[00:00:18] Speaker A: Welcome to Uptown Chats, a podcast where we share stories about environmental justice by and for everyday people. I'm your co host, Jaron.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: And I'm your other co host, Lonnie. Today we're celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, also known as AAPI Heritage Month, with WEAC's federal policy legislative coordinator, AJ Ewen. But before we get into that, Jaron, can you let the people know we act's mission?
[00:00:39] Speaker A: I sure can. WEAC's mission is to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and or low income residents participate meaningfully in the creation of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies and practices.
[00:00:51] Speaker B: Thank you. So a little background on AAPI Heritage Month might be helpful for listeners who are unfamiliar with it. So AAPI Heritage Month is observed in the United States during the month of May, and it recognizes the contributions and influence of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islander Americans in history, culture, and achievements in the US.
[00:01:12] Speaker A: Yes. And so it is May. Here we are. A great opportunity to celebrate all the AAPI folks who are part of the EJ movement and have made contributions throughout history to really make the EJ movement what it is today. So I'm excited to jump into our interview with AJ because I feel like we talked about some really important moments in history, but also some important concepts. So I don't want to say too much now, and I want to kind of savor it and let us get into it with the interview. But one thing I do want to mention is that obviously, with only a 30 minutes episode, we can't cover all the important points and discussions that should be had when we're talking about AAPI heritage and environmental justice in that intersection. So if you have thoughts about things that you'd like us to talk about, more in depth things that you would want us to spend more time on and elaborate and really get into a more in depth discussion, please let us know. You can reach out to us and share your thoughts by emailing
[email protected]. dot. Don't be shy.
[00:02:07] Speaker B: Yeah, this is a really, this is a really nice, packed episode with, like, a lot of great information and some new concepts for folks as well. But again, we only have 30 minutes, but we can always dive deeper in some of these other things that AJ is talking about. So with that, let's jump into the interview with AJ.
[00:02:30] Speaker A: All right, thank you so much for joining us, AJ. We're happy to have you on the show. This is a really special episode, and I feel like we're grateful that you are joining us to kind of share some of your experience, help us cover some really important history to celebrate Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. So thank you. Do you want to give us a quick introduction for all of our listeners?
[00:02:48] Speaker C: Yeah, and thank you so much for having me. Really excited to talk about this topic. My name is AJ Yuan. I am the legislative coordinator here at weact in our Washington, DC office.
[00:02:59] Speaker A: So before we get too far in, I know that we're obviously talking about Asian American Pacific islander heritage Month. And an important piece of that is really understanding the history of what's led us to this moment where we are in time thinking about the environmental justice movement. Asian Americans have played such an important role that I think people often forget in creating the environmental justice movement. Really, really on in those early days, even around the time that we act, was starting, in fact. So I'm glad that you're here to join us to help us talk about some of those historical pieces. So where would you like us to start? Where do you think we should start in this time? Travel back?
[00:03:39] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I think it'd be great to kind of start at the very beginning of asian american history in this country. I think a lot of our history is not really taught in traditional school settings. I mean, I do feel like Asian Americans are a small percentage of the population here in America, but we have been here since the start and we've been, like, instrumental in creating this country and have also been a massive critical part of civil rights movements, the environmental justice movement, as you mentioned. So, yeah, I can start at the very beginning of asian american history, if that works.
[00:04:10] Speaker A: That sounds great.
[00:04:12] Speaker C: Awesome. I mean, I would say the very first wave of asian american immigration came in the early 19th century after the abolition of slavery. A lot of white industrialists and farm owners were looking for a source of quote, unquote, cheap labor. During this time, a lot of asian people, laborers, were kind of tricked, coerced. A lot of them were in debt, and they were brought over here to America to serve as indentured servants to replace slavery. And so during this time, you see a lot of Japanese Americans being brought to plantations in Hawaii. You see a lot of chinese laborers being brought over during the California gold rush. Something that a lot of people might have heard of, but maybe not know specifics of, is that actually 90% of the workforce that built the transcontinental railroad was Chinese american. And the conditions for these, like, indentured laborers. Indentured workers were pretty horrible, pretty horrendous. Chinese workers who built the transcontinental railroad were often given, like, the most dangerous tasks of, you know, using explosives to blow through mountains. And actually, there was a massive strike during the building of the railroad, one of, like, the very first of its kind, where chinese laborers were asking for higher wages, for better protections during the work that they were doing. And then, yeah, to talk more about, I guess, the japanese laborers working in Hawaii on sugar plantations there some direct resources I love to uplift is a book called all I asking for is my body by Milton Murayama. He talks about his personal experience of working on a plantation and how, I think laborers working on these white owned plantations were really racialized. You know, Asian Americans were seen as machines almost, that they could work in horrible conditions. They were still, like, you know, quote unquote, industrious and hardworking. And a lot of, like, these legacy stereotypes you hear about today kind of started from that time period of how people were treating, like, asian laborers who first came here. I think a lot of stereotypes about, you know, Asian Americans being, quote unquote, you know, following directions or, quote unquote, following the rules or being docile definitely come from those early days in that first immigration.
[00:06:26] Speaker B: I was just going to say, I think it's also really fascinating when you think about kind of, like, environmental justice as a movement itself. We often kind of lump all people of color together. And so, you know, I really always appreciate being able to take some time to piece out some of those identities and really understand kind of what their role is, not just for environmental justice, but also understanding the past in their history that would lead them to be a part of something like an environmental justice movement. Because a lot of what we talk about is rectifying and fixing things from the past that have happened, that have become systemic and part of kind of like our present day or more modern policy and rulemaking. So I think it's very important to always understand kind of people's history and struggle as well, because commonality here with a lot of other folks of color is bondage, racism, some type of injustice, voting, all of those kind of things. Just rights in general.
[00:07:26] Speaker A: Yeah. And I feel like something you touched on, AJ, specifically thinking about working conditions, and you go back and look at some of the important pieces of the environmental justice movement. So much of those early action items were centered around working conditions for sanitation folks or for other folks. And even before some of the documented pieces, landmark moments in the environmental justice movement. Of course, so many of the concerns for people of color are tied to labor and working conditions. Just like you mentioned, for all folks, people of color who are in these really kind of front lines, working conditions, really bearing the brunt of all that burden. So kind of building off of some of those pieces that you touched on, continue to work our way forward in time. I know there's some other key moments in history that I think really tie thread this needle in terms of thinking about role of racism and also this convergence of asian black solidarity. And I know that's something that is really important as part of this timeline and fitting into this environmental justice narrative. So I'd love to hear your thoughts about how that kind of fits into these pieces of history that you're mentioning.
[00:08:35] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I think a really important piece of this is how Asian Americans were first racialized. Like I mentioned, we were seen as machines. And these stereotypes about us being hard working, industrious were already kind of starting to form in the early 19th century. But actually, I think really another important piece of this is the fact that a lot of other immigrants, particularly irish immigrants and irish unionists on the west coast around this time were actually not very happy with the immigration that was coming over, particularly chinese labor. And they saw that, like these chinese laborers as, quote, unquote, stealing their jobs. And a lot of propaganda, a lot of politicizing started to happen. And around this time, like, stereotypes about chinese people being the, quote unquote, yellow peril that was going to come over here, steal people's job, a lot of stereotypes about Chinese Americans being a perpetual foreigner started to come up, and this led to federal legislation that was designed to prevent immigration from east asian countries and to prevent naturalization of Asian Americans. I think that legacy definitely has been present throughout american history of this idea that Asians are this perpetual foreigner. To kind of wrap it all together. I think because Asian Americans are suffering from this stereotype in America at this time of being willing to work the worst conditions and being willing to stomach or tolerate poor working conditions. They're usually resorted to, you know, jobs that are exposing them to, like, toxic pollutants. I think a really good example of this is a lot of asian, and also latino women were working in semiconductor factories around this time. And also I would want to mention, like, filipino farmworkers who were also exposed to pesticides and other toxics.
I think this led to, you know, Asian Americans wanting to be a part of the environmental justice movement, especially when the first national people of color environmental Leadership summit was hosted in 1991. There were a few Asian Americans who showed up as delegates. And I definitely want to uplift the work of Lisa Ng, who wrote about this for her master's thesis as part of the graduate center at the City University of New York.
She describes, she did a lot of interviews with the asian american delegates at the summit, and she describes how a lot of Asian Americans went to the summit and people weren't really sure about the place of Asian Americans in the environmental justice movement.
[00:11:16] Speaker A: Absolutely. I'm glad that you brought up the first national people of color environmental Justice Leadership summit, because that actually ties into a little moment that we had on this podcast before. We had Vernice Miller Travis on the show with us, and she mentioned one of the really pivotal people that she had a chance to work with as a part of her report on toxic waste and race, was working with Charles Lee, who was a big part of that summit and helping to really bring out this narrative of people of color, including black community, the asian american community, of bearing the burden of these polluting facilities, both in living in proximity to them and also in working conditions. Right. And all the things that you're mentioning. So I appreciate you bringing that piece of the story. And it comes full circle with our conversation with renees as well.
[00:12:05] Speaker B: And the importance of that summit as well was largely because it changed what we thought about as environment. Right. So it took it from just kind of thinking of forest and trees and ice caps and those kind of things to think about where we live, where we work, where we play, where we study, you know, the things that we talk about in our environment now. So it really made it a much, it made it much closer to kind of like the human connection and what was going on in people's, like, everyday's lives.
[00:12:33] Speaker A: Were there other things, AJ, kind of along that narrative, thinking about that summit or other kind of things that are bringing us a little bit closer to current time that you wanted to touch on are some important moments that you feel like are kind of worth mentioning.
[00:12:46] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I think from the summit, I think the biggest piece that came out of it for Asian Americans in particular, were that a lot of delegates that are representing asian american communities ended up forming the Asian Pacific Environmental Network, which is this massive asian american environmental justice organization. They're centered in the Bay area area in California, and they've been advocating for workers and people living in the community there. Richmond in California, which is in the East Bay, is home to a number of Chevron facilities, and there have been explosions. There's constantly flare ups throughout history, throughout the time that Chevron has been operating in that community, and so Apen has been doing a ton of work to combat that and to protect the community. There's.
[00:13:32] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's so much of what that summit was about, I feel like, is creating the space for these groups, kind of organize and feel empowered that they're not alone in doing this work. And to some extent, that's why we act as what it is today, thanks to both the leadership that came out of that summit, but also some of the folks who are pivotal in the formation of weact were a part of that summit. So, yeah, cannot emphasize that enough, and thank you for mentioning that. And, you know, just to bring us all the way up in time back to, you know, back to where we're at today. And so many of these. Of these key moments in history have led to, you know, the reality that we have in terms of working conditions and exposure that still exists today. So do you want to speak on where some of those issues are still at or some of the pieces of environmental justice that continue to show up in our current, you know, modern society that are impacting asian american communities still?
[00:14:26] Speaker C: Yeah, definitely. I think a lot of environmental justice communities are asian American. Like, from the top of my head, the best example I can think of is in San Francisco, Chinatown. Like, out there. A lot of it's a working. First of all, it's a very working class neighborhood, and a lot of the residents live in what are called single residency occupancy housing are also known as sros. And these are like incredibly population dense apartments where families are living in space that's supposed to be for a single person. But entire families are living in there, and they're exposed to a lot of indoor air pollution as well as outdoor air pollution, because chinatowns across the United States are often sighted next to highways, next to polluting facilities. And so when you think of Asian Americans, because of the model minority myth, because of other stereotypes by Asian Americans, you don't usually think of communities being environmental justice communities. But I think something that I want to uplift is that a lot of these ethnic enclaves that are particularly made up of asian communities, or asian people are 100% environmental justice communities as well. I think these communities are also kind of struggling with evictions, struggling with affordable housing, particularly in chinatowns where development is encroaching on these neighborhoods. San Francisco is a really great example of this, and recently there is a new stadium proposed to be built in Philadelphia, Chinatown, Washington, DC. Chinatown is another example of this. I feel like I'm focusing on chinatowns, but this happens other communities as well.
[00:16:01] Speaker B: Yeah, but it makes sense to think about chinatowns especially as way as we think, as kind of the history that you described as well. You know, ethnic enclaves are created because of solidarity. And when you have migration and immigration going on, you know, people who have shared cultures and values, you know, they seem to live in the same and similar areas and spaces. And not coincidentally, is the whole kind of point of the environmental justice movement. Those areas where non white individuals congregate and call their home and their environment become sacrifice zones or dumping grounds for toxic pollutant areas, or they're built up around undesirable areas, like through where highways are built, and other parts of cities, especially new urban areas. So we talked a lot about, and we definitely appreciate you hearing kind of like a bit of it of the past and then also some of the present and current issues when it comes to environmental justice and Asian Americans. But we want to take a second to talk a little bit about you. And we're celebrating API heritage month, and so we also. We want to celebrate you, AJ, a little bit. You know, as part of being part of the react team. We were just curious of, like, how did you describe yourselves in terms of your background and then what kind of led you to react and motivated to get involved with the work that we do.
[00:17:21] Speaker C: Yeah, so my parents and my older brother are all immigrants from Shanghai, China. They came here in the nineties as part of, like, a second wave of immigration.
My parents had both gone to college in China, and so they came here on student visas. Then eventually, you know, they became citizens. My parents ended up working as environmental scientists, actually. My mom worked on developing biofuels from corn and my dad.
[00:17:48] Speaker A: That's so cool.
[00:17:49] Speaker C: Yeah, it was really cool. She would bring home, like, dry ice and stuff from, like, her facility and, like, have me play with it when I was, like, a kid, so.
And then my dad actually worked on developing crop resilience. So I feel like I was always very aware of environmental issues. I think going back to China on trips during the summers when I was a kid was definitely what motivated me to get into this kind of work. I think in the early two thousands, the pollution in China was very much out of control. It was a developing country. And I remember going back home and the pollution, the smog was so thick, you could barely see past the fifth or 6th story, fifth or 6th floor of a building. You can never see, like, the sun or the stars or the moon very clearly. And I remember you could smell, like, the water coming out of the faucets and seeing my family members live in conditions like that kind of made me realize, oh, not everywhere do people have access to clean air, clean water.
And then when I came back to America, and I think as I was growing up, I kind of realized, like, oh, this isn't just happening in a developing country like China, but this is also happening in communities in America as well.
And so I think I always wanted to do this kind of work. After graduating from college, I had the incredible opportunity to intern at a few environmental justice organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area. I'd love to give them a shout out, local clean energy alliance, as well as rising sun censor for opportunity. And I think there, like, I learned the power of organizing, of advocacy, and I realized, like, oh, like, this is how we can create change and this is how we can address these things I saw throughout my childhood. So I think one thing led to another and ended up at we act. And I'm incredibly grateful to be here. I think it's incredible to be working amongst so many people of color and to be working so directly on these issues. And, like you kind of mentioned before, we're not just focused on conservation. We're not just focused on, like, the environment or the planet, but we're focused on how people are being affected by climate change and these other issues. So I'm incredibly grateful to be here.
[00:19:56] Speaker A: At weact, and we're grateful to have you on this episode. And you're really coming through with the plugs. You're making all these shout outs to people. This is how we know you're connected. You have all these connections. You're like, I gotta call out my peeps all over the place. But it's also so funny to me that you mentioned that both your parents are kind of sort of in the environmental space, because we had a whole conversation last month with Stephanie from Riverside Park Conservancy, and we had this whole conversation about trying to explain your work to your parents. And when you talk about working in, quote, unquote, the environmental space or environmental justice, sometimes they're just like, oh, so you work in a park or something like that, or, you know, just trying to explain that. So hopefully, hopefully that means that your parents maybe get your work a little bit. I don't know if that's true or not.
[00:20:41] Speaker C: Yeah, I think definitely. I think because my mom was working on, you know, developing biofuel, so she was kind of aware of, you know, problems of oil and gas build out. And so when I talk to her, now about, like, the clean energy and renewable energy programs that we're trying to focus on. I think she definitely gets it for sure.
[00:20:58] Speaker A: Yeah, that's awesome.
[00:20:59] Speaker B: It must be nice.
[00:20:59] Speaker A: It must be nice, right? Must be nice. Yeah. Anyway, but we'd also love to hear a little bit more about some of the stuff that you're working on now. You're working in our federal policy office, and there's so much, I feel like that goes on at the federal level, and you all are doing a lot. So do you want to tell us a little bit about one or two of the projects that you're working on?
[00:21:19] Speaker C: Yeah, so I work on the congressional affairs portfolio. We do a lot of advocacy and lobbying directly to Congress to make sure that environmental justice priorities are showing up in legislation and other actions that they do. We also do a lot of education to Congress. We host a lot of briefings, and, yeah, we just try to make sure that people are aware of what priorities environmental justice communities are championing. And I think my favorite part of this job is connecting other groups, other environmental justice communities, and leaders and activists to their representatives in Congress and making sure that their voices are heard. I definitely see that as my role and why I'm here. It's to censor these voices and make sure that they're the ones not just, like, having a seat at the table, but leading these environmental policy decision making.
[00:22:11] Speaker B: And don't let his calm demeanor fool you. That job is not easy if anyone's keeping up with the state of Congress. I think there was, like, alerts coming from the federal policy team office of, like, there's always a perpetual shutdown threat, which impacts the work that they do and connecting with Congress. And so it's definitely not an easy job. Calm, as AJ is describing it, that.
[00:22:33] Speaker A: Work is, like, the embodiment of that meme. Like, this is fine memes that is flames everywhere.
[00:22:39] Speaker B: I feel like that's what we were probably looking at right now with AJ just sitting there, cup of coffee, flames everywhere.
[00:22:45] Speaker A: Yeah, this is fine.
[00:22:47] Speaker C: Definitely appreciate it. But I would also say I think a lot of this work becomes easier because we have really great allies and champions in Congress who are on board with our priorities and are working to, you know, progress them in their own offices as well, for sure.
[00:23:03] Speaker A: Well, I know we're near the end of our time together, AJ, so I want to give some space to get a little bit more sense of why we're here today. And one of the things is to really understand and unpack. Why is it important for AAPI folks to get involved in environmental and climate justice and the work that we do, and just other key pieces that you wanted to touch on with our time here together.
[00:23:24] Speaker C: But I think frontline asian american communities are already leading the way when it comes to advancing environmental justice. Like Apenn that I mentioned, Asian Pacific environmental network. They do amazing work for the community in the Bay Area. And I think they also recently opened up an office in Los Angeles, and they've been doing amazing work with civic engagement, getting people who maybe don't speak English out to vote and galvanize the community in that way. And so I'd say Asian Americans have always been a part of civil rights movement, of the environmental justice movement. And I also think it's really important that we are challenging this model minority stereotype that has roots in when Asian Americans first came here, this stereotype that Asian Americans are hardworking and industrious. And I think this stereotype was even more reinforced during the second wave of immigration, when a lot of specialized workers came here to work in science and in STEM jobs. And suddenly Asian Americans were being positioned as somehow inherently smarter or harder working than other minorities.
I think that stereotype is incredibly racist. It's 100% being used by tools of white supremacy and forces outside of our community to position us against other communities of color. I think the reason why that's so horrible is because, one, it completely ignores the economic and environmental injustices happening in asian american communities are actually the racial group with the highest wealth inequality in America. So while there are a lot of highly educated, highly paid asian people in this country, there are also a lot of people who are working class, who are living in communities that are inundated by pollution. And I think it's incredibly important to challenge this small minority stereotype so that we can shine a light on people who need resources and who just need more attention from the environmental justice movement and from policymakers and lawmakers as a whole. And I think also the reason why the model minority stereotype is horrible is because it really divides, like, the asian american community and other communities of color. I think a lot of the rights and privileges that Asian Americans enjoy today were won by black communities, by black activists. Without the activism of the black community, all those racist laws that were preventing immigration and actualization would still be in effect, and we would still have segregated schools, and Asian Americans wouldn't be as successful, quote unquote, as we are today.
And I think black and asian solidarity throughout time has won a lot of wins in terms of civil rights, in terms of self determination. And I think this is a more sad example. But after the murder of George Floyd, the Hmong community came out in full force supporting the black community in Minneapolis. And I think there are just so many more examples of this solidarity. I mentioned the Lotto grape strikes where filipino and mexican farmworkers under Larry Italian and Cesar Chavez organized themselves and fought for better working conditions. Yeah, there are just so many examples of solidarity throughout history.
And I think Asian Americans have always had a place in american history and in the social justice movement. And I think it's really, really critical that we continue building these coalitions and building the solidarity to really achieve liberation for all of us collectively. I think another part of the way that Asian Americans are showing up in the environmental justice movement, I talked about building coalitions and building solidarity. And I think Asian Americans, because of the model minority stereotype, we do enjoy a lot of privileges, and we are sometimes seen as white adjacent. And when we have these privileges and we're able to succeed in places like the corporate world or in politics or in science or academia, I think it's incredibly important that Asian Americans kind of recognize their privilege, knock down barriers for other communities. And I think a really big part of this is also just addressing anti blackness or divisions within the community, within the asian american community, and addressing how these stereotypes of being a model minority have also impacted the way that we see ourselves and the way that we see ourselves within this community of communities.
[00:27:45] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:27:46] Speaker A: Could not have thought of a better way to just encapsulate the. The spirit of, you know, this episode and why it's important that we're having these conversations. So thank you, AJ. I'm like, mic drop just right there.
[00:28:01] Speaker B: Short time. But I also feel like I learned a lot as well. I think sometimes I take for granted, being that, you know, a minority or person of color, and I just think that I assume I know everything about all people of color. But that's why it's really important for me to hear other groups and identities really share their kind of stories and their lived experiences as well, to see where all those connections are and where there's a lot of overlap and why it's important for all of us to come together, as you mentioned, for this movement.
[00:28:30] Speaker A: So, thank you. AJ, any last final thoughts or things that are on your mind before we wrap up?
[00:28:35] Speaker B: Any shameless plugs?
[00:28:37] Speaker A: Any more plugs?
[00:28:37] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean. I mean, just to quickly go back to your last point, I think I definitely stand on the shoulders of so many people who came before me. Charles, Lee, like you mentioned, who organized the first national people of color, Mike Apen is doing amazing work to this day and all those other asian american activists and leaders throughout history. So definitely want to give a massive shout out to them.
[00:29:00] Speaker A: Awesome. Well, thank you so much, AJ. We're so glad that we got to have you on this, and we're so grateful that you're a part of the WEAC team and that you're doing amazing work. So we hope that all of our listeners get to enjoy and soak up all this wonderful knowledge that you've shared with us. So thank you.
[00:29:15] Speaker C: Thank you for having me.
[00:29:17] Speaker A: Thanks for listening. If you liked this episode, make sure to rate and review the show on whatever platform you listen on. And once again, if you have thoughts that you want to share with us, we encourage you to reach out by emailing
[email protected].
[00:29:28] Speaker B: Dot check out we act on Facebook at weact four, EJ. That's w e a c t f o r e J. Instagram X and YouTube at weact four, EJ. That's weact number four, EJ. And check out our
[email protected], for more information about environmental justice.
[00:29:47] Speaker A: Until next time, don't forget to vote.
