connects to our reading as it also means federal and legislative advocacy to encourage proposals that focus on race based justice, and prevention of further hate crimes.

While it binds detractors to come out of the woodwork, the initial response has been overwhelmingly positive. With many in the Asian community grateful to have more protections and a leader of the Asian community, leading the greater community. While, other non-Asian ally groups are grateful, that hate crime legislation and advocacy are being progressed at every level of government. 

I will probably focus more on the progression of this package of proposals (when possible) for the foreseeable future. Tracking the take off of distinct elements of the program, and our struggles, triumphs, and draws. However, I wanted to highlight a couple things in the proposals to give them a concrete feel at to community support. Some proposals include “bystander intervention trainings” and “listening sessions” within the county’s Asian communities to better understand the variety of hate crimes they endure.

All of this connects to our reading by showing my CP responding to a community need, working with municipal, state and federal officials to enforce new rules & laws. Further, it requires an actual thought out and well-executed campaign in order to actually address the needs of the community.