VOL 39 NO 27 | JULY 4 – JULY 10, 2020

PRSRT STD U.S. Postage Paid Permit No. 746 Seattle, WA

VOL 39 NO 27 JULY 4 – JULY 10, 2020 FREE 38 YEARS YOUR VOICE

Fire destroys Eng Suey Sun Plaza, $2.5M in loss Family: ‘We will rebuild’

Trans rights org founder Alex Lee on activism and importance of Black women leaders

By Ruth Bayang NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

Photo by John Odegard of the Seattle Fire Buff Society

SEATTLE — The Eng Suey Sun Plaza on 815 South Weller Street is no more. Fire ravaged through it on June 25, and on June 29, a demolition crew began to tear down what remained. Seattle fire investigators do not believe that fire was intentionally set. The estimated loss is $2.5 million.

Several people called 911 early on the morning of June 25 to report seeing flames and black smoke billowing from the second floor of the three-story building.

When firefighters got inside, they reported the ceiling and floor were becoming unstable and had to evacuate.

Seattle City Light turned off electricity to the building, Seattle Streetcar operators shut down the electrical grid that flows through 8th Avenue South, and Puget Sound Energy turned off natural gas to the building.

Despite firefighters’ efforts, the fire spread through the whole Flames shoot from the Eng Suey Sun Plaza on June 25

FIRE from 1

see FIRE on 10

Photo from Change.org petition for Kodama

KBCS’s director Kodama out, supporters dismayed

Alexander Lee (left) with Janetta Johnson (right), current executive director of the TGI Justice Project, as co-presenters on a panel at the Women's Funding Network conference in San Francisco, 2019

By Stacy Nguyen NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY “In my mind as a child, I knew that I was not like the other kids,” said Alexander Lee, 42. “I always had a sense of feeling out of place. There were a number of reasons for that. I grew up in a really white place. The first school I went to was a Lutheran school [in the 1980s], and my brothers and I were the only Asians in the whole school.”

The part of Orange County, California where Lee grew up wasn’t yet developed—though later it would become home to a robust, though mostly Christian, Asian community. Growing up in a Taiwanese and Chinese family among lots of white people, he and his brothers were constantly racially teased. “And usually, white kids didn’t even know they were doing it,” he said. “It was so pernicious, woven in the fabric of everything.”

Lee, who is trans, is the founder of the TGI Justice Project (TGIJP), a San Francisco Bay Area-based nonprofit that is currently Black trans women-led, fighting against human rights abuses, imprisonment, police violence, racism, poverty, and societal pressures. While its focus is on human rights abuses committed against transgender, gender variant, and intersex people (TGI) in California prisons, jails, and detention centers, its reach is becoming increasingly national, with it also doing some partnership work in Seattle.

Finding a place

which expired on June 30—was not renewed, citing budgetary constraints.

A petition on Change.org for Kodama to keep her job fell short of its goal of 2,500 signatures

Lee finished his undergrad at University of California, Berkeley in the late 1990s, at the same time he was coming out as trans. After years of being gender non-conforming, wearing male clothes, presenting masculine and identifying as lesbian, things still didn’t feel settled or at peace.

“I was still really unhappy, and there was something going on,” he said.

Lee hated when his appearance got pointed out by others—it made him really angry, so much so that he was getting into fights. He lost a lot of friends in the process.

“After graduating from college, I decided I needed to do something about this. So I started going to trans youth support groups.

And that’s when things really started to crack open for me.”

Lee met new people. His world, which had broadened immensely in college, became even more expansive. He started

see KODAMA on 4

see LEE on 12

Yuko Kodama (left) doing an interview

Supporters of Yuko Kodama are dismayed that the News and Public Affairs Director at 91.3 KBCS-FM is no longer on the job.

KBCS is affiliated with Bellevue College, and the college’s Board of Trustees holds the broadcast license for the radio station. Kodama’s contract—

■

412 Maynard Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98104 • t. 206.223.5559 • f. 206.223.0626 • editor@nwasianweekly.com • ads@nwasianweekly.com • www.nwasianweekly.com

2

asianweekly northwest

38 YEARS

JULY 4 – JULY 10, 2020

■ COMMUNITY NEWS

Asia Talks series highlights artists’ ways of coping with past and present moments

Photo by Jeff Kelley

They say that art imitates life. Yet it does more than that. Art explains life, and art helps us understand our lives. The Seattle Asian Art Museum’s Asia Talks series is an ongoing program that sits down with Asian and Asian diaspora writers, artists, and others connected to the Asian art world. Starting July 2 through July 30, in a joint effort with Kazbar Media, the Talks will feature interviews with three female artists whose experiences revolve heavily around migration, and who each may use their art to cope with the past and present political situations.

“We wanted to do a series with several artists who were born outside the United States, and then came here, so they were immigrants,” explains Sarah Loudon, Director of the Museum’s Gardner Center for Asian Art and Ideas. “It was interesting how it worked out because they all immigrated here as young adults and they all moved here to go to art school…that’s an interesting connection between them, and all three happen to be women.”

Promotional material for the July Asia Talks states that the artists will discuss “their art, heritage, and coping with the present moment.” According to Loudon, “the present moment” refers to “the social

Photo by Basil Kiwan

By Kai Curry NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

Helen Zughaib

Hung Liu

and political context we all find ourselves in—the artists’ not necessarily having access to their studios, to possibly being alone, or confined, the way most of us are.

It also has to do with the larger political context of difficulties that we’re having with issues of immigrants, and also with migrant workers and migration, that are addressed in these artists’ work, and also the Black Lives Matters movement— how they’re coping and working within that.”

The first artist to be featured, Shahzia

Sikander, was born in Pakistan and is now based in New York. “She deals with new applications of what she trained in —a traditional art form in Pakistan, the older court painting tradition, miniature painting…but with an eye to contemporary art and how that form might be opened up and become exploratory in a way of investigating a variety of issues,” Loudon describes. “She brings a lot of different perspectives to her work that inform that type of painting, American as well as Islamic, and of course feminist, and post-

colonial concerns.” Sikander earned her Bachelors of Fine Arts at the National College of Arts in Lahore, then a master’s at the Rhode Island School of Design.

While she has branched into different media, the work for which she became well known is dubbed “neo-miniature.”

Sikander’s work was shown at the Conversations with Tradition exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum in 2003.

The second artist in the July Asia Talks series, Helen Zughaib, has seen conflict before, in the form of the Syrian refugee crisis. She had been living with her family in Lebanon, when war necessitated their relocating to Greece, then France.

Zughaib ended up in the United States, where she studied at Syracuse University and then settled in Washington, D.C. “She’s someone who has been experiencing this unfolding refugee situation because her father was from Syria,” Loudon tells us. “The Syrian refugee situation has been going on for a while now...the impact is enormous in terms of millions of people.” Zughaib’s art demonstrates how art and life so often interconnect by the strong link she feels to the art of Jacob Lawrence, and his Migration series, with whom many Seattleites are familiar.

“She was so drawn in by that series that see ASIA TALKS on 9

KING COUNTY, WASHINGTON NOTICE TO BIDDERS Sealed bids will be received by the King County Procurement Services Section, electronically, at procurement.submittals@kingcounty.gov, until 2:00 PM of bid opening date for the following listed bids.

To download a document, go to our web page at: http://www.kingcounty.gov/procurement. King County encourages minority business enterprise participation. King County does not discriminate on the basis of disability in its programs, services, and employment opportunities for persons with disabilities.

1152-20-VLN OPENS: 07/09/2020 Juvenile Sexual Behavior Offender Polygraph Examiner 1111-20-VLN OPENS: 07/16/2020 Work Order Based Consulting Services for Transit Real Estate and Appraisal Services and Environmental Documentation for NEPA/SEPA Review - Supplemental to RFQ 1032-20-VLN 1050-20-GNJ OPENS: 07/22/2020 Nutrition and Weight Management, Mindful Eating and Movement Program Services Optional Pre-Proposal Conference: July 8th, 2020 at 09:30 AM via Skype or Telephone only Conference Call: 1-206-263-8114 Conference ID: 3967939# 1072-20-LCP OPENS: 07/28/2020 Printing Services – Route Books

asianweekly northwest

YOUR VOICE

JULY 4 – JULY 10, 2020

3

■ COMMUNITY NEWS Finding his people: Taky Kimura

By Mahlon Meyer NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

there’s something good that comes out of everything you run into,” he said.

After leaving the camp, the family found that all their property was gone.

They wandered around Seattle, turned away from hotels and boarding houses.

“My dad’s brother tramped the city for weeks, finally there was an old German guy that had a couple of rooms. My uncle sat on the doorstep every day for two weeks,” said Kimura’s son, Andy.

The landlord said people would “hate him” if he rented rooms to Japanese Americans.

Taky Kimura with his young son, Andy

Giving a speech in 1994, Taky Kimura looked at his son. His son had just reached across the table for a pitcher of water.

Kimura, the most prominent disciple of Bruce Lee, stared at his son sternly as if he had just launched a punch. But when his son poured a glass full of water and handed it to Kimura, he went on with his speech.

It was a small gesture, but it summed up a life of betrayals and vigilance, even by his own people—if he could figure out who they were.

Kimura’s life was spent searching for a tribe of his own, which he found in the martial arts community he fostered and grew. Now 96 and battling with dementia,

Taky Kimura at the graves of Bruce Lee and Lee’s son, Brandon

his son is continuing the journey.

In interviews with Northwest Asian Weekly, Kimura’s students, his son, and others helped piece together a life of searching, devotion, and hard work.

In the video of Kimura’s speech, given in England 26 years ago, he outlined the trajectory of his life.

Kimura was born in 1924 in Clallam Bay. When he was growing up, his family was the only non-white residents of the town.

“I thought I was white until I was 15,

but my mother and my father told me we were second-class citizens. They said, don’t make a lot of noise,” he said.

One day before he would have graduated from high school, the Kimura family was sent to one of the many concentration camps for Japanese Americans. He said he was not bitter.

“I tell my son, who is 22 years old now, that any time you come up against something that is a very bad experience for you, you have to muster up enough courage and foresight to remember that

Andy Kimura and Taky Kimura

“But my uncle promised we’d keep it clean and wouldn’t cause any problems,” said Andy Kimura.

The family was eventually able to purchase a small grocery store from an older Greek woman, to start again.

But Taky Kimura, at 38, described himself as a “beaten man.”

He described going into restaurants or see KIMURA on 9

4

asianweekly northwest

JULY 4 – JULY 10, 2020

■ CALENDAR JUL

512 First Ave. S., Seattle Tue-Sat 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m.

First Thursdays 11 a.m.- 8 p.m. artxchange.org

7

18

JUL 7, AUG 4, SEP 1, OCT 6, NOV 3, DEC 1

2020 VIRTUAL SEATTLE BON ODORI 4 p.m. youtube.com/seattlebonodori

FREE HEALTH SCREENINGS Uwajimaya 9 a.m.

2-30 SEATTLE DANCE COLLECTIVE’S “CONTINUUM: BRIDGING THE DISTANCE” Free online broadcast seattledancecollective.org

THROUGH AUGUST 16

TADAIMA! A COMMUNITY VIRTUAL PILGRIMAGE 2 p.m.

Register at jampilgrimages.com/ virtualpilgrimageregistration

THROUGH JULY 11

EXHIBITION, “CONTEMPORARY CAMBODIA” ArtXchange Gallery,

KODAMA from 1

by June 30. It said, “Yuko is a critical voice in our local media market and her separation from KBCS will deal a blow to the station's ability to support its mission … Her stories, along with those of her volunteer/student news team often focus on the most underserved populations in our community, and people that the commercial media landscape fails to represent.”

“As a former manager, I know it will be easy during this COVID-19 time to sweep this under the ‘Mandatory Big Cut Budget’ excuse, but that gets very complicated when the staff are saying that they were not even asked to furlough or otherwise shift and reposition,” said Winona Hauge, a supporter and volunteer programmer for two weekly radio shows on KBCS. Hauge said Kodama and her staff were blindsided.

“The news department has been slowly dismantled by [Bellevue College’s] Institutional Advancement department— the same department that recently saw the college president and the VP of IA fired for the debasement of the Japanese mural.”

38 YEARS

■ NATIONAL NEWS

APIs Duckworth and Yang could join team Biden Two Asian Americans could potentially join Joe Biden if he wins the White House.

A working mother of two, Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois was the first U.S. senator to give birth while in office and the first to bring her baby onto the Senate floor.

Now, she’s reportedly being considered as the running mate for the presumptive Democratic nominee. If selected, the former Army lieutenant colonel, who lost both of her legs during combat duty in Iraq, would be the first Asian American and the first woman of color on the presidential ticket of one of two major parties.

Born in Bangkok to an American father and a Thai mother, Duckworth is among more than one dozen women being considered to join Biden’s ticket—and among a smaller group asked to submit documents for vetting. An op-ed in the New York Times last week called Duckworth, “the anti-Trump, the antidote to the ugliness he revels in and the cynicism he stokes.”

“She projects a combination of confidence and modesty, of toughness and warmth, that’s rare— and that’s a tonic in these toxic times.”

Joel Benenson, a chief strategist for President

Joe Biden

Joe Biden

Joe Biden

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaigns, said, “Tammy Duckworth has some policy chops. She is obviously someone who has been prominent enough to speak at the last three Democratic conventions. She served in the House, she won a Senate seat, and she brings credentials around armed services and veterans. She is center left, and you know I think that is where Biden is.”

Meanwhile, one time Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang could have a role in Biden’s cabinet.

In an interview on June 29 with TIME 100 Talks virtual event, Yang said, “We’ve had general conversations about the fact that Joe would like me to play a role and be helpful, yes. I’m driven to help Joe win. And I think that we’re going to need all hands on deck to help clean up the historic crises that were in the midst of.” 

Kodama is Japanese American. The decision not to renew her contract comes only a short time after Bellevue College removed its president, Dr. Jerry Weber, in March, along with VP of Advancement, Dr. Gayle Barge, following outrage over the defacement of a mural of the Japanese American incarceration.

The Change.org petition said that Kodama is one of very few women and people of color in a leadership news director role in the media industry.

Kodama earned her bachelor’s from Lewis and Clark College, and her master’s from the University of Washington.

She placed third in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism’s 2017 Katherine Schneider Journalism Award for Excellence in Reporting, and her work has been featured on National Public Radio. Kodama has been with KBCS since 2008, first as a producer, then as operations director.

“Kodama’s voice is vital to our healing community and country. Reconsidering Yuko’s contract would be one step in demonstrating the college’s claim to be dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion.” 

Lake View Cemetery Seattle’s Pioneer Cemetery Est. 1872 An Independent, Non-Profit Association

Featuring

Traditional Side-by-Side Monument Properties

206-322-1582

1554 15th Ave East

(North Capitol Hill)

View the solution on page 10

ASSUNTA NG

Account Executives

JOHN LIU

rebecca@nwasianweekly.com

RUTH BAYANG

kelly@nwasianweekly.com

Publisher assunta@nwasianweekly.com Associate Publisher john@nwasianweekly.com Editor editor@nwasianweekly.com

HAN BUI Layout & Web Editor han@nwasianweekly.com

REBECCA IP KELLY LIAO JOHN LIU

john@nwasianweekly.com

GEORGE HIRA

ghira@nwasianweekly.com

The only weekly English-language newspaper serving Washington’s Asian community. The NW Asian Weekly has one simple goal: “To empower the Asian community.”

The Editorial Board reserves the right to reject any advertisement, letter or article.

Subscriptions cost $40 for 52 weeks of the NW Asian Weekly and $30 for 52 weeks of the Seattle Chinese Post. The NW Asian Weekly owns the copyright for all its content. All rights reserved. No part of this paper may be reprinted without permission.

412 Maynard Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98104 • t. 206.223.5559 editor@nwasianweekly.com • ads@nwasianweekly.com • www.nwasianweekly.com

YOUR VOICE

JULY 4 – JULY 10, 2020

asianweekly northwest

5

6

asianweekly northwest

38 YEARS

JULY 4 – JULY 10, 2020

■ PUBLISHER’S BLOG

A fire destroyed dreams, hopes, and precious history Eng Suey Sun Plaza’s tenants are in shock

By Assunta Ng NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY Photos by George Liu/NWAW

If buildings could talk, Eng Suey Sun Plaza would tell you hundreds of stories of triumph and defeat, perseverance and struggles, and even hope and hopelessness. But a fire destroyed many dreams on June 25. What the community has lost is still too early to estimate.

When the plaza was built in 1989, there were few new buildings in the Chinatown International District (ID). It was a unique commercial building with 24 parking spots, an important asset in the ID. It also housed many diverse and pioneering businesses, owned by refugees and immigrants from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

A wall from the plaza’s top floor fell to the ground

Multi-million-dollar tenants to momand-pop stores “My 30 years of hard work disappeared,” said Steve Le, owner of Sweet & Fresh Bakery, when he stood watching firefighters spray water on the fire and smoke.

He opened his 800-square-foot bakery when the building was barely completed. A few days before the fire, he bought paint, planning to reopen in July after closing in March due to the pandemic. With the fire now, he has some tough decisions to make.

“Everyone can agree, these are already difficult times,” said another tenant, Nigel Lo, CEO of Kin On Health Care Center. “When we thought we were adapting to the ‘new normal,’ we are faced with more adversity.” Kin On’s home care division has been located inside the plaza for over two decades.

“We have no words when we and other business owners saw what the fire did to our business,” said Winnie Che, president of Greenland Inc., which makes nutritional drinks outside Seattle, with headquarters inside the Eng building since 1992. Che said she and many other business owners just cried together.

The ID’s first Chinese American chiropractor, the late Dr. Austin Chan, signed early on as a tenant. Today, his sons Michael and Brian are both chiropractors and running the clinic, Back & Neck Pain Center. The question for the sons is, would they want to continue their practice in the ID after some of their expensive equipment was destroyed, including an X-ray machine that costs over $80,000?

When the plaza first opened, the now-defunct Washington First International Bank was the first big tenant.

It was also the first commercial bank started by Chinese Americans in Washington state. (The bank moved to 7th Avenue South in the early 2000s, then closed, and was later sold to East West Bank.)

While there were mom-and-pop businesses, there were also established businesses such as the Herrmann Law Office, which hired former justices in the office.

Youth play an active role Fighting back tears, Hengda Li, founder of the Hengda Dance Academy, said hundreds of students traveled as far as Tacoma, Vancouver B.C., and Port Angeles to learn Chinese dance and ballet.

“The studio has practically raised my two children,” Li said. Leah, Li’s daughter, is an accomplished dancer.

Parents echoed the same sentiments. One parent said, “There were so many memories at the studio.”

Also, the studio was used for rehearsals for dance performances at Meydenbauer Center, McCaw Hall, and other big venues, despite the school having another location in Bellevue.

Li still remembers when he built the school 23 years ago, he did all the remodeling by himself. He added to his investment when water from upstairs leaked down to his 1,100-square-foot space several years ago. A whole new dance floor, A-V system, mirrors, costumes, and lots of props and tools were stored inside the studio.

A fire truck sprays water on the building on June 25

There was also the Waters Academy, a tutorial center for math and science, and SAT preparation, founded in 2013. About 200 students enrolled in the school, from kindergarten to first-year college students.

“It’s sad and unfortunate,” said founder Dr. Kwan Leung Chan. “We have some hard-working students who have improved so much that they skipped a grade after studying with the program for a year. Some even finished the whole high school math program when they were still in middle school.”

Since the school’s closure on March 15, Chan has been offering classes online. “It is much harder to do online classes for grade school kids.”

The plaza’s role When the plaza initially opened, it stirred up excitement in the ID and among all the Eng Family Associations nationwide.

Many local community leaders and national Eng officials came to Seattle for its grand opening. It was a major achievement for the Association’s 110-year history. I was there also.

Seven chapters in the country, including Eng’s headquarters, had donated money to build the plaza. Most of Seattle’s Chinese family associations rent a small space as their headquarters. What the Engs did, probably inspired other associations to buy property and establish their headquarters, such as Soo Yuen Benevolent Association, Lee Family Association, and Yee Family Association. This is significant because some associations which didn’t own property, like the Lockes, lost their visibility and even shut down their doors in the ID later.

Several businesses have told us that the Eng Family Association rarely increased rent over the past three decades, which helped them to sustain their business better.

Stay in the ID? “Yes, we will stay in Chinatown,” said Nora, Austin Chan’s widow.

“My sons said dad loved Chinatown and they wanted to practice here even though it’s not our own property.” The Chan family owns other clinics outside of the ID. Nora, an ID resident, said she is comforted by phone calls and support from friends after they found out about the fire.

Le of Sweet & Fresh Bakery said he can’t afford to open another bakery.

“The insurance company said the most it can pay out is $110,000. That’s hardly enough to buy all the equipment, such as a mixer, oven, and walk-in cooler. Those items cost over $110,000.” He said he will just retire.

Firefighters took a defensive strategy, to prevent flames from spreading to other buildings

When asked if Che of Greenland would return, she paused.

“Two years ago, the homeless broke the door and robbed our company of nice decorations, gift cards and other valuables, and even ate in here.” Although she installed fences and more locks, the robbers came back a month later. Her family called the police, but they never showed up, she said. She doesn’t know yet if she would be back to ID. But many of her customers like to come to ID to pick up their orders.

Other businesses have been broken into, too, including the bakery, Waters Academy, Hoover Law Group, and Kin On’s home care network. Kwan Leung Chen of Waters Academy told us, “Yes, we’d like to stay in Chinatown.” “[We] will be exploring various options that will provide a safer environment to work in,” said Lo of Kin On. “We have had at least two break-ins in the Chinatown office this year.” Laptops and other equipment were stolen. Lo said it seemed to be better when the homeless camps nearby were removed a couple of months ago. The home care team will be running the programs from its Bellevue office, while maintaining a presence in the ID.

Lost historical records While interviewing one of the former donors for the building, Tuck Eng was wondering if any of the historical records and photos of the Eng Family Association could have been saved.

“My family’s and father’s portrait were there,” said Tuck.

“He’s a major donor. He donated at least $10,000. But I don’t have a copy of the photo.” The Association has stored over “100 years of stuff” of our ancestors, Tuck said.

“We don’t know if we are able to save them after the fire and with water marks on them,” said builder manager Nelson Eng, 83, early on Sunday.

Although many tenants still wish to go inside and retrieve their property, Eng said the city decided it was too dangerous to enter. With the sudden demolition of the building, the tenants never had a chance to save their treasures, because everything they have worked for, has now been reduced to rubble.  Assunta can be reached at assunta@nwasianweekly.com.

asianweekly northwest

YOUR VOICE

JULY 4 – JULY 10, 2020

■ GRADUATION

7

Class of 2020: Outstanding graduates Minkyu Jeon graduated from Bellevue College’s Spring Quarter at the age of 17, and got accepted into the University of Washington Foster School of Business.

FRANKLIN HIGH SCHOOL

SEATTLE UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

Curtis Chinn will be attending the University of Washington Bothell in the fall. He will be studying mechanical engineering.

Joanna Lee will be attending the University of California, Davis. She is going to study Biochemistry.

EDMONDS COLLEGE

NEWPORT HIGH SCHOOL

Bahareh Rouhijahromi moved to the United States in 2016 to escape religious persecution in Iran. She plans to transfer to University of Washington Bothell in the fall to earn a bachelor’s degree in accounting.

BELLEVUE COLLEGE

Edison Wong delivered the commencement speech for his school’s graduation ceremony, his last as class president.

He will be attending the University of Washington Foster School of Business.

Hayden Tran arrived in the United States from Vietnam in 2017. He has served as president of the college’s Phi Theta Kappa chapter and as executive officer for clubs in the student government. He is going to UCLA this fall.

Jion Yi graduated with a major in International Studies and Informatics.

She immigrated to the United States from South Korea when she was 13, barely speaking any English. Yi will start her first full-time job as a security analyst in Chicago.

Yue Zhang just graduated from Seattle University and is a candidate for the University of Washington Foster School of Business Master of Professional Accounting Program. She transferred from Bellevue College, where she was a tutor and took the multicultural consulting course where students work with minority- and women-led enterprises.

Devin Robichaux, Civil and Environmental Engineering major, is the winner of the Ed McNulty Award (a College of Science and Engineering award named for its former Dean).

Jinhua Johnson just graduated from Bellevue College with a bachelor’s degree in accounting with honors. She got accepted to the master’s program at the University of Washington.

CONGRATS, EDISON! Edison was President of his class with 450+ students for 4 years in a row at Newport High School. He is such a hard working, loving and inclusive leader that he earned his class’ vote, trust and respect for 4 years. We trust he’ll continue his love of service into his college and professional career.

We’re super proud that he will be attending the University of Washington and Foster Business School.

Congratulations Edison! We love you!

Parents James and Tyra Wong with Edison

asianweekly northwest

8

JULY 4 – JULY 10, 2020

38 YEARS

Weekly Specials J U L Y 1 - 7, 2 0 2 0

WHITE PRAWNS

Fresh!

26/30 Count. Farm Raised. Previously frozen. Great for shrimp cocktail!

CHICKEN LEG QUARTERS

.99 lb

6.99 lb

CJ Food (480 g)

CALIFORNIA ROLL

Sweet!

6.49

3.99 lb

KOREAN BBQ SAUCE

LYCHEE

8 pc

Assorted Flavors

3.29

Nissin (3.77 oz)

RAOH UMAMI INSTANT RAMEN

Samyang (600 g) Frozen

Magic Pop (30 g)

SEAWEED CRISPS

Assorted Flavors

Assorted Flavors

1.69

1.59

HOT CHICKEN FLAVOR GYOZA

3.99

To see all of our weekly specials, visit uwajimaya.com seattle

•

bellevue

•

renton

•

beaverton

•

uwajimaya.com

LOVE GOES THE DISTANCE

Just because we’re apart doesn’t mean we can’t stay connected.

Caring for our family and friends is still as important as ever.

So make time to connect, help plan out the medical care they need, and remind each other to stay safe and healthy.

Because staying connected is another way to say “I love you.”

Let AARP help. For tips and resources during COVID-19, visit aarp.org/coronavirus

YOUR VOICE

JULY 4 – JULY 10, 2020

KIMURA from 3 barbershops and being ignored for hours until he got up the courage to walk out. He couldn’t get a job.

And he saw friends who fared much worse.

Kimura started studying judo, to help with his confidence, and through a friend met Bruce Lee.

Lifting another up Kimura was much older than the other students Lee was teaching. But he played a pivotal role: he listened, he encouraged, and he was vulnerable.

Letters written by Lee throughout his life, as collected in the book, “Letters of the Dragon,” show that he opened up about his dreams, his glories in Hollywood, and his disappointments, to only one person.

“It was to Taky Kimura that Bruce Lee opened himself up more as a human being,” wrote David Tadman, author of another book of Lee’s letters, “Regards from the Dragon,” in an email. “He taught me how to listen.” Tadman was also a lifetime student of both.

Kimura had a knack for supporting Lee, both emotionally and financially. Describing one instance in which Lee hit him in the face by mistake in front of the whole class, Kimura explained that he accepted blame for it.

“The doctor admonished me and said, ‘You should be wearing a mask for such a dangerous thing,’” he said.

“And Bruce said, ‘You moved,’ and I didn’t think I moved and I wasn’t going to tell him I didn’t move so I said, ‘Well, I guess I did.’”

Lee had hit him in his glasses, shattering them.

At the same time, Kimura kept the school that he had encouraged Lee to start, going when Lee went to California to break into the movie business.

“Some of my friends, they thought I was crazy doing all this work and not keeping a penny for myself, but I just felt that here’s a man who came along and helped me to revive confidence in myself and make me feel I’m as good as anyone else, that I’m able to reach the potential I’m capable of, so I felt that I owed him something and Bruce did a lot of things for a lot of people,” said Kimura.

But in the end, it was not clear who had done more for

ASIA TALKS from 2 she sat and looked at it for several hours, and then began a Syrian migration series of paintings,” Loudon explains.

The third and final artist of the July series, Hung Liu, also approaches the past and the present, and how we meld both to find our place and our meaning in the world. Originally trained as a Social Realist mural painter, Liu lived through the Maoist Chinese Cultural Revolution of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Now working out of Oakland, Liu developed

TAITUNG R E S TA U R A N T

Established in 1935

• Catering • Cocktails • Valet parking • Banquet facilities Hours Sun.-Thurs. 10 a.m.-11 p.m.

Fri.-Sat. 10 a.m. - 1:30 a.m.

655 S. King St. Seattle 206-622-7714 or 622-7372

asianweekly northwest

whom, who was the one who had actually lifted the other up.

Resistance and acceptance Kimura’s son saw this spirit of self-sacrifice growing up and he resented it.

His dad had always been there for him, he said. He would have night terrors when he was young, “like a waking dream.” His father, after a long day at the grocery store and then teaching classes at night, would carry him up the hills to the hospital in the middle of the night.

But Kimura’s devotion to his mission, which often meant helping strangers, was galling to Andy Kimura—it made him rebel against the whole world of martial arts.

“There was a time when I didn’t want to have anything to do with it, because it took my dad away from me,” he said.

“He forgot me at school so many times.”

For anyone else, however, Kimura was a godsend.

“No matter how busy he was, he always made the time for anyone who needed his attention and guidance,” said Tadman.

Things changed for Andy Kimura when he was 15 years old. He got into a fight at Nathan Hale High School. It was part of a major race riot that had been set off by several students telling lies. In trying to defend his friends, he suddenly faced a mob of students.

Growing up around his father, and in his father’s studio, he had always thought of the techniques as “play.”

But suddenly they became serious.

He waded through the crowd, repelling attackers. He became the center of a circle of students pummeling him.

He fought back, throwing off dozens. But he ended up in a ditch after being hit in the temple with a brick. The next day, he stayed out of school, and a friend told him that about 30 students showed up with guns to kill him.

However, the reaction that had the greatest impact came from his father.

“I told him when I came home what had happened. His first question was, ‘Are you okay?’ Then he asked, ‘Did you win?’”

He would eventually go on to become his father’s top pupil and finally take over the Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute,

her own style that draws inspiration from old photographs, starting with photographs of Chinese “street people, laborers, prostitutes, and so on,” says Loudon. “More recently, she’s been involved in painting a migration series that is based on photographs by Dorothea Lange of the migration from the Dust Bowl out to California.” Loudon says that Liu was “moved by” Lange’s work because of “her own family’s experiences, the difficult situations that they lived through.” Liu identifies with the citizens in Lange’s photos.

9

founded by Bruce Lee.

A legacy Kimura was a father figure to many.

Matt Emery, who met him relatively late in his career, teared up when talking about Kimura.

Emery, who now runs his own martial arts studio in Los Angeles, teaches hundreds of children. He explains to them that each move, each punch, each style of combat, is a tribute to a teacher from the past, particularly Kimura.

As he demonstrated a series of whipping punches over a Zoom class to a dozen small children recently, he stressed that these were taught by Kimura and embodied his particular character and mission.

“It is very important in life to have a mentor,” he said.

“Sigung Taky Kimura will hold your hand with both of his hands, look you in the eye, and communicate with you as if you have been friends forever,” he said using a title of veneration.

Sue Kay, 75, a former student, said she remembered his “solid, muscular, and strong forearms” as he sparred with her personally.

“He taught me self defense before there were self defense classes for women!” she said in an email.

Bill Seng, a former student from Germany, talked about Kimura and his son taking the time to watch the Bruce Lee movie, “Enter the Dragon,” with him at his home.

Kimura, he said, “created an atmosphere of family and friendship and genuine humbleness,” he said.

Kimura always promoted Bruce Lee. But it was sometimes with a wry, sardonic humor that perhaps explains why Lee liked him so much.

During one exhibition in California, Lee arranged for Kimura to join him as a sparring partner. A video shows Lee wearing a black blindfold and knocking down Kimura several times, whether by design or accident.

But Kimura was always appreciative.

“I’d get a free ticket,” he said. “So I’d get to go down to California for free—and get beaten up in the process.”  Mahlon can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.

“She could see one of them as being just like her grandmother.”

Each artist will be interviewed by Laila Kazmi of Kazbar Media. The July Talks are part of the Museum’s efforts to “create a new path forward,” as Loudon describes, during this challenging time. A series called Asia Arts in Action: Makers’ Night will continue in September with a local Tibetan American cartoonist and animator, Tenzing Dorjee, and also in the fall, the Asian Art Museum is looking forward to a series titled Color in Asian Art: Materials and Meanings. “Staying

engaged online is the best thing we can do just now,” says Loudon.  The July Asia Talks are free and will be available via Zoom. To learn more and sign up, visit SAM’s website at seattleartmuseum.org/visit/calendar/ events?EventId=69824.

Kai can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.

10

asianweekly northwest

JULY 4 – JULY 10, 2020

38 YEARS

CLASSIFIEDS EMPLOYMENT EMPLOYMENT EMPLOYMENT KING COUNTY HEARING EXAMINER’S OFFICE Legislative Secretary II $59,909 - $80,572 Annually Closes: July 16, 2020 at 11:59 pm The King County Hearing Examiner’s Office is seeking to fill a Legislative Secretary II position. This is a full-time, hourly, overtime eligible, at-will position. The work schedule is Monday through Friday, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. Under the current Covid-19 directives, almost all our operations are being conducted remotely.

The Legislative Secretary II position contributes to the King County Hearing Examiner’s Office by performing a variety of administrative support functions. The incumbent will have the opportunity to showcase their ability to multitask and prioritize tasks, excellent time management skills, well-developed organizational skills, attention to detail, great verbal and written communication skills, and professional discretion in an environment dedicated to serving the public’s needs.

NOTICE

KCHA will accept Bids from Qualified General Contractors for the Birch Creek – Exterior Painting Project located in Kent, WA. See website for details at www.kcha.org/business/construction/open/ KCHA will accept Bids from Qualified General Contractors for the Hidden – Roof Replacement Project located in Bellevue, WA. See website for details at www.kcha.org/business/construction/open/

We seek a detail-oriented, customer-focused, flexible, and self-motivated individual who works well with other team members to support office operations. Focusing on superior service, the successful candidate will coordinate and support meetings and hearings, draft and proof documents, record important case data, and track and organize work, all within a web-hosted database environment.

HOW TO APPLY: To apply and view a complete job announcement and apply, go to www.kingcounty.gov/jobs A King County application is required to be considered for this opportunity. Interested applicants must complete the supplemental questions and submit a resume and letter of interest with your application.

ARE YOU BEHIND $10k OR MORE ON YOUR TAXES? Stop wage & bank levies, liens & audits, unfiled tax returns, payroll issues, & resolve tax debt FAST. Call 888-315-2645.

ATTENTION: OXYGEN USERS. Gain freedom with a Portable Oxygen Concentrator! No more heavy tanks & refills! Guaranteed lowest prices. Call the Oxygen Concentrator store: 844-495-7230.

Advertize in our Service Directory below Just $10 a week! Minimum: 12 weeks for $120.

Call John at 206-2230623 for more info.

BOY SCOUT COMPENSATION FUND. Anyone that was inappropriately touched by a Scout leader deserves justice & financial compensation! Victims may be eligible for a significant cash settlement. Time to file is limited. Call Now! 833-545-0824.

DONATE YOUR CAR TO CHARITY. Receive maximum value of write off for your taxes. Running or not! All conditions

Subscribe to the Northwest Asian Weekly $40 for one year.

Name_________________________ Address _______________________ City __________________State____ Zip Code ______________________ Phone ________________________ Mail to: NW Asian Weekly 412 Maynard Ave. S. Seattle, WA 98104 or call 206-223-0623

accepted. Free pickup. Call for details, 855-635-4229.

ELIMINATE GUTTER CLEANING FOREVER! LeafFilter, the most advanced debris-blocking gutter protection.

Schedule a FREE LeafFilter estimate today. 15% off Entire Purchase. 10% Senior & Military Discounts. Call 1-888-3601582.

SERVICE DIRECTORY HONG LAW FIRM, PLLC 206-856-8291  honglegal@gmail.com

Bankruptcy Chapter 7  Personal Injury Landlord-Tenant  Simple Wills

Frank S. Hong, A�orney at Law avvo.com

structure—over 20,000 square feet—eventually causing the roof to collapse, as well as sections of the third floor.

Building manager Nelson Eng, 83, and board member of the Eng Family Association said, “City engineers decided it was too dangerous not to demolish it.” He added, “We plan to rebuild.”

Eng said it was a decision by the Seattle Fire Department and the insurance company to tear down the building. A member of the demolition crew, Charter Construction, said, “It’s an emergency lifesaving demolition.” A structural engineer from the Fire Department feared that pieces of the building could fall off and hit someone on the street.

“It was a shock,” said John Eng, the contractor in charge of construction of the building. “It didn’t have sprinklers because it wasn’t required (when it was built).... We just followed the city’s code.”

“The building was a landmark at the time,” said Francis Wong, vice president of the Eng Family Association.

Wong’s Chinese last name is Eng. “The purpose to have the building was to keep Chinese traditions,” he said. It was Wayne Eng’s idea to have a

» PERSONAL INJURY

» WRONGFUL DEATH

» AIRLINE DISASTERS

» DOG BITES

» BICYCLE ACCIDENTS

» PEDESTRIAN ACCIDENTS

Mandarin, Cantonese & Korean Interpreter available

206-625-9104

WEBSITE: HLG.LAWYER

building for the Family Association.

Nelson Eng said the Eng Family Association did not have adequate insurance to cover their losses.

“We never thought that there would be a fire.” Eng told the Northwest Asian Weekly that all of the tenants were required to carry their own insurance as part of the lease agreement.

“As you can imagine, there’s much that money can’t replace,” said Darryl Eng, a family member. “My cousin (John Eng) built that building for the Family Association in the 1980s. Glad my folks and many of the elders have passed on now so they wouldn’t have to see this. But the one’s still [alive], it’s very heartbreaking for them and they don’t have a place to gather now.”

The structure housed 11 businesses, including the Eng Family Association Headquarters, Kin On Home Care, Sweet & Fresh Bakery, a chiropractor, Shen & Company accounting firm, Suey Sing Tong, Chinese United Association, Hengda Dance Academy & Northwest Wushu, Hoover Law Firm, True North Land Surveying Co., and Waters Academy.

Tianyuan Li of Northwest Wushu said insurance won’t cover any of his losses. Though he wasn’t a long time

tenant, he rented space in the building for several hours a month. His GoFundMe fundraiser raised $10,000 in one day.

“I don’t want to shut the business down permanently, because it is my livelihood and it would be giving up on my dream.”

The Association raised funds for construction of the building from seven major chapters of the Eng Associations across the United States. It didn’t raise enough so the Association formed a local Eng and Eng Company for local members to raise the remaining funds to build what is now the destroyed plaza.

The Eng members have met once since the fire, to discuss next steps.

There are more than 1,000 Engs in the Seattle area, said Nelson Eng. “We want to have a building to attract them to come and mingle, and to get acquainted with one another, to have a place for social activities and mutual understanding, to learn our own culture and so on.”  Ruth can be reached at editor@nwasianweekly.com.

SOLUTION from SUDOKU on page 4.

UPICK We pick cherries. www.thompsonsfarm.com

asianweekly northwest

YOUR VOICE

JULY 4 – JULY 10, 2020

■ ASTROLOGY

11

Predictions and advice for the week of July 4–July 10, 2020

By Sun Lee Chang

Rat — Remember that even the strong can stumble, but true strength pushes you to get up and keep going.

Dragon — You are not impressed with someone who hides the ball. Trust your instincts regarding those who would do so.

Monkey — There is no harm in having a sound back-up plan. Best case scenario, you won’t need it.

Ox — Instead of being motivated by guilt, you would rather be proactive and be guided by a sense of responsibility.

Snake — If the information you are trying to convey is complicated, utilize some visual aids.

Rooster — Is there too much shifting going on?

Avoid major moves while things are settling down.

Tiger — Don’t paint the whole picture with the same brush. There are nuances that require specialized treatment.

Horse — Don’t make a change for change’s sake. The next step should be a conscious one towards a better situation.

Dog — You are usually quite attentive to your partner’s needs. However, don’t forget to pay attention to your own.

Rabbit — Putting together two things that don’t fit might work out temporarily, but the long-term prospects are questionable.

Goat — Is there rumbling from a sector that you cannot ignore? Look closely as you may have missed something.

Pig — Worried about something that you don’t have much expertise in? Consider consulting a knowledgeable source.

WHAT’S YOUR ANIMAL SIGN? RAT 1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008, 2020 OX 1913, 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009 TIGER 1914, 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010 RABBIT 1915, 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011 DRAGON 1916, 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012 SNAKE 1917, 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013 HORSE 1918, 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2014 GOAT 1919, 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015 MONKEY 1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016 ROOSTER 1921, 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017 DOG 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, 2018 PIG 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019

*The year ends on the first new moon of the following year. For those born in January and February, please take care when determining your sign.

FREON WANTED: We pay $$$ for cylinders & cans. R12 R500 R11 R113 R114. Convenient. Certified Professionals. Call 312779-0402 or visit RefrigerantFinders.com

AD-ORCA-Lift-NW-Asian-Weekly-ENG-4.75x7.5-060420.pdf

1

6/11/20

10:29 AM

Pay less for your ride.

Low-income fares available.

See if you qualify:

1-800-756-5437 | soundtransit.org/orcalift

Interpreter 1-800-823-9230 Español Tagalog

For more information, please call 1-888-889-6368 / TTY Relay: 711

KING COUNTY, WASHINGTON NOTICE TO PROPOSERS Proposals will be received for E00672E20, Work Order Architectural Services For Solid Waste Division; by the King County Procurement and Payables Section, 3rd Floor, 401 Fifth Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104, until 12:00 PM on July 21, 2020.

There is a 10% minimum requirement for King County Certified Small Contractor and Supplier (SCS) firms on this contract.

Total Estimated Price: $1,000,000 All solicitation documents are published at: https:// procurement.kingcounty.gov/procurement_ovr/login. aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fprocurement_ovr%2fdefault.aspx Contact: Taylor Lee, talee@kingcounty.gov, 206-263-3173

12

asianweekly northwest

LEE from 1 contextualizing his own problems and issues within a broader movement. He started to understand that he had privilege.

In the late 1990s, in the San Francisco area, being trans meant being political.

There was little non-political or neutral identity for trans folks because their very existence prompted these political questions everywhere they went.

At the time, organizations like GLBT Historical Society still hadn’t put the T in their name. Transgender folks were largely isolated and invisible—the small community itself splintered and not yet organized.

Lee said that, at the time, the San Francisco Police Department itself was responsible for 50% of hate crimes against trans people. (As recently as in 2018 though, FBI figures showed that the trans community saw a general hate crime increase of 42% over the previous year in San Francisco.)

Through trans support groups at LYRIC, Lee eventually got linked up volunteering at TransAction, a group that has sinced closed, but was dedicated to combatting police violence against the transgender community.

“These [kinds of] organizations at the time were collecting statistics, tracking hate violence, and putting money and time toward that effort,” said Lee. “My experience with TransAction informed my wanting to go to law school. Through them, I met lawyers and was really inspired by what they were doing. I really liked how they were very strategic and deliberate in moving power and confronting power.

I liked how they actually created leverage working with community members, across different communities, to broadbased coalitions to get policy wins.”

Lee soaked up the information and the mentorship, finding TransAction’s approach to often be very smart.

But other times, it was often very white.

Also, in the beginning days of the group, Lee said that about 75% of group members were not trans. Members were part of the larger queer community, mostly LGB (lesbian, gay, bisexual), thus came from a particular political and social point of view.

“These were people who cared about the issues and sort of understood these things in an abstract, academic way—but not in a personal way.”

Coming out

38 YEARS

JULY 4 – JULY 10, 2020

Lee’s parents are unique in that they are older than a lot of his peers’ parents. His parents are not baby boomers, but pre-boomers. They lived in Taiwan while it was still under Japanese colonization and militarization. During World War II, Taiwanese suffered mass casualties while serving in the Japanese armed forces as well as economic crisis as a result of Allied bomb raids. After the war, Taiwan’s industrial and agricultural output dropped severely.

Lee’s parents were war refugees, coming to the United States in the early 1960s, among some of the earliest of second wave immigrants. They settled in Orange County, in what is, today, an upper-middle class and politically conservative part of Southern California.

“My parents are Christians and very proud of talking about being Christians,” said Lee. “Because of their experience of World War II and coming from humble backgrounds, they have this mentality that has an incredible emphasis on material success.”

From the beginning, Lee and his brothers were told they were all going to be doctors, they were all going to play the piano, and they were all going to Chinese school on the weekends.

“There was the line of, ‘We’re gonna tell you what to do because we know best, and this is how to be successful in America when you start with very little.’”

Back then, Lee was seen as and presenting as female. So during a time when his parents were telling him who and what he had to be, he was contending with a fundamental discomfort of being in his body.

“The school I went to had a very strict dress code. Girls had to wear dresses. And I remember just hating every minute of being in these dresses, every single day. I would get them dirty, rip them off. I just hated it all the time—and that constant feeling of, ‘This is wrong, this is wrong,’ all the time, was wearing on me quite a bit.”

From a young age, Lee identified as lesbian, initially having a limited concept of being trans. His adolescence was isolating. In his community, there were no groups, no other kids or adults to talk to.

“So it was lonely, and I didn’t have guidance or insight into how to come out [as a lesbian] to my parents,” he said. “So I did it in a very messy way. I wrote about it in a college entrance essay. My mom found it.”

His mom also read it, which led to a huge argument in the household.

“I screamed at them, for a long time. My mom was crying. My dad was like, ‘I’m not having this,’ and he left the room.”

And the family just didn’t talk about it anymore for a while after that.

“Classic Asian fashion. Huge blow up— and then tension that no one talked about.”

The Tenderloin

As TransAction became more influential in its work, its members were getting more and more into the daily lives of trans women of color—Black women.

Its work was concentrated in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District, downtown.

The Tenderloin is 50 square blocks, with housing almost entirely made up of single-room occupancy studios and one-bedrooms—former hotels.

In 1966, the area was wracked by the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, the genesis of which stemmed from Compton’s Cafeteria staff calling the police on the trans women of color who tended to congregate in the cafeterias in evenings because they were banned from gay bars due to transphobia.

The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot preceded Stonewall by three years and kicked off transgender activism in San Francisco.

In the late 1970s, scores of Southeast Asian refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos would stuff families of four or more into Tenderloin studios. “[The Tenderloin is] extremely racially diverse—it’s incredibly gender identity and sexually diverse,” said Lee. “However, it is not income diverse. People tend to be low-income. That is where the heart of the trans community still is.”

As Lee did more and more work in the Tenderloin with TransAction, he met more and more Black trans women who lived there, worked there, and did all sorts of community and advocacy work for decades there. Lee started to understand that, in some ways, TransAction’s approach to advocacy work was backwards.

“We were coming in with a certain political agenda,” said Lee. “But didn’t necessarily help trans folks with what they were experiencing, with the police force.”

Anti-Blackness

Lee grew up with his parents constantly telling him to never marry a person with darker skin—a Black person.

“In terms of anti-Blackness in the API community, I really want to connect with people on this,” said Lee. “Because so many of us cannot talk about this. We have a really hard time talking about this.”

In the video depicting the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police on May 25, Hmong American police officer Tou Thao stood guard as Floyd’s neck was knelt on for nearly eight minutes.

In 2014, New York City police officer Peter Liang fired his gun, which hit Akai

Gurley, a Black man walking down the stairs, and killed him.

In 1991, 15-year-old Latasha Harlins was shot and killed by Soon Ja Du, a Korean woman who owned a South Los Angeles liquor store—over a $1.79 bottle of orange juice. (Police later determined there was no attempt at shoplifting.)

In 1999, researcher Claire Jean Kim published, “The Racial Triangulation of Asian Americans,” which posits that white superiority and supremacy in America is created through the racializing and racial positioning of Blacks and Asians—pitting them against each other, basically.

There are two types of racial positions: superior/inferior and insider/outsider.

These are the points of the triangle: • Asians are positioned (under white supremacy) as superior to Blacks (reinforcing the totally erroneous model minority myth) while also being positioned as perpetual outsiders (permanent foreigners in America).

• Blacks are positioned as inferior to whites and Asians (wielding less economic influence) while also being positioned as insiders (Americans).

• Whites are positioned as superior to all, and are fully American.

White supremacy upholds itself by not only continually blocking and excluding one race from prospering due to its position on the triangle, but by also by forcing races to be in conflict with each other, with the false idea that resources and influence is limited.

This accounts for a lot of simmering, often unsaid and untouched racial tensions between Asians and Blacks. It is a root of a lot of anti-Blackness and colorism in the API community.

TGIJP beginnings

Lee gathered the inklings of what would become TGIJP through TransAction community forums in partnership with HIV organizations (at the time, HIV organizations were the only organizations serving trans people). It was in these meetings, in which TransAction members did presentations on how cops treated trans people before community discussion, that Lee learned that the conversation needed to be opened up and that the problem was so much broader.

“Lack of housing, lack of jobs—total disrespect trans people felt just going on with their daily lives—feeling lack of support from the LGBQ community—feeling abandoned by lesbian and gay organizations—the racism—the segregation.”

“And while it was clear police violence was a clear problem,” he added, “it wasn’t the only problem. There were so many other things going on that were more pressing for people’s day to day. All those people at the forum were like, ‘If I didn’t have to go out and sell drugs, if I didn’t have to go out and be a sex worker—I wouldn’t have to deal with police at all.’”

TGIJP, as Lee envisioned it coming out of law school, was meant to be a project for a couple of years. He wanted to help people who were in California prisons—and quickly learned the need was enormous.

“People would write to me from prison, and nearly everyone writing to me was Black—not everyone—but about 90-something percent,” he said. “Almost all of them were trans women who were in some sort of men’s facility.”

In the United States, prisons overwhelmingly and rigidly house prisoners according to their birth-assigned gender or genitalia, regardless of gender identity. Trans women are often locked up with men, facing violence, sexual assault, and rape. Trans men housed in women’s prisons also face abuse, more often from guards.

“While I was doing this work, I figured out that legal work on its own will not address problems created by the law,” said Lee.

TGIJP was started in 2004, providing legal services to TGI people in California’s prisons, jails, and detention centers.

Famed trans activist Miss Major Griffin-Gracy joined the organization in 2005 as its first staff organizer (and later became its executive director). Today, the organization is led by Janetta Louise Johnson.

Under the leadership of the latter two Black trans women, TGIJP grew to a nonprofit with a budget of $1 million annually, making it one of only a handful of trans-led groups in the country with that kind of budget.

Over the years TGIJP, often with staff of entirely trans people of color, expanded its impact into peer legal advocacy for currently and formerly incarcerated folks as well as programs and activities like Black Girlz Rulez, an annual and national Black trans convening, and the Melenie Eleneke Grassroots Re-Entry Program, which supports and connects TGI people with housing, mental, job training, medical health services, and more after they are released from prison.

“The current organization is so different now,” said Lee. “The current leadership has really moved TGIJP to, I would say, only what I had ever dreamed about.

Like, it’s really blossomed into this amazing organization. Janetta and her leadership team are really thinking outside of the box. Janetta is doing things that I would be freaked out by! I wouldn’t have the backbone to do what she is doing!”

After five years starting up TGIJP, Lee left, having known from the beginning that the organization needed to be led by Black trans women.

“Trans women of color should be in leadership. That was one of the fundamental values that I learned from my time in TransAction—that the people most directly impacted must be the ones in charge of how to solve the problem. In this case, the problem was the ongoing abuse and discrimination of trans women of color, and so trans women of color must be the ones in leadership.”

Lee currently works in philanthropy, on the other side of the sector. He consults and helps funders understand why and how to set up and allocate grant money, particularly to and for LGBTQ-serving organizations.

Coming out, again

The second time Lee came out to his parents—as trans—it was more successful.

“I came out to my parents again once I started law school. Because I was going to start taking hormones. And I had been going to support groups. I had counselors. I had friends already who had come out to their parents. So I felt I had a lot more guidance, of what to do, what to say, how to have more control over the conversation. That was a much more smooth coming out conversation.”

“They were still really upset,” he added, laughing about it now. “But I was not.”

These days, he reports that his relationship with his parents is smoother. He reports that he has changed—and his parents have also changed some. Instead of calling his parents out and getting angry when they voice anti-Blackness or transphobia, he looks at instances as opportunities to try to have conversations with them.

“So now when I talk to them about Black Lives Matter and all the protests going on —well, my mom would call me and say, ‘So I see that Oakland is burning.

Are you okay?’ And we’d start talking that way. That kind of thing is an opportunity to talk to her about what is going on.”  To learn more about or donate to TGIJP, visit tgijp.org.

Stacy Nguyen can be reached at stacy@ nwasianweekly.com.