Let’s start by telling us a little about yourself. What is your story — How did you get involved in organizing?
To be honest, I had very little experience in organizing prior to AAOP, and I still feel that way.
Which communities do you serve? What does this community mean to you?
It’s been tough to figure out precisely communities I serve. Obviously there are communities I belong to, which I think I ultimately gravitate to because they involve causes that have an immediate impact on myself and the people I know.
Why does the Census matter to these communities?
It’s hard for me to say how the Census might matter to so many communities, but I can talk about how it impacts myself first, and hopefully extend that to other communities. Originally the Census didn’t really mean anything to me. I didn’t know what the impacts were, and I only really knew that there was a survey that comes out every 10 years. Now that I’ve learned more about the Census, I see how impactful it is. Recently I learned that leaders and politicians draw “lines” through redistricting that allows them to choose who their voters are basically. It made me realize why when I was 18 I felt like my vote was never needed and that no one would pay attention. Once I understood this and how it matters for redistricting and the Census, I realized that all these things were connected.
How do you think the Census could help fix the inequalities you see in your communities?
So I haven’t ever experienced the impacts of the Census myself, since the last census was 2010 and I was a lot younger back then. But I believe in the Census and how it can identify issues in communities that we can address and figure out solutions for. For example, I don’t know what educational attainment within the Asian community will look like in 2020, so being able to see that and understanding the inequalities within that can definitely help what issues we hope to target in the future.
