Press Conference – Hundreds of Asian American and Pacific Island (AAPI) leaders gather in DC on Sept 17th

Hundreds of Asian American and Pacific Island (AAPI) leaders gather in DC

Civic Leadership USA (CLUSA) and Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affair (APAPA) hosted a four-day conference in Washington for AAPI citizens September 15 -18.  Over 145 leaders representing 71 different AAPI organizations gathered to attend the 2019 National Civic Leadership Forum (NCLF). The goal of the forum was to galvanize AAPI civic leaders from all over the US to empower them for the 2020 election.

Tuesday, attendees had the chance to tour the Capitol, meet House representatives and Senators on both sides of the aisle, and discuss AAPI priorities for the 2020 election. Following the day-long congressional visit, Ding Ding TV hosted a conference to feature congressional members and Dr. Xiaoxing Xi, and to release a joint statement from the participants of the NCLF. Dr. SK Lo, Chair of the Asian American Union coalition (AAUC) presented the joint statement for everyone in attendance and expressed her surprise the participants were able to generate the proclamation so quickly.

The joint statement expressed the participants’ reason for gathering, “to discuss key civic issues that face our community,” and described the forum as a “momentous occasion of unity and collaboration unimaginable even a generation ago.”  This year’s statement recognized AAPI’s increasing demographic representation, including the first competitive Asian American United States Presidential candidate in 2020.

“Now is the time to build on that momentum.”

Leadership exemplified this idea by one at a time signing the joint statement, signifying their commitment to the cause. It was a very inspiring moment for all in attendance.

The participants inspired many congressional members that day, including Representative Brendan Boyle. Rep. Boyle grew up in a heavily AAPI neighborhood and now represents a Pennsylvania district with large AAPI demographics.

As a first-generation American he expressed how “we should always remember our family heritage, the belief in our country, regardless of what land our families originated in.”

He welcomed participants to DC, whether it’s their first time there or as a repeat attendee, “there’s nothing more American that what you’re doing. Coming to your capitol to advocate and lobby for a certain set of issues.

A constituent of Rep. Boyle’s who is prominent in the AAPI community, Xiaoxing Xi, a Chinese American falsely arrested by the U.S. Government for being a Chinese spy, spoke at the press conference.

He was excited to meet his congressman and reminded the crowd of his appalling personal story of racial profiling.  He urged the crowd that “we need to elect people that hold the same beliefs we do, that racial profiling is wrong.”

He urged the crowd to “vote and elect more people like Congresswoman Judy Chu, and my congressman who will fight for our interests.”

To close out the conference, Frank Wu, President of the Committee of 100 (C100) spoke on the importance of a forum like this for AAPI citizens to build bridges across nationalities.

“It takes leadership and thoughtfulness to bring us together. If you’re Chinese-American, Japanese-American, Korean-American, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Philipino whatever your background is, it’s good to be proud of that, but we will not succeed if we don’t reach out.”

“When you go home after a long day’s work and your with your family, civic engagement means you have to put on a suit and go back out to a meeting to sit and listen to people you might disagree with, again and again, and again.”

He closed out the conference with the insight that “If we don’t stand up and speak out, others will speak out for us or we will be ignored. So this is our moment, let us seize the day.”

The National Civic Leadership Forum to Empower AAPI citizens is an annual event, more information available at http://clusa.org/.