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I decided to do something about it at the 2001 General Assembly in Cleveland. I told all my friends to look for any Asian faces, get their names, and forward them to me. For my first “Asian sighting,” I saw KokHeong McNaughton riding down a hotel escalator as I was going up. I ran up the escalator, ran back down, and caught up with KokHeong outside the hotel. I blurted out: “Excuse me … are you a UU?” My wife ran into Mark Watanabe, who told me about a charming delegate from Oakland – Karen Eng. I also traded message board messages with Vivien Hao. Our first meeting was right at the message boards at that General Assembly. Three of us sat on some rusty folding chairs by the message boards, and talked about our experiences. I didn’t know Mark and Karen very well, but I felt a strong bond right from the beginning.
Later that summer I called Robette Dias, one of the founders of DRUUMM and a UUA staffer at the time. I asked her to give me the email address for every Asian or Pacific Islander UU that she knew. Armed with about 35 new email addresses, I took a deep breath and fired off an email into the internet ether. People answered (!) and Joseph Lyons set up the email listserve.
Our second meeting at the General Assembly in Quebec had better attendance. Twelve UUs came, and we talked about the need for a national meeting. I requested and received grant funding from the UU Funding Program and in February of 2003 the A/PIUU Caucus met for the first time in Berkeley, CA.
After that meeting I stepped back from leadership and then A/PIC really started to take off. I am thrilled to see what A/PIC has accomplished under the leadership of Kim, Manish and Jennifer. I am even more excited to see fresh leadership stepping up to the plate – a sure sign of a healthy and self-perpetuating organization. And we’ve only just begun to scratch the surface, because more Asian and Pacific Islanders here and abroad need to hear the good news of our liberating faith.
A Short History of the Asian/Pacific Islander
Caucus A guy named Young Kim had an epiphany back in 1993 when the UUA's anti-racism efforts didn't resonate with him. The black/white paradigm was too narrow; it only addressed racism between blacks and whites. It seemed that UU's didn't believe that Asian Americans experienced racism! That planted the seed. Here's how Young describes how he sprang into action at 2001 General Assembly in Cleveland: "I told all my friends to look for any Asian faces, get their names, and forward them to me. For my first "Asian sighting," I saw Kok Heong McNaughton riding down a hotel escalator as I was going up. I ran up the escalator, ran back down and caught up with her outside the hotel. I blurted out: "Excuse me, are you a UU?" My wife ran into Mark Watanabe, who told me about a charming delegate from Oakland -Karen Eng. I also traded message board messages with Vivien Hao. Our first meeting was right at the message boards at that General Assembly. Three of us sat on some rusty folding chairs in the hallway and talked about our experiences. I didn't know Mark or Karen very well, but I felt a strong bond right from the beginning." Young followed up that summer, contacting every Asian or Pacific Islander known to the UUA. He "took a deep breath and fired off an e-mail into the internet ether. People answered!" and with the help of Joseph Lyons, the listserve was born. A gathering at 2002 General Assembly in Quebec fared better: 12 people came. And then with funding from the UU Funding Program, the caucus met for the first time in Berkeley, CA. 16 of us got together, named the caucus, decided to affiliate with DRUUMM (a people of color organization within UUism) and got to work organizing the first of our General Assembly programs. Since that wonderful jumping off point, we've organized programs at GA, held on-line covenant groups, created community via our listserve/website (www.apiuu.org) , and gathered as a caucus at General Assembly and at annual meetings: 2003 -- Organizing Meeting Berkeley Fellowship, Berkeley,
CA (Sharon Hwang-Colligan) |