Dear leaders of the Associations of Asian nations,
First of all, on behalf of DACA, members of the Chinese Association, I would like to express my cordial greetings to you all!
We come from six countries in the East of Asia, including China, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam and India. In my past experience, I have had different degrees of contact with the people of these countries, and I am very familiar with the history and culture of each other. Therefore, I see you feel very cordial.
Distinguished leaders, what do we want for our meeting here today? I think we need to reach a consensus. What is our Asian American consensus? I think one of the most important issues is that we have to figure out what our identity is, and our self-perception should be clear.
Those of us who have immigrated to the United States come from the East half of Asia, where there is a long history and splendid culture. These are exactly the source of the good qualities of our Asian Americans. We are proud of our identity, our background, and our character.
Today I want to talk about four aspects. The first is our self-perception, the second is the situation we are facing, the third is our strategy, and the fourth is our action.
What I just talked about is the first aspect: the self-awareness of our Asian Americans, which is based on our unique historical background and rich cultural foundation. Just as I mentioned in my greetings to everyone at the beginning, mutual understanding and familiarity can bring about mutual intimacy. However, these are not understood by most ordinary American people.
This creates the situation we face. The ignorance, misunderstanding, and hostility of many ordinary American people have been in history for a long time. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Japanese concentration camps of 1942 were typical representatives. Not to mention that in the past year, hate behaviors against Asian-Americans and Asian-Pacific Americans have been increasingly discriminatory and disruptive.
In view of the current situation, the third point, then what is our strategy? So I think there is a work that must be carried out. I know that our predecessors have made unremitting efforts for this, but it is still far from enough. That is to introduce to the American society, at the level, especially in the field of education, our Asian history, culture and the outstanding characters of Asian Americans, so as to promote mutual understanding and familiarity between us and the American people. The gradual establishment and mutual support of the intimate relationship among politics, society, communities and individuals have been achieved! This is the fundamental and long-term strategy to resolve discrimination, persecution and hatred against Asians.
Finally, I want to talk about a series of actions taken by DACA, the Chinese Association, recently based on this strategy. Everyone can discuss and give valuable suggestions.
1. Since the attack on Asians in Atlanta on March 12, protests against discrimination and anti-hate rallies have been launched throughout the United States. We called on Chinese friends who insisted on justice and safeguarded the interests of Asians to come and give their voices and support. Among them, on the afternoon of March 20th, we participated in a commemorative rally in Dayton downtown, which was reported by Dayton Daily News and local TV stations.
2. We also promoted some Zoom seminars on the Internet to discuss how to protect our own safe lives against hate crimes.
3. Then, in the past two months, we and many Chinese representatives have gradually started dialogues with several local school districts. At the Zoom meeting, we let the school district understand the crisis that Asians are facing and our activities, and listened to everyone’s suggestions. Many school districts have issued declarations condemning hatred and discrimination against Asians and strengthening Asian historical and cultural education in the future. This is an encouraging and stimulating staged progress. We also call on parents to target their respective schools and start cooperative actions. Ask them as parents to send messages to the superintendent, school board, principal or good teacher of each school district to express their concern and look forward to their specific actions! Everyone took turns to form a shock wave. The media news will end sooner or later, but our work will continue!
4. Actively participate in the political level, such as holding a Zoom meeting with Fairborn City Council to discuss how the city council supports our Asian-Pacific communities at the government level.
5. In the Great Dayton area, appeal to all school districts to promote the Asia-Pacific Heritage Month, and to coordinate with this to launch a poster competition among K-12 school students, and for this, many awards have been established to encourage them to do so.
6. Actively seek and create various opportunities, such as using various cultural festivals and other activities, using public facilities such as libraries and museums, as well as various social media and online platforms to strengthen the promotion of Asian culture.
7. Take action together with other Asian national associations. That’s why I am here today to see you all.
Finally, I call on us Asians. Every one of us must recognize the situation clearly and value our future. The situation facing us Asians is grim, but it has been a century of coldness, and accidents are an inevitable reflection of deep-rooted problems. After a series of stress responses such as rallies and parades, we still have a long way to go to address how to change the long-term predicament, how to protect long-term interests, and how to stand on a higher morality.
Let’s work side by side with friends and people of common interest, work hard!
Thank you all.
Regards,
Hongwei YU
President of DACA,
Dayton Association of Chinese Americans
Email: daca.dayton@gmail.com
Website: http://thedaca.org/
