Siena Iwasaki Milbauer: Welcome back to New Narratives, Justice for George Floyd. I’m your host, Siena Iwasaki Milbauer. I use she/her pronouns and I’m the Content Creator Intern at Asian American Organizing Project, also known as AAOP, a youth-focused, youth-led Asian American nonpartisan nonprofit based in the Twin Cities. Given Asian American Organizing Project’s focus on youth leadership and community engagement, it’s always been a goal of this podcast to uplift the voices of young Asian Minnesotans. That’s why I’m so excited about our guest today.
Pa Yao is a St. Paul high school graduate, class of 2021, and part of Asian American Organizing Project’s Youth Action Team. Pa has also been active this past year as a protester and racial justice advocate. I wanted to talk to with Pa about her specific perspective as a youth activist, and dig into what moves her to be engaged in organizing work.
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Pa: Hello, I’m Pa Yao, but I go by Pa. Use she/her pronouns. I’m 17. I’m currently a senior at Harding high school, about to graduate in June so that’s very exciting. I’ve been with AAOP’s youth program for about two years now.
Siena: A lot has happened during the past year. George Floyd, Daunte Wright, and now Winston Smith have been murdered by police in Minnesota. A worldwide pandemic has turned our lives upside down. And a dramatic rise in violence against Asians has stripped our communities of any sense of safety, especially after the murder of six Asian women in Georgia this spring. With all that in mind, I started by asking Pa a pretty big question: What has it been like being a young person during this challenging time?
Pa: For me personally, it has been hard. Because at one point, it felt like there were just so many issues being thrown at my face. And I’m in that space where I haven’t completely comprehended one issue or healed from it, but now there’s another issue that’s coming. Feel like I have to learn about that issue. I’m constantly going back and forth trying to spread awareness, do something. While also trying to take care of myself and my mental health at the same time. And you know that’s a really hard thing to do.
And another thing that has been hard is while trying to learn about these issues, and attending rallies and protests, it has been very hard to do my schoolwork. It became a thing where schoolwork felt like a chore and I really didn’t want to do it because it’s not something I’m interested in. And on top of that, I can’t see my friends or anyone I’m close with, I can’t have that physical interaction. It took a toll on most of my friendships. It became hard to text anyone. And even now, I sort of still feel like that, and hopefully I’m not alone in this feeling cause I’ve been seeing that it also happens to my peers. Overall, it’s been a hard year, I would say. And hopefully everyone gets over this.
Siena: In spite of, or maybe because of this challenging year, Pa has dedicated lots of her time to activism, including creating and running a workshop for youth on anti-Blackness in Asian communities.
Pa: For the workshop, I just started with the definition of what anti-Blackness is. Then moved onto what causes it, why it’s harmful, why it happens. And concluding with how to unlearn these ways, hopefully how they can spread awareness to their communities. What I wanted them to take away from the workshop is hoping that they notice that they may have had some anti-Blackness in their family or self. And seeing how they can unlearn it and educate other people on the issue.
Siena: I asked Pa what specifically motivated her to create this workshop for her fellow Asian youth.
Pa: Right when the pandemic started, that’s when the Floyd murder happened. And last year was when Black Lives Matter had huge media attraction. And along with getting supporters, there was also a lot of anti-Blackness, especially in the Asian community, more specifically the Hmong community. Besides the murder, there was also a lot of Asian hate crimes hapenning where elders were being hit and harassed for just being Asian. And what I saw is that many Hmong people were angered that people weren’t speaking up about the issue. And they took that anger and hatred and they directed towards the Black Lives Matter movement. They were saying things like you didn’t support us, why should we support you, people want to fight for them, no one fighting for us. So many of them making racist and insensitive comments towards Black people. I just realized that this issue of being anti-Black has been going on for a really long time in the Asian community. So I took the opportunity as a youth leader last year to talk about it, and trying to spread knowledge to the other youths there were there.
It’s a very serious and unhealthy way of thinking that has been passed down to the newer generation of Asian Americans. And it is kinda disappointing to me that it has never been addressed. I understand the betrayal that Hmong Americans felt, and their feelings are very valid. But it’s never okay to make it seem like people of color should be competing against each other on who gets justice first. That’s the reason why I wanted to have the workshop.
Siena: Besides leading this workshop, Pa has also been participating in protests throughout the year. I wanted to know what that experience has been like for her.
Pa: It felt very empowering to be a part of something so big. And knowing just me as one little person can be a part of something that can make a change in the world. And it’s just also nice knowing that I was standing alongside people who have the same thoughts and beliefs as me in terms of what we were fighting for. It felt very nice to see teens my age were contributing and saying their opinions. And adults were actually listening to them for once. It just felt really empowering.
Siena: As well as talking about her general takeaways from protesting, Pa also shared specifically about participating in the statewide school walkouts that happened this spring in response to Daunte Wright’s murder.
Pa: There were boards and people reading spoken word poems. There was dancing and singing and more amazing things. I was able to experience a small bit of the many cultures present in my school. We were able to honor the ground we stood on today and who it belongs to. We honored the lives that were lost over the year. And we honored each other as peers coming together to talk about an important issue. And why I think it was important is because school walkouts are giving a space for students’ voices to be heard. It acts like a healing space. And someone who normally doesn’t have a space to be heard could get the spot to talk about it in a school walkout. We had a thing where there was a mic and anyone who wanted to talk could go up to the stage and talk and just say whatever they felt, whatever they wanted. And usually school walkouts are very inclusive and there’s so many different perspectives and voices being heard. Sort of letting each other know as students I’m here for you, hopefully you are here for me too. Creates that bond between students knowing that your school is a safe place for you. And that you should feel important as a student here.
Siena: Pa is an impressive youth activist, but she also came across to me as really humble and grounded. Her organizing clearly isn’t about ego, but instead about advocating for things she truly and passionately cares about. This especially came through when I asked Pa to give some advice to other young folks who might be interested in getting involved in activism.
Pa: It does feel weird to give advice, because I’m not one who usually does that. But just letting other teens know you don’t always have to start big. You don’t have to get up and throw yourself into a huge protest where you’re unfamiliar with a lot of things. Like with most things, you can always start out small and what you’re comfortable with. It can be as simple as sharing a post, providing links to petitions, and donations. From there you can slowly start building where you want to go.
Siena: Thanks for listening to New Narratives: Justice for George Floyd. This special series is brought to you by Asian American Organizing Project, in collaboration with Buddhist Justice Reporter, a project led by BIPOC Buddhists, looking to report on the police, criminal injustice, and the carceral state from a Buddhist lens, and with support from the Minneapolis Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the Kofi Annan Institute for Global Citizenship at Macalester College. Featured in this episode was Pa Yao. See you next time!