I have never been to Sacramento before; after being born and raised in California, I have never been to my state’s capital. Of all the tourist attractions in sunny California, my family and I never made an effort to visit Sacramento, but I never questioned or pondered why. Reflecting on my upbringing, politics and civic engagement were never talked about at the dinner table, or frankly at all. As I got older and consumed more news from the media, I tried to bring conversations home in regards to daily news and what was happening in the country at the time, but these conversations stayed brief and cloudy. Though the conversation was minimal, the sentiments my family held in regard to any aspects of the political world were clear to me. I was often told that political figures share too much of their lives with the public, and that did not align with Vietnamese culture and way of life. I was taught to keep my head down, to not cause trouble or make myself known, and I think there is a slight connection between this culture within my immediate family and why civic engagement never seemed to be a priority for my parents as values to teach their kids.
Throughout the course of this internship, I realized that this traditional way of thinking runs through the AAPI community and throughout our history in America, and made many of us believe that we are safer and better off being silent and submissive than being civically and politically active. I can only speak for myself when I express that these sentiments left me feeling excluded, at my own doing, or lack thereof, and out of the conversation in social and political matters that I truly cared about. During the capital summit, our cohort met with Bill Wong, who had a presentation in regards to building a new generation of AAPI leaders. As he spoke about his experiences, I realized that though I had never seen or heard of Bill before, he was doing good work and advocacy on behalf of people that look like me. Despite rarely seeing the AAPI community presented in history books that I have read, the truth is that they are and have been, politically and civically present for ages. I believe that recognizing this empowered me to let go of the traditional sentiments that I was raised with because they do not apply to me or my passions.
Bill said something that stuck with me even onto the plane, “Politics is the wielding of power.” Despite always kind of knowing this, his words became a part of my conscious thought process, and it was fully true. Decisions that affect my everyday life are made on my behalf by those who have the power to do such, politicians. Yes, these politicians represent their constituents, but there is power in having someone that looks like me take a seat at the decision-making tables, and finally, the idea solidified in my head that I wanted to be a part of something that acquires and continually supports an AAPI seat at the table. Speaking with past CLA interns also helped solidify these thought processes, as I learned about their experiences as changemakers after the CLA program. I related deeply to Amy Ho’s remarks about the financial burden children of immigrant parents feel to do better financially than their parents did, and even more deeply to the sentiment that owning your own passions and letting go of these often self-inflicted burdens is so important. She went on to share her own experiences as an Assembly Fellow and shared her experiences as an AAPI staffer in the Capitol Building; she conveyed that “Just because no one else here looks like me, does not mean that I don’t belong here” which is a lingering sentiment that I have held close to my heart throughout the course of CLA. I have a feeling that this Capitol Summit trip will certainly stand out in my journey to figuring out what roles I want to take on as a changemaker, and how exactly I can do that. After being in a building where the state legislature lives and breathes, I feel as though I have planted a seed for a journey that I can partake in.
