Yale Psychiatry Grand Rounds: "Asian Americans & Racial Trauma: Does Race Matter?"

Transcript

• 00:00Much Maria,
• 00:03here we go. First of all, thanks so much,
• 00:06Maria, for that warm welcome.
• 00:07You know, because I'm doing this
• 00:09from the comfort of my home.
• 00:10My, my daughter actually overheard that
• 00:12last part where you talked her up.
• 00:14So she kind of giggled and really
• 00:18appreciated that in the midst of that,
• 00:19they're also wondering, who the hell are
• 00:21you talking to at 7:00 in the morning?
• 00:24And she's like, why, Why are you doing this?
• 00:28And my other daughter was like,
• 00:31and I tried to explain it and I was like,
• 00:33and my other daughter's like,
• 00:34what is a grand round?
• 00:36And what is it? Why is it so grand?
• 00:38And so I've already been
• 00:40stumped early in the morning.
• 00:42So I hopefully I, I, I can do a little
• 00:45bit better for your presentation.
• 00:46But I just want to thank you,
• 00:48Associate Dean Crusto,
• 00:50for extending the invitation for
• 00:52Maria giving such a warm welcome.
• 00:55It's an honor to join you
• 00:57colleagues here this morning.
• 00:58And hopefully, you know,
• 00:59at the end of this day,
• 01:01I can give you some food for thought,
• 01:04some stimulus for question and engagement
• 01:07and just a chance to talk really.
• 01:09I mean that that's really
• 01:10what this is all about,
• 01:11a chance for us to communicate about
• 01:13things that are important to all of us.
• 01:16Right.
• 01:17Today I wanna let me start my slides here.
• 01:22Make sure all of our technical prep is fine.
• 01:28Go.
• 01:31All right, Cindy, Maria,
• 01:32can you give me a thumbs up if you
• 01:35can see this and hear this? OK?
• 01:37All right. Perfect, Perfect, perfect.
• 01:39Don't wanna say pay on the reporting.
• 01:41All right, So as Maria said, you know,
• 01:46there's different parts of my career.
• 01:48Today I wanna join you as a clinician.
• 01:51I was a clinician primarily in
• 01:53the early part of my career.
• 01:55I want to show you,
• 01:55talk to you a little bit also
• 01:57as a scholar and to some extent,
• 01:59I also want to talk to you
• 02:01as an administrator and, and,
• 02:02and how racial trauma kind of encompasses
• 02:05the multiple roles in my career, right?
• 02:08But the through line,
• 02:10the through line in all this is
• 02:13really myself as a psychologist.
• 02:15And I want to take you back and
• 02:17I want to share with you a story
• 02:19about a time when I was really
• 02:23embarrassed and quite frankly,
• 02:25ashamed to be a psychologist.
• 02:27And this was early in my career.
• 02:29And I was invited at that time to lunch
• 02:33here in San Francisco by two lawyers.
• 02:36This was about 1999 or so.
• 02:4098,
• 02:41there are two lawyers from the
• 02:42Asian Law Caucus to discuss a
• 02:44case that they were working on.
• 02:46And what was going on was that the San
• 02:50Francisco Housing Authority was being
• 02:53sued because there was a pattern of
• 02:56discrimination and racial harassment
• 02:58and violence in the housing projects.
• 03:01And much of it was really targeted
• 03:03at the Southeast Asian community,
• 03:05at Southeast Asian families.
• 03:07And there was attacks,
• 03:09there was verbal harassment,
• 03:11there was vandalism,
• 03:13cars were being burned,
• 03:16buildings and homes were being attacked,
• 03:18et cetera, that kind of thing.
• 03:20And it was directed,
• 03:21as I said,
• 03:23primarily to Southeast Asian families.
• 03:25And the Housing Authority basically
• 03:27did nothing to stop this or
• 03:30address any of these complaints.
• 03:31Right?
• 03:32And one of the stories involved a
• 03:39young mother who was walking home one night,
• 03:43and she was surrounded by five
• 03:46teenagers who yelled all this up here.
• 03:49Get out of here, Chinese
• 03:51***** We know where you live,
• 03:54and we're gonna kill you.
• 03:55And they didn't know where she lives.
• 04:01This is what the opening line was.
• 04:04And then they attacked her
• 04:06with rocks and bottles.
• 04:09As you can imagine,
• 04:10that was traumatic.
• 04:11And the lawyers,
• 04:12as we sat there in a nice,
• 04:15lovely lunch,
• 04:18said, you know, we need you to help
• 04:21us to to compile the research on Asian
• 04:25Americans and racial trauma and so
• 04:29that we can obviously help to make a
• 04:32case that experiences like this have
• 04:36some impact on the mental health of
• 04:40these families and these individuals.
• 04:44And I was quiet and I didn't
• 04:47know exactly what to say.
• 04:49And finally I spoke up and I said,
• 04:53honestly there,
• 04:54there's not a whole lot done on this
• 04:57from a research perspective. And
• 05:03he was kind of quiet.
• 05:04He was very stunned.
• 05:06And he looked at me and
• 05:09he asked me a question.
• 05:12And that really kind of cut
• 05:13through the heart of who I
• 05:15wanted to be as a psychologist,
• 05:17who I wanted to be as a new scholar.
• 05:20And he said,
• 05:22what have you guys been doing,
• 05:26right? What have you guys been doing
• 05:28this whole time? Where have you been?
• 05:32And I couldn't answer.
• 05:35And there was a lot of shame for me.
• 05:38There was a lot of shame for my field.
• 05:41There was a lot of frustration
• 05:44about our efforts collectively
• 05:46as scholars and professionals.
• 05:49You know, there was no question to me,
• 05:51particularly in my clinical practice,
• 05:53that I worked with a lot of folks,
• 05:57not just Asian Americans,
• 05:58but many people of color and
• 06:01other marginalized groups.
• 06:02I worked with clients
• 06:04who had dealt with this.
• 06:05But what had we done as a field
• 06:07from a scholarly point, right?
• 06:09And the answer to that was really not much.
• 06:14And so let me show you why,
• 06:16why we couldn't help.
• 06:22This is a very quick summary
• 06:26of the professional literature on Asian
• 06:30Americans and racism at that point in time.
• 06:33Remember, this was a conversation
• 06:35that happened to my 9998.
• 06:37And why couldn't we help?
• 06:39Well, it wasn't just me,
• 06:40but it was an entire field.
• 06:41And these numbers, by the way,
• 06:43isn't just psychology, right?
• 06:45This is psychology.
• 06:47This is social work, this is counseling,
• 06:50this is public health.
• 06:51This is medicine, right?
• 06:53This is what we'd achieved prior to 1991.
• 06:58Study on Asian Americans and racism.
• 07:01One between a decade's worth of time,
• 07:061990 and 99.
• 07:09Six, right?
• 07:11And I want to put that into context.
• 07:12At this point,
• 07:13we're talking about 22 million
• 07:15Asian Americans in this country,
• 07:18and their experiences around race and
• 07:21discrimination was encapsulated by a
• 07:24big whopping total of seven studies.
• 07:26That's it, right?
• 07:27So when I was approached by the Asian
• 07:29Law Caucus at this point in time,
• 07:32right, lawyers who were trying
• 07:34to do their civil rights work,
• 07:36you know,
• 07:37I had to admit that there was
• 07:39literally just a handful of studies.
• 07:40So that's what we were doing
• 07:43from a scholarly standpoint.
• 07:44That's what we were doing as a discipline,
• 07:46right?
• 07:46So now let's talk a little bit
• 07:51and put things into context.
• 07:55Asian Americans history in
• 07:57this country is is rather long,
• 07:59and it began with Filipinos
• 08:03arriving off of the galleon routes
• 08:06from the Philippines to Acapulco,
• 08:08landing on these shores in Morro Bay,
• 08:11CA in 1587, right? That's 437 years ago.
• 08:17OK, They didn't settle there.
• 08:19Filipinos ended up making some
• 08:21of the first settlements in the
• 08:23bayous of Louisiana in the 1760s.
• 08:25But, you know, 437 years ago is when
• 08:28Asian Americans set foot on this shore,
• 08:31when they began to come here in large
• 08:34numbers, in large waves of immigrants,
• 08:36starting with the Chinese in the 1800s,
• 08:41they were met with the very first
• 08:45immigration law that targeted in that racial,
• 08:49ethnic group specifically with
• 08:51the Chinese Exclusion Act.
• 08:53142 years ago.
• 08:54You go down the line,
• 08:56you look at Executive Order 9066,
• 08:58the Japanese American internment
• 09:0080 years ago, right,
• 09:02the mass incarceration without
• 09:05due process of Japanese Americans.
• 09:08And then we moved a little bit
• 09:09closer to our time as the murder
• 09:12of Vincent Chin in 1982,
• 09:13which was a hallmark incident
• 09:15nationally that really galvanized
• 09:17the Asian American community.
• 09:19A young man who was sitting
• 09:21at a bar in Detroit,
• 09:24MI,
• 09:24and he was then subsequently
• 09:28chased and beaten with a bat
• 09:32by disgruntled auto workers,
• 09:34right,
• 09:35who mistakenly assumed he was
• 09:37Japanese American and that he
• 09:40was taking business away from
• 09:43them and taking their jobs.
• 09:45Those men, by the way,
• 09:46were never sent to jail, OK?
• 09:49And it kept getting overturned.
• 09:51So, you know,
• 09:52one of the through lines in all this
• 09:54history is that #1 Asian Americans
• 09:57have been here for a long time,
• 10:00right?
• 10:00Long time.
• 10:01But race and racism has been a
• 10:04persistent through line through
• 10:06all of their experiences.
• 10:08And you can also see how that has
• 10:10been a through line through different
• 10:12ethnic groups as a whole, right?
• 10:15So racism has been a consistent part of
• 10:20the lived experiences of Asian Americans.
• 10:21But let's talk a little bit about what
• 10:24is this racism thing we're talking about?
• 10:26There's a lot of different
• 10:28definitions of racism.
• 10:29You can look them up.
• 10:32But I've always been kind of
• 10:34particularly drawn to this one,
• 10:35one of the earlier ones,
• 10:36which is from Doctor James Jones.
• 10:39And what I like about this particular
• 10:42thing is that it underscores
• 10:44that it is not just an attitude.
• 10:47It is not just a belief, right?
• 10:50It's not just a prejudice.
• 10:52Anybody can be prejudice.
• 10:54Anybody can have a bias, right?
• 10:56What is striking about this
• 10:59particular belief system is that
• 11:02it is a system of beliefs, right,
• 11:05that is legitimized and reinforced by power.
• 11:09And power is the crux and the fulcrum
• 11:11on which this really rests on,
• 11:13right?
• 11:15And power is exercised through individuals
• 11:18and institutions so that it becomes the norm,
• 11:22that this becomes the way we do things.
• 11:25This is the way life should be and can be,
• 11:29right?
• 11:29So it is not just a belief or an attitude,
• 11:32but it is a belief that is fueled really by
• 11:37institutional and cultural sanction.
• 11:46So today I want to just focus and
• 11:49highlight a few types of racism. And again,
• 11:51this is just kind of a very one model.
• 11:55This is also Jones's model that he looks at.
• 11:59And I I like this one because it
• 12:01really begins to highlight the
• 12:04differences between individual,
• 12:05institutional and cultural right.
• 12:08And there are clear overlaps
• 12:10across all of these things,
• 12:12but it really for our purposes,
• 12:14gives us some clarity in understanding this.
• 12:17Scholars since Jones's work have really
• 12:19elaborated on different forms of racism,
• 12:22for instance,
• 12:23intergenerational racism or vicarious racism.
• 12:26But for now,
• 12:27I just want to hold us to just these three
• 12:29because it gives us some focus and clarity.
• 12:32So let's talk a little bit about,
• 12:34well, racism. This is the definition.
• 12:36We're gonna work with this framework.
• 12:37What does that look like within
• 12:39the Asian American community?
• 12:43Well, individual racism is defined as,
• 12:45you know, individuals acting
• 12:47upon their beliefs, right?
• 12:48Acting upon the belief that one
• 12:51group is superior to another,
• 12:53another group is inferior, right?
• 12:55Acting on the belief that another group is
• 12:58being othered and distanced and less than.
• 13:00And you can see that throughout
• 13:03Asian American history,
• 13:04from its inception,
• 13:06from the time we first began to come
• 13:08to this country in large numbers,
• 13:10we have been met with individual
• 13:13racism by virtually every group.
• 13:16Since the very first anti Asian
• 13:19rioting that happened in LA in 1871.
• 13:22All the way through the
• 13:24Japanese internment, through
• 13:29the Filipino riots in Watsonville to
• 13:32more recently the Atlanta shootings,
• 13:34as well as some of the things
• 13:36that happened as a result of and
• 13:39related to the COVID pandemic.
• 13:41So racism and direct violence
• 13:44has been a consistent part of the
• 13:47experiences of Asian Americans.
• 13:49And we can see that in recent years
• 13:52in the next slide, it's spiked.
• 13:55And I, I wanna take a moment here
• 13:58to just really honor the work of my
• 14:01colleague here at San Francisco State
• 14:03University, Doctor Russell Jung.
• 14:04We're really beginning to give
• 14:07us some of the most powerful and
• 14:09recent tallies of what is going on
• 14:12within the Asian American community.
• 14:14Now, this isn't not the first time
• 14:17there's been a national attempt to
• 14:20really capture what is going on in
• 14:23terms of Asian American racism and hate,
• 14:26but this is a striking example
• 14:28and it got a lot of press.
• 14:30You can see here that between,
• 14:33in a 1 1/2 year time span between
• 14:35March 20th and September 2021,
• 14:38there'd been over 10,000 incidences reported.
• 14:41OK, to give you a,
• 14:43a kind of a benchmark of just
• 14:45the significance of that number,
• 14:47there was a civil rights consortium
• 14:51of the National Asian Pacific
• 14:53American Legal Consortium out of DC.
• 14:56They used to do this in the early 90s
• 14:58and stuff and they used to produce an
• 15:01annual report of this of anti Asian violence.
• 15:04And on average, at that point in time,
• 15:08they were kind of cataloging about 200
• 15:12to 500 incidences of racism annually,
• 15:16OK, two to 500 incidences annually.
• 15:19So when you get a report like this,
• 15:22that really skyrockets to over 10,000.
• 15:25That's a substantial spike,
• 15:2710,000 in just a year and a half.
• 15:31So it's staggering.
• 15:32You can see that about 20% of
• 15:36Asian Americans, right?
• 15:37And Pacific Islanders experienced a
• 15:39hate incident within the past year.
• 15:42Many of these were really targeted
• 15:44at kids and at women.
• 15:46A lot of this really involved verbal
• 15:51harassment for the most part.
• 15:53But as you have probably seen in the news,
• 15:57you know,
• 15:58there was a number of incidences of beatings,
• 16:02you know, people getting pushed,
• 16:04people getting killed,
• 16:06etcetera.
• 16:06So there was a significant spike
• 16:09in many of these incidences.
• 16:16So let's talk a little bit and
• 16:19shift to institutional racism.
• 16:20And what you can see on the right
• 16:23hand side of your screen here is
• 16:25the actual Executive order 9066 that
• 16:29was distributed by the government.
• 16:31And I'm not gonna go over
• 16:34every little piece here.
• 16:35And but, you know,
• 16:37many people are familiar with
• 16:38the Chinese Exclusion Act.
• 16:40What many people don't know is that
• 16:43that was just actually a part of a
• 16:46series of immigration legislation that
• 16:49targeted specific groups of Asian Americans,
• 16:52not just Chinese, right,
• 16:54and had an impact on the
• 16:55Japanese American community,
• 16:57the South Asian community,
• 16:59the Filipino community, et cetera.
• 17:02You can see other types
• 17:04of institutional racism,
• 17:05whether they be restricted covenants that,
• 17:08you know, limited folks for where they live.
• 17:11That, of course,
• 17:12did not just affect the
• 17:14Asian American community,
• 17:15English only initiatives,
• 17:17glass ceiling barriers,
• 17:19accent and language discrimination,
• 17:20et cetera.
• 17:21So again,
• 17:22the point here is that these institutional
• 17:26forms of racism affect the economic,
• 17:30the social, the educational,
• 17:32the marital rights of Asian
• 17:34Americans consistently,
• 17:36right?
• 17:42But what is the connection between
• 17:45individual and institutional racism?
• 17:47And this is where I I think
• 17:50Jones's framework really helps.
• 17:52The bridge and the fuel behind any
• 17:54form of racism is cultural racism.
• 17:57And what is that?
• 17:58Well, cultural racism are the beliefs,
• 18:01the assumptions, the stereotypes that
• 18:05people hold that fuel and give tacit
• 18:09approval and explicit approval to
• 18:12individual and institutional racism.
• 18:14It's the gas, right?
• 18:16It's the, it's the gas that fuels the
• 18:18engine of racism and that makes it OK.
• 18:21It's the belief system that underlies
• 18:23it that makes this OK, right?
• 18:26And these are just some of the belief
• 18:29systems that we have seen and we have
• 18:33catalogued the scholars that have been
• 18:36targeted specifically at Asian Americans,
• 18:37including the model minority myth,
• 18:39the belief that, you know,
• 18:40Asian Americans are doing fine,
• 18:42they're wealthy, they're successful,
• 18:44they're high achieving, et cetera.
• 18:47And all, all to, you know,
• 18:49the perpetual foreigner that
• 18:51Asian Americans never quite fit,
• 18:53they're never quite belong.
• 18:54No matter how many generations you're here,
• 18:56somebody is still going to
• 18:58ask you where you come from,
• 19:00how do you speak English well,
• 19:01right, et cetera.
• 19:03So cultural racism is really the engine,
• 19:08the the foundation that allows
• 19:11individuals and institutions to act
• 19:13in ways that are seen as Norman.
• 19:16Like,
• 19:16as long as you act within these
• 19:18particular behaviors, that's fine.
• 19:24So as you can see,
• 19:25and part of the impetus for this is,
• 19:26you know, since COVID-19,
• 19:28there's really been a peak of
• 19:31anti Asian racism and trauma,
• 19:34which is why a lot of times I've
• 19:36been invited to do these talks.
• 19:38But the piece that I want to
• 19:41really under score here and the
• 19:43thing that I want you to hopefully
• 19:45just appreciate is that what you
• 19:48see before you is quite literally
• 19:50just the tip of the iceberg.
• 19:53You know that the depth of racism
• 19:56and trauma that the Asian American
• 19:59community has experienced.
• 20:02Isn't just about what happened
• 20:03with COVID-19 and a virus.
• 20:04What happened in recent years is not
• 20:07a single incident or even a series of
• 20:10incidents related to a virus, right?
• 20:12It's a long standing pattern of
• 20:14incidences that have resulted from the
• 20:17belief that Asian Americans can be other,
• 20:20can be less than,
• 20:22can be pushed out our outsiders.
• 20:24So it's not about a particular
• 20:27virus that happened, right?
• 20:29The virus and the pandemic gave us
• 20:32tacit permission to act on beliefs
• 20:35that have been with us since Asian
• 20:37Americans stepped on these shores,
• 20:39right?
• 20:39And it's been with this country
• 20:41then for the long time.
• 20:43It's just the most recent iteration.
• 20:45And you can take a look at some of
• 20:48the things that are on these slides.
• 20:50So that's the history part.
• 20:52I'm gonna shift now.
• 20:57So, you know, is this really a big deal?
• 21:00Does it really matter?
• 21:01That's the whole point of this talk, right?
• 21:03Does it? Does it doesn't matter?
• 21:05Are these incidences really harmful?
• 21:09And what I want to show you here,
• 21:12these are items from probably one
• 21:14of the most commonly used scales,
• 21:16the everyday discrimination scale
• 21:18that David Williams and his colleague
• 21:22up in Harvard had developed.
• 21:24And, you know, public health has a number
• 21:29of wonderful ways of assessing this.
• 21:31But, you know, these are some of the items,
• 21:33you know, you are treated with
• 21:35less courtesy than other people.
• 21:36You're insulted.
• 21:37You're called the name, you know,
• 21:40you're ignored and lying at a
• 21:41restaurant or something like that.
• 21:43You know, and these touch on what we call,
• 21:45you know, microaggressions,
• 21:46and this is one of the most common
• 21:49ways in the scholarship that we
• 21:52actually measure racism, right?
• 21:54And some of you on this call may
• 21:57have experienced some of these,
• 21:59many of these or all of these, right?
• 22:01And so the question really begins,
• 22:03it's like, does this really matter, right?
• 22:06If somebody is ignoring you in
• 22:08the line while you're trying to
• 22:10order something at McDonald's,
• 22:12does that really matter?
• 22:13Does that hurt?
• 22:14Right.
• 22:16So let's see where we're at
• 22:22since the story I told you earlier about,
• 22:25you know, my, my work with the
• 22:27Asian Law Caucus, you know,
• 22:29things have shifted quite a bit,
• 22:31you know, since the late 90s.
• 22:34And you can see there begins to be a rapid
• 22:39growth such that at this point in time,
• 22:41we're roughly looking at a little
• 22:44over 300 studies or so now, you know,
• 22:47300 studies to represent the experiences
• 22:51of millions of Asian Americans.
• 22:53Still not great, but it's a hell
• 22:55of a lot better than seven, right?
• 22:57So we're headed in the right direction.
• 23:01And so a little bit of what are
• 23:02we going to talk about today is
• 23:03what have we learned since then?
• 23:05What have we learned about this phenomenon?
• 23:08And to really answer that question,
• 23:10does this really matter?
• 23:14So I'm going to look at
• 23:15three different areas.
• 23:16This is the first one,
• 23:17which is the mental health outcomes.
• 23:20And this is actually where the
• 23:21majority of the work has focused on.
• 23:23And clearly it's relevant to
• 23:25this entire audience here, right?
• 23:28And, and what is the relationship
• 23:31between Asian racism against Asian
• 23:34Americans and their mental health?
• 23:37About 2/3 of the studies out there in the
• 23:41literature are focused on mental health.
• 23:42So there's been a really big
• 23:45push within public health,
• 23:48within psychology,
• 23:50social work, et cetera,
• 23:52to really begin to to look at
• 23:54what are some of these outcomes.
• 23:56I'm not gonna go over every
• 23:58single one of these studies,
• 23:59but I do wanna just highlight one of them,
• 24:02right?
• 24:03And one of them is a really interesting
• 24:05study that was done very early on
• 24:08by Chelsea Liu and her colleagues
• 24:10within the VA system in Hawaii.
• 24:12And what they did was they looked
• 24:15at Asian American Vietnam vets,
• 24:18Asian American Vietnam vets,
• 24:20and looked at their experiences
• 24:23of race as vets.
• 24:25And I want to go and contextualize this.
• 24:27We're talking about young men
• 24:29who at the time of deployment
• 24:31were around 2223 years old.
• 24:34They were going into the Vietnam
• 24:37theater and part of their experiences
• 24:40was really being identified and
• 24:42closely identified with quote,
• 24:45UN quote the enemy.
• 24:47And you know,
• 24:48them reporting experiences like when
• 24:50they would go on training exercises,
• 24:53they would say if you want to
• 24:54know what the enemy looks like,
• 24:56it looks like him, right?
• 24:58And that individual would point to
• 25:01other Asian American soldiers, right?
• 25:03So being really identified and
• 25:06targeted from day one with,
• 25:08you know,
• 25:10pejorative names like **** and
• 25:12***** etcetera like that.
• 25:13And so the question that Chalsa
• 25:16and her colleagues were interested
• 25:18in is it does the experience
• 25:21of that within that context,
• 25:24that military context does that,
• 25:26how does that relate it to PTSD?
• 25:29Well, they found out two major things.
• 25:32First of all,
• 25:34above and beyond combat exposure, right?
• 25:37They found, obviously,
• 25:39that combat exposure was related to PTSD.
• 25:41That was fairly straightforward.
• 25:43But what they also found out was
• 25:47that the experience of racism,
• 25:49right added to added to the
• 25:53likelihood of experiencing PTSD
• 25:54above and beyond combat exposure.
• 25:57In other words,
• 25:58the experience of racism was a
• 26:01unique and distinct stressor in
• 26:03addition to combat exposure.
• 26:05That was an interesting finding.
• 26:07What is more striking is that as
• 26:10they went through their analysis,
• 26:12what they found was that the
• 26:14experience of racism for these vets
• 26:17was a stronger predictor of PTSD.
• 26:20Let me say that again,
• 26:22it was a stronger predictor of
• 26:25PTSD than actual combat exposure.
• 26:27OK, so sit without a moment, right?
• 26:31So the experiences that you
• 26:34have with your comrade in arms,
• 26:36with people from your country,
• 26:39people who you are fighting with,
• 26:41the racism you are experiencing
• 26:43from within your own ranks was
• 26:45more associated with PTSD than
• 26:48actual combat exposure.
• 26:49That gives you a sense then
• 26:51of the level of
• 26:52trauma that these men were experiencing.
• 26:57Physical health outcomes.
• 27:00This body of work, although not as large as
• 27:03the work within the mental health outcomes,
• 27:06it is still very significant, obviously,
• 27:09and like the mental health outcomes,
• 27:12is pointing to similar patterns.
• 27:15In other words, that racism in general
• 27:18is really being associated with poor
• 27:20physical health outcomes, right.
• 27:23One particular study was one by
• 27:28Gilbert G and his colleagues.
• 27:30And you know, Gilbert,
• 27:32they asked participants a real simple
• 27:35question, how many days, right?
• 27:37How many days?
• 27:39When you think about your physical health,
• 27:40how many days do you believe your
• 27:42physical health was not good?
• 27:44Very simple question,
• 27:45how many days do you feel that
• 27:48your physical health was not good?
• 27:50When we look at the data here and
• 27:52we extrapolate this especially
• 27:54to a yearly basis,
• 27:55one of the things we find is
• 27:57that Asian Americans experience
• 27:59many days of being unhealthy.
• 28:01That was associated with
• 28:03their experience of racism.
• 28:05There is a range.
• 28:07Chinese Americans were reporting
• 28:09around 19 unhealthy days every year,
• 28:1219 unhealthy days.
• 28:13South Asians at this time were reporting
• 28:1751 unhealthy days as a result of
• 28:20their experiences with with racism.
• 28:22Let's think about that 51 days,
• 28:25that's almost two months, two months
• 28:29where your physical daily activities,
• 28:32your estimation and again,
• 28:34it is self report.
• 28:36So there are limitations here,
• 28:37but their perceptions of how their
• 28:40body was working for two months
• 28:43was impacted by discrimination.
• 28:50This is probably the smallest body
• 28:52of literature yet in many ways
• 28:55this is some of the most disturbing
• 28:57findings that we are seeing.
• 29:01And this is looking at people's
• 29:03health behaviors and what is the
• 29:06relationship between discrimination here?
• 29:08Probably some of the most striking one
• 29:10is some of the earliest work was finding
• 29:13that the experience of discrimination
• 29:15was associated not only with suicidal
• 29:18ideation but suicidal attempts.
• 29:20Right there was a strong and
• 29:23consistent link and this has been
• 29:25found in the literature repeatedly.
• 29:27For instance, on some of these studies,
• 29:29in Lee's study,
• 29:32Chinese American elderly were reporting
• 29:352 * a higher likelihood of suicidal
• 29:40ideation and attempts as a result
• 29:44of the experience of discrimination.
• 29:46We're also seeing, right,
• 29:49that health seeking has been
• 29:52affected so that, you know,
• 29:54the experience of discrimination
• 29:56was associated with whether
• 29:58or not people would seek help.
• 29:59And what we're finding is that,
• 30:02you know, Asian Americans as a whole,
• 30:05we've consistently documented that there
• 30:08is already a stigmatizing effect to
• 30:11seeking treatment for mental health, right?
• 30:13And this is only exacerbated even
• 30:16more so by the experience of racism.
• 30:19What is troubling is that look,
• 30:23let me see here, what is troubling here
• 30:27is that not only are Asian Americans,
• 30:30as a result of their experiences of racism,
• 30:34not seeking help,
• 30:36when they do actually seek help,
• 30:38they also experience discrimination
• 30:40from their providers,
• 30:42as that last bullet point is showing.
• 30:43So you know, what are,
• 30:46what are we seeing with all these slides?
• 30:48Number one, we're showing that racism, right,
• 30:53is associated with mental health illness.
• 30:56That's number one.
• 30:57Number two,
• 30:58racism is associated with your willingness,
• 31:02right, to seek treatment,
• 31:04and in this case,
• 31:05your resistance to seeking treatment,
• 31:07right?
• 31:08And then #3 that in when you
• 31:10do seek treatment,
• 31:12you end up experiencing secondary
• 31:13trauma as a result of your
• 31:15experiences with your provider, right?
• 31:17So you know,
• 31:18the experience of discrimination is hitting
• 31:21you literally at every point in the chain,
• 31:23right?
• 31:24From just causing illness,
• 31:27preventing treatment,
• 31:28and then giving you treatment,
• 31:30then that then actually creates more trauma.
• 31:35So what are the main lessons here?
• 31:41The main lessons #1 obviously
• 31:42is that it's pathogenic,
• 31:44that discrimination has a significant
• 31:46and adverse impact on health,
• 31:48mental health, and our health behaviors,
• 31:51right?
• 31:51And that,
• 31:52you know,
• 31:52while we talk about health often times in
• 31:55terms of biological or physical things,
• 31:57what this really begins to under
• 32:00score is the important link between
• 32:02one's health as well as the social,
• 32:04political,
• 32:05environmental context in which we live.
• 32:08The other thing,
• 32:09and I will kind of elaborate on this too,
• 32:11is that I want to remind us all the
• 32:13findings that I had in here were
• 32:15really in one of the main limitations
• 32:18focused on microaggressions.
• 32:19Yet we also know if you listen to the
• 32:21early part of what we talked about,
• 32:23racism is not about just microaggressions.
• 32:26And I will elaborate on that a little bit,
• 32:28right?
• 32:30So you know,
• 32:33one of the things too that this
• 32:35begins to really under score is
• 32:37that when you think about racism
• 32:39at beyond just the individual,
• 32:42when you understand it as something
• 32:45that institutions and culture
• 32:48propagate and perpetuate them.
• 32:50It really then begins to challenge
• 32:52us to think about what what is the
• 32:54role of institutions and what is the
• 32:56role of communities and creating
• 32:58these experiences for people.
• 32:59And when you look at it that then
• 33:02we're really then beginning to shift.
• 33:04If you're talking about institutions
• 33:06and communities,
• 33:07you're not just talking about
• 33:09clinical treatment at that point
• 33:11at all, right? Then you're really
• 33:13talking about systemic change.
• 33:14Then you're really talking about
• 33:16shifting some of our thinking about
• 33:19our roles to an advocacy role, right,
• 33:21as opposed to just purely clinical 1.
• 33:27So where are we and where do we go from here?
• 33:30And you know, in many ways,
• 33:33not as bad as when I met
• 33:35those lawyers back in the day.
• 33:37We are still kind of near at
• 33:39the beginning and you know,
• 33:41I wanna touch on a number of these
• 33:43issues here about racism as being
• 33:45multi dimensional protective factors.
• 33:47And then what do we do with this
• 33:48in terms of what do we do with this
• 33:50as as healers and health providers?
• 33:52What do we do with this in working
• 33:54directly with people and what do we
• 33:56do with this in terms of community
• 33:59and institutional interventions?
• 34:01OK,
• 34:05I wanna talk about where
• 34:07the literature was, right?
• 34:08And one of the things that I
• 34:11really wanna focus on is the
• 34:13literature is focused on this.
• 34:15Like I said earlier,
• 34:17this is one of the most common
• 34:19scales used to measure racism,
• 34:21not just for Asian Americans
• 34:24but for multiple groups.
• 34:26So this scale is used over and
• 34:29over and this is what it assesses.
• 34:31So when you see this literature
• 34:33that racism is connected with this
• 34:35racism is correlated with this,
• 34:37this is oftentimes what we're talking about,
• 34:39right?
• 34:40So we have,
• 34:41as you can see from the prior
• 34:43slides with 326 studies,
• 34:45we've got a sizable body of literature
• 34:50that gives us an answer to this kind of
• 34:53racism is associated with depression,
• 34:55with suicidal ideation,
• 34:58with drinking,
• 35:00with self esteem,
• 35:01with all kinds of things that
• 35:05we can more or less answer with
• 35:08some degree of confidence,
• 35:10right?
• 35:14But here's where we kind of go off script.
• 35:18We don't know, you know,
• 35:20there's other questions that
• 35:22racism really asks, right?
• 35:24There's a lot we don't know.
• 35:25And this slide really begins
• 35:27to touch on this, You know,
• 35:29what is the impact of getting beaten?
• 35:31What is the impact of having your family
• 35:35members murdered or watching a murderer?
• 35:38What is the impact of not getting
• 35:40a job because people don't think
• 35:43you can actually manage or lead?
• 35:45What is the impact of a hospital
• 35:49or an office saying you can't
• 35:52speak anything but English here?
• 35:55What is the impact of there's a law
• 35:58down in Florida now where Chinese
• 36:01families in particular are banned from
• 36:05buying land in certain instances.
• 36:07What is the impact of that?
• 36:09Of living with a family who
• 36:11couldn't buy a home, You know,
• 36:13what is the impact of feeling like
• 36:15you're not gonna get into school because
• 36:17you think there's an implicit quote?
• 36:19What is the impact of that?
• 36:21Fair questions.
• 36:22Questions that affect the
• 36:24realities of many Asian Americans.
• 36:26Do we as a body of literature and
• 36:29scholars have an answer to this?
• 36:31No, we don't.
• 36:32Right?
• 36:33Because again,
• 36:34the vast majority of the literature
• 36:37is focused on microaggressions.
• 36:38When we know
• 36:41that racism is actually multi dimensional,
• 36:44right? At a theoretical level,
• 36:47we've been able to,
• 36:48and at an experiential level, we know
• 36:50that it's more than just being ignored.
• 36:52In mine, we know it's more than just somebody
• 36:56calling us a name on the playground.
• 36:59There's different forms of racism and
• 37:01many of which have yet to really be
• 37:04examined in any depth. So, you know,
• 37:07we've taken a step forward, right?
• 37:09But hopefully what you really see
• 37:11in this slide is there's a lot
• 37:14of steps ahead of us, you know,
• 37:15a lot of steps ahead of us.
• 37:21The, the focus has also been much
• 37:23of the research has really also
• 37:25focused on outcomes. What is racism?
• 37:28How is racism related to depression?
• 37:31How is related related to suicide?
• 37:34How is it related to substance abuse?
• 37:37Right? It's focused on outcome.
• 37:39What is less clear is what
• 37:42are the protective factors?
• 37:44What actually helps you to survive?
• 37:46What actually helps you to thrive?
• 37:48What actually helps you to be resilient?
• 37:51And there's work and,
• 37:52and I've listed a couple of things here.
• 37:54There's work in some of these areas, right?
• 37:57Ethnic and racial identity, coping,
• 38:00social support, preparation for bias,
• 38:03in other words, teaching people
• 38:05about the experience of racism.
• 38:07Does that help?
• 38:08But it's, it's, it's,
• 38:10it's complicated, right?
• 38:11And it's not yet definitive.
• 38:14And a lot of these things have mixed results.
• 38:17For instance,
• 38:18some folks think that identifying
• 38:21with your cultural group or your
• 38:24racial group actually helps.
• 38:26And because it provides a sense of pride,
• 38:29it provides a sense of agency and
• 38:32self efficacy in the face of racism.
• 38:35Other studies have found it's
• 38:37actually the complete opposite,
• 38:38that identifying with your group can
• 38:41actually also be hard and harmful.
• 38:43And we theorize that some of that
• 38:45has really due to the fact that,
• 38:47you know,
• 38:48having something that you strongly
• 38:49identify with that you cherish and
• 38:51having that attack could actually
• 38:53lead to more negative outcomes,
• 38:54right?
• 38:55So there's there,
• 38:56there's caveats with a lot of this,
• 38:59but the whole message here is that
• 39:01we are pretty clear on the outcomes,
• 39:04but we're not always quite as clear on,
• 39:06on what are the protective factors.
• 39:08So there's more work to be done
• 39:10in this particular area.
• 39:17So let's talk about you all.
• 39:19Let's talk about the people on
• 39:23this call here. And you know,
• 39:27people often ask me, it's like,
• 39:29how do you work with Asian Americans?
• 39:30Well, first of all,
• 39:31my first answer is that first of all,
• 39:33you gotta work with yourself.
• 39:35You gotta hold yourself accountable
• 39:37right before you enter the room.
• 39:39There are things and questions that we
• 39:42need to ask ourselves as healers, right?
• 39:46And so that self-assessment is critical.
• 39:51You know, what's your experience
• 39:53or understanding of racism?
• 39:54You know, what's your own experience of
• 39:57privilege and its impact on people of color.
• 40:00And this is important because your
• 40:02patients will wanna know this.
• 40:03Not specifically ask this,
• 40:05but they will intuit this.
• 40:08Racial identity is an area of psychology
• 40:11that talks about the developmental
• 40:14process of recognizing race and racism.
• 40:17And our identities around race and
• 40:20racism really affect how we see,
• 40:22talk, deal,
• 40:24or avoid the way we approach racism.
• 40:27So if you don't know this body of work,
• 40:30I would strongly encourage you to
• 40:34familiarize yourself with this.
• 40:35Some of the work of Janet Helms,
• 40:38Bill Cross, Rob Sellers,
• 40:39that really begins to talk about how,
• 40:43you know,
• 40:43people of color have different ways of
• 40:46approaching race and racism and where
• 40:49you are on that gives you a sense of
• 40:52your own ability to actually discuss this.
• 40:55Yeah,
• 40:55we have focused a lot on microaggressions.
• 40:59And you know,
• 40:59one of the questions I would have for folks
• 41:02is what do you think about these experiences?
• 41:04Do you see them as innocuous?
• 41:06Do you see these experiences
• 41:08as being harmful?
• 41:10What's your own experience
• 41:11and attitudes on that?
• 41:13Recognizing that our patients may not just be
• 41:17reacting to one time being ignored in line,
• 41:20but a lifetime of being ignored,
• 41:22right?
• 41:23So that these microaggressions
• 41:25aren't just a single incident,
• 41:27but it's a cumulation of
• 41:29incidences all over time.
• 41:34The other question I would
• 41:35have for my colleagues too,
• 41:36is recognizing your own power.
• 41:40You know, our culture places a great taboo.
• 41:44I'm talking about race in almost any space.
• 41:48We are constitutionally
• 41:49challenged by this task,
• 41:52that this is a very challenging piece.
• 41:54And particularly, you know,
• 41:55as a person of color,
• 41:57we are taught not to talk
• 42:00about race in many spaces,
• 42:02particularly in white spaces,
• 42:04and sometimes even within our own
• 42:07communities, certainly within
• 42:08the Asian American community,
• 42:10I have seen that quite a bit,
• 42:12and it has been my experience as well.
• 42:15And so it's very difficult for our patients,
• 42:17our students,
• 42:18our clients to even raise racial issues and
• 42:21even acknowledge that race is in the room.
• 42:25And some of the literature my,
• 42:26my colleague Doris Chang down in,
• 42:28in New York has found that often times
• 42:32people of color will literally in therapy,
• 42:35navigate and minimize discussions of race
• 42:39in working with a white therapist, right?
• 42:42Why?
• 42:42Because we have this taboo,
• 42:44we can't bring it up, right?
• 42:46And so recognize then that as
• 42:49healthcare providers, as healers,
• 42:51we walk into the situations where
• 42:54there's already a cultural norm
• 42:56around not talking about it.
• 42:58And that as figures of authority,
• 43:00we hold some power as to whether or not
• 43:03we allow race and racism into the room.
• 43:06Your client's not gonna raise it.
• 43:08We've been taught never to
• 43:10race it because it's a risk,
• 43:12right?
• 43:12And and so one of the things that many
• 43:17marginalized individuals are really
• 43:20very good at and very keen at is
• 43:24trying to figure out, do you get it?
• 43:27Do I have to explain this to you?
• 43:30Do I have to tell you my story?
• 43:33Do I have to justify myself?
• 43:35Do you get this?
• 43:36And trying to figure out what is
• 43:39the racial risk in the room, right?
• 43:41And trying to figure it out,
• 43:42is this somebody I can trust?
• 43:45Is this somebody who gets it right?
• 43:48And this is helpful because this
• 43:51is critical because the answer
• 43:53to that question is the pivot
• 43:56upon which racial healing really,
• 44:00really turns right.
• 44:03If the patient is not feeling comfortable,
• 44:07if the patient doesn't feel like you
• 44:10have an understanding of what is going on,
• 44:14as Doctor Chang and her colleagues have
• 44:17found, they're not gonna bring it up at all.
• 44:20They'll find a way around it,
• 44:22right?
• 44:22And so,
• 44:23you know,
• 44:24I put here your practice because
• 44:27it's really a call and a question
• 44:30to look in the mirror to see,
• 44:34you know, what do you need to
• 44:35know or learn about racism?
• 44:37What don't you know,
• 44:38especially in this case
• 44:40around Asian Americans,
• 44:43are you comfortable talking
• 44:45about race and racism?
• 44:46What have you talked about?
• 44:47What are you uncomfortable at?
• 44:49How do you even bring Ed,
• 44:50race and racism into the room?
• 44:53You know, what have you shared and
• 44:55what are you willing to share or
• 44:57what's awkward for you to share
• 44:58about race and racism or about Asian
• 45:01Americans and their experiences?
• 45:03Can you have a discussion about
• 45:06race and racism with somebody
• 45:09from another racial community?
• 45:12What's challenging about that or
• 45:14what's easy about that, you know?
• 45:17What are your thoughts on the
• 45:20power that you bring into the
• 45:23room to raise race and racism
• 45:25in your trainings and seminars?
• 45:28What activities do you have
• 45:30around race and racism?
• 45:32What are the readings that you have?
• 45:35Who are the speakers
• 45:36that you have brought on?
• 45:37Is it just me or are there others?
• 45:41You know,
• 45:41what are the spaces that you have created
• 45:44as an institution for your students,
• 45:47for your patients, for your colleagues,
• 45:50for your staff to talk about race and racism,
• 45:56whether it's for Asians or Asian
• 45:58Americans or other groups?
• 45:59How do you celebrate,
• 46:03Honor different marginalized communities
• 46:05within your institution, right?
• 46:08And even more personally,
• 46:10look behind you in your office or you know,
• 46:14in your home when you get on screen,
• 46:17what decorations, pictures,
• 46:20artwork, mementos, books,
• 46:23line or office and how does that
• 46:26communicate anything about race and racism?
• 46:29As you can see,
• 46:30you know,
• 46:31there's a lot of questions to ask,
• 46:33but I ask it just to give you begin
• 46:35to think about this because these are
• 46:39the questions that you're and the
• 46:41answers to these questions are exactly,
• 46:46are exactly the answers that
• 46:48your patient is looking for.
• 46:50They are looking around behind you
• 46:52in your office to see what's up on
• 46:55that wall 'cause they're trying to
• 46:57figure out does this person get it?
• 46:59Does this person understand?
• 47:01Do they have, is this somebody I could
• 47:04trust to bring this up into the room?
• 47:06They're never gonna ask.
• 47:07I have yet to see a client ask that directly,
• 47:11and if they do, more power to them.
• 47:14But given the taboos surrounded it,
• 47:17more likely than not,
• 47:18it'll be a hard question to ask.
• 47:19So these questions, you know,
• 47:21it's not just about what the patient is
• 47:24coming in and what they're presenting.
• 47:26It's also about our ability to create
• 47:29an environment that allows the patient
• 47:32to present some of these issues, right?
• 47:35It's our ability to create that environment.
• 47:41So what happens in treatment?
• 47:45One of the first things is psychoeducation
• 47:48and just giving things a name.
• 47:50I remember a book I read in grad school by
• 47:56Tori called Witch Doctors and Psychiatrists,
• 48:00and one of the things that he
• 48:05really struck me as he examined
• 48:07healing traditions from psychiatry,
• 48:10psychology to shamanism to Kuranderos,
• 48:14one of the common features of
• 48:17healing traditions was naming, right?
• 48:20You name something, identify something,
• 48:23and when you name it, that's the one
• 48:25of the first steps of healing, right?
• 48:27And I have taken that with me and
• 48:30kind of held to that in many ways.
• 48:32And particularly when it comes to
• 48:34Asian Americans and racial trauma,
• 48:35I think it's particularly poignant and
• 48:39important intervention to name something,
• 48:42right?
• 48:42Because a name gives you something to
• 48:44wrestle with. A name gives you validation.
• 48:47A name makes it exist in ways
• 48:50that it doesn't before, right?
• 48:52And particularly for Asian Americans,
• 48:55this is really important to remember
• 48:57because even though Asian Americans have
• 48:59been in this country for hundreds of years,
• 49:01right,
• 49:05the vast majority of Asian Americans,
• 49:07about 60% of Asian Americans in this country
• 49:11are actually first generation immigrants,
• 49:13right? So 60. And I'm an immigrant.
• 49:16My family's an immigrant.
• 49:17I I immigrated here in the early 70s and
• 49:21one of the things I will tell you is that
• 49:25racial dynamics was new to my family.
• 49:29The racial history of Asian Americans
• 49:32was entirely non existent for my family.
• 49:34Even though my father and mother immigrated
• 49:38here from the Philippines, they had no idea.
• 49:44They had no idea that California
• 49:48had Filipinos before them.
• 49:51You know, we came as a result of the 1965
• 49:53Immigration Act and that opened the doors.
• 49:56But they had no idea that there were
• 49:58other generations before them, right?
• 49:59So they had no idea that Watsonville,
• 50:04a town we had visited as I was a kid and
• 50:07coming up and down the California coast,
• 50:09was the site of the largest anti Filipino
• 50:13riots where several people were murdered
• 50:17and attacked throughout the town.
• 50:19I had no idea that right.
• 50:21So their understanding of race and racism
• 50:25is often times not there in many ways.
• 50:28So giving things a name, right,
• 50:31provides that concrete experience
• 50:34and it provides a validation.
• 50:38So there's a lot of teaching that goes on,
• 50:40which gets us to racial socialization.
• 50:43And this is an area of the literature
• 50:47that really talks about to what extent
• 50:50do parents and families actually teach
• 50:52their kids anything about race and racism.
• 50:55And what we're finding is that this is
• 50:57different across different racial groups,
• 50:58and particularly within Asian Americans.
• 51:01This is woefully a small part of parenting.
• 51:06And so in fact,
• 51:08there's a a study that Donna Nagata did
• 51:12with Japanese Americans families and
• 51:15their experiences around the internment.
• 51:18And I want to ground you here.
• 51:20Think about this.
• 51:21The Japanese American internment
• 51:23was probably one of the starkest,
• 51:25most brutal examples of institutional
• 51:27racism in this country, right?
• 51:30At least against Asian Americans.
• 51:31So it's very stark.
• 51:33It's included in so many references
• 51:35and texts, including this presentation.
• 51:38But what Doctor Nagata found in
• 51:40her work was that on average,
• 51:42families talked about this,
• 51:44I guess, how,
• 51:46how long,
• 51:46how often
• 51:4915 minutes, 15 minutes,
• 51:5310 to 15 minutes is all that
• 51:55kids ever heard about this.
• 51:57Now there's a lot of cultural reasons
• 52:00and you know, community based
• 52:02reasons about why that happened,
• 52:04but just the fact that here is an
• 52:08incident that has affected and was
• 52:11targeted at hundreds of thousands of,
• 52:13of individuals and discussion about it was
• 52:18relatively minimal attributional shifts.
• 52:21I think one of the important
• 52:23interventions that we can have is
• 52:26to begin to get people to understand
• 52:28racism as a systemic experience that
• 52:30is rooted in institutions and cultures.
• 52:34Because one of the things I have
• 52:36found often times is that, you know,
• 52:38Asian Americans, you know,
• 52:40feel targeted as an individual.
• 52:42What they don't realize is the
• 52:45larger systems behind them.
• 52:47I was working with a young
• 52:50woman and around this topic,
• 52:52and she came in one day and we
• 52:55were having this discussion.
• 52:57And she said, oh, you know, my,
• 52:58my mom was really interested
• 53:01in what we're working on,
• 53:03which is race and racism.
• 53:05And when the daughter explained
• 53:09this to the mom, the mom said,
• 53:11well, I don't,
• 53:12I don't know why you're studying that.
• 53:15Why are you interested in that?
• 53:18That's the price we pay for
• 53:20being in this country.
• 53:22And the one message that the mother
• 53:24sent to the daughter, right,
• 53:26is that this isn't our country.
• 53:31This is just what happens to us, right?
• 53:33And so there's a sense of agency there,
• 53:36right? And the daughter was thinking,
• 53:37you know, this is my country, right?
• 53:40This is, this is where I belong, right?
• 53:43And I deserve to be here.
• 53:45But the attributional shift was that,
• 53:47you know, this is something that happens
• 53:51and it's part of the fabric and there's
• 53:53nothing you can do with it, right?
• 53:57One of the common questions
• 53:59I get is around coping.
• 54:01And unfortunately,
• 54:01when we looked at the literature,
• 54:03I think there's a lot of
• 54:07complexities there that are make it hard
• 54:10to identify coping strategies, right?
• 54:12And you know, people ask, well,
• 54:14what's the best way to cope?
• 54:15That's a hard question to answer. Why?
• 54:17Because one of the things we're really
• 54:21come to appreciate is that, you know,
• 54:23the experience of racism is idiosyncratic.
• 54:26Like let's take one of those items.
• 54:28You're you're called a name or a slur, right?
• 54:32It's completely out of context, right?
• 54:35How you respond and how you cope
• 54:38with that depends on the context.
• 54:40You're called a name or a slur
• 54:43when you're on the playground.
• 54:45That's one way. 11 context.
• 54:47You're called a name or slur by your teacher,
• 54:51you're called the name or a slur by
• 54:54your boss, you're called the name or
• 54:57a slur by a stranger at the store.
• 55:00Each one of those things
• 55:02are different incidences,
• 55:03yet they're also the same incident, right?
• 55:06So when we look in the scholarship
• 55:09about how people can cope,
• 55:11it's, it's a mixed bag.
• 55:12And I think one of the reasons why
• 55:14is that it really reflects on the
• 55:16different context in which you're in.
• 55:19Same with social support.
• 55:21We turn to social support and
• 55:24in the hopes that, you know,
• 55:27being in spaces with people of
• 55:30like experiences will help and
• 55:32there's evidence for that.
• 55:33At the same time,
• 55:35we also see evidence that
• 55:36social support can be hurtful.
• 55:38Why is that?
• 55:39I think it,
• 55:40it's really has to do with the
• 55:42nature of the social support.
• 55:43If you're seeking support from
• 55:45individuals who are really don't believe
• 55:48that race or racism exists or that
• 55:50it's relevant for Asian Americans,
• 55:52that's not the support you need.
• 55:54If you are looking at it from,
• 55:56you know,
• 55:57looking for support from your mother
• 55:58and your father and your siblings,
• 56:00all of whom want to deny it or
• 56:02think it's not a big deal because
• 56:04this isn't your country,
• 56:06that's not the support you need.
• 56:08So really thinking contextually about
• 56:11who you're getting social support
• 56:12from and where you get it from.
• 56:15For myself,
• 56:15going through my own process in here,
• 56:18I found absolutely no support
• 56:20from the Asian American community.
• 56:22In fact,
• 56:23I was fairly ostracized going
• 56:26through this experience.
• 56:27And people would look at me and say,
• 56:29you know, why are you so angry?
• 56:31How come you're so militant, right?
• 56:33Where I found my social support
• 56:35really around this was within the
• 56:38African American community, right?
• 56:40And colleagues and friends there
• 56:41who could provide that support
• 56:44and understanding in ways that my
• 56:46immigrant community really couldn't.
• 56:49So again,
• 56:50thinking about social support
• 56:52with some new ones.
• 56:54I'm aware of the time here,
• 56:55so I'm gonna kind of go
• 56:57through this rather quickly.
• 56:58But the main point that I wanna
• 57:01share here is that if all we're
• 57:04doing is helping individuals cope,
• 57:06then all we're really doing is letting
• 57:09institutions and communities off the hook,
• 57:12right?
• 57:12Our job shouldn't be here to
• 57:15help perpetuate and collude with
• 57:18a dysfunctional system.
• 57:20As healers,
• 57:21we also have some ability to shape
• 57:24institutions ourselves and really
• 57:26begin to think about, you know,
• 57:28what is the stance of the organization,
• 57:32right, in terms of its willingness to learn,
• 57:36unlearn and relearn racism as an institution.
• 57:40Is it a learning organization?
• 57:44And in terms of margins and mainstream,
• 57:48really thinking about is how it is.
• 57:50Where is that learning centered within
• 57:53an organization or an institution?
• 57:55Is it, how is it embedded in its leadership,
• 57:59in its policies,
• 58:01in its practices, in its hiring,
• 58:03in its tenure and promotion processes,
• 58:06in its advancement process,
• 58:08in its continual education?
• 58:10How is it embedded into the institution?
• 58:13Right.
• 58:16So in the interest of time, I'll,
• 58:20I'll just truncate that piece of it.
• 58:24But what you can see here is that,
• 58:26you know, the need then is really to
• 58:29look at all aspects of an institution,
• 58:32because an institution and its leaders,
• 58:35they create the climate,
• 58:37they hire and support the individuals.
• 58:40They are the ones that sets the expectations
• 58:42and norms for how do you do this?
• 58:44And do you talk about race or do you only
• 58:47talk about it when an incident happens?
• 58:49Right? They're the ones who fund
• 58:52the resources that enable us to
• 58:54really center racial justice within
• 58:56all aspects of the institution.
• 58:58And without this,
• 58:59then individuals who are going
• 59:01through the institution are
• 59:02gonna find it very hard to cope.
• 59:04So again, if all we're doing is to
• 59:07help our clients and patients cope
• 59:09with the dysfunctional institution,
• 59:12then we're also allowing that
• 59:14institution to exist.
• 59:15So is this a lot I'm throwing
• 59:20at you as I wrap up here?
• 59:21Yeah, it is.
• 59:23It is.
• 59:24And you know,
• 59:25in the in this time of chaos
• 59:27and that time's despair,
• 59:30what I'm really grounded by
• 59:31and what has helped me has been
• 59:34actually my students and our youth.
• 59:37And I want to show you here a
• 59:39clip of a rally that I had gone
• 59:43to here in Northern California.
• 59:46And hopefully the audio will come through.
• 59:55And I saw this drawing
• 59:57support and scanner for ages.
• 59:59I've always been pressed about
• 01:00:00how the earth and spaniel gets
• 01:00:02rated out and discrimination.
• 01:00:04So I first thought as an Asian
• 01:00:06elegant pushed on the news,
• 01:00:07it would be Odeon, Petrograd and Chuck.
• 01:00:09That's for our society.
• 01:00:12This is America. Why was
• 01:00:15the company
• 01:00:17now? This was a rally here in San Mateo.
• 01:00:22You may not have heard it very clearly.
• 01:00:25You can read what what Ashlyn had to say
• 01:00:29here, but you may not have heard it clearly.
• 01:00:31But what you really need
• 01:00:33to hear is her voice.
• 01:00:35And most importantly, most importantly,
• 01:00:38that at 13 years old,
• 01:00:42this young woman has a voice,
• 01:00:46has the courage to stand up on that bench,
• 01:00:50has the courage to pick up that bullhorn,
• 01:00:54has the courage to speak, right?
• 01:00:58That's what I find most inspiring.
• 01:01:01And what I've, what has struck me as I
• 01:01:04have attended many of these public events
• 01:01:06is that many of these things, the energy,
• 01:01:09the passion has come from our youth.
• 01:01:13So if Ashlynn and other youth like her,
• 01:01:16right, have the courage to pick up this
• 01:01:19bullhorn in front of all these cameras,
• 01:01:21right, we as a group of professionals
• 01:01:25with big fancy degrees can do no less.
• 01:01:29So in closing,
• 01:01:31I wanted to share with you,
• 01:01:37I've been reading this book lately
• 01:01:38and one of the characters shares
• 01:01:40this proverb about, you know,
• 01:01:41when's the best time to plant a tree?
• 01:01:44And the answer is 20 years ago.
• 01:01:50So the next question is, well,
• 01:01:52when's the next best time?
• 01:01:56And the answer to that is now.
• 01:01:59You know, when I think about where we
• 01:02:00are in this country and where we are
• 01:02:02within the Asian American community,
• 01:02:04it occurs to me just how far we have to go,
• 01:02:07how much we have yet to do,
• 01:02:08how much is unimagined and unfinished.
• 01:02:12We talk a lot about, you know,
• 01:02:16dismantling systems of oppression
• 01:02:18that actually is easy.
• 01:02:21I will argue what it is harder is
• 01:02:26building justice, creating justice.
• 01:02:28It's hard to picture that.
• 01:02:30It's easy to point at our pain.
• 01:02:32It's harder to build systems and communities
• 01:02:36that actually foster justice and healing.
• 01:02:39But if you're attending this, I'm assuming
• 01:02:42you want something better as well.
• 01:02:43You're wanting something
• 01:02:45better for your patients.
• 01:02:46You're wanting something
• 01:02:47better for your students.
• 01:02:49You're wanting something better
• 01:02:51for your institutions, right?
• 01:02:53And as this slide shows,
• 01:02:56the time to start is now.
• 01:02:58The people who have the power
• 01:03:00and the education to do this
• 01:03:02are already on this call.
• 01:03:04And the people we do this for look
• 01:03:07a lot like Ashlyn and that little
• 01:03:09girl with a bullhorn on that bench.
• 01:03:11And she, like others,
• 01:03:13needs us now and quickly.
• 01:03:16So with that,
• 01:03:17I want to thank Maria.
• 01:03:19I want to thank Cindy for giving
• 01:03:21me the space to talk.
• 01:03:22But hopefully we have some time to
• 01:03:25have an exchange and let me stop
• 01:03:28share so we can see each other more
• 01:03:31than our little pixelated faces.