Guest Opinion | Catherine Cheng: Stop Anti-Asian Hate

I have worked at Pasadena City College for the last 15 years and I am deeply disappointed that various shared governance groups have hit a new low.

I have never seen such blatant and relentless displays of anti-Asian hate. This month the API community should be celebrating API Heritage month, instead I was shocked when I received an email from the Coalition of Asian Pacific Employees (CAPE) asking their members to decide whether to join PCC’s Management Association (MA) on the vote of no confidence on Board President Sandra Chen Lau. I could not believe it; this has gone too far now.

I want to share parts of an email I sent to the CAPE members and faculty to raise awareness of what some of us are being subjected to:

CAPE’s mission statement reads “CAPE was established to unite, empower and support Asian Pacific Islander (API) employees at the Pasadena City College District. We are employees, staff, faculty and former professionals affiliated to Pasadena City College with the goal of encouraging and advocating for issues that promote diversity and inclusivity at the College, with particular focus on our API community”.

I do not feel you are upholding your mission at all by encouraging or taking part in this effort to harm one of our own. You are doing the opposite, for the first time in PCC history we have 4 minority/API trustees, Sandra Chen-Lau, Alton Wang, Kristine Kwong, and Dr. Steve Gibson who is half Korean and half Black. As soon as board discussion ensued regarding the Superintendent-President’s contract a flurry of select supporters started a campaign of harassment and bullying. The attitude toward them by some management has been disrespectful, slanderous and cruel.

PCC now has a Minority Majority Board. A Board that reflects the values of our community. As 3 1/2 are API and two of which are API women, they understand how hard it is to break the glass ceiling so our PCC community and your children will have opportunities unhindered by implicit bias or perceptions that API are not “leadership” material – a common stereotype and hence, the relatively few number of API in leadership at PCC and in education, or anywhere else. Our biggest supporters are our API trustees that will forge a pathway for all to success by breaking that glass ceiling.

You are not uniting us, empowering us, supporting us, or promoting our own inclusivity. What you are proposing against our Asian trustees is hurtful to the entire API community and it’s embarrassing.

I am shocked, offended and hurt by these actions, it’s bad enough we face discrimination daily from other groups and now to have it come from PCC’s Asian Pacific Island community is shameful. As an Asian American woman I have had to deal with discrimination and harassment all my life, haven’t you? Why would you take part in this?

I have had the pleasure of talking with many of the new trustees and have had the chance to get to know them. They are honest, humble, and hardworking people. I share a few things about our new trustees that you may not be aware of.

What you do not know:
• Did you know that Trustee Chen Lau’s father was sent to a reeducation camp during the cultural revolution in China and only because he had an education? Trustee Chen Lau not only knows that people have been retaliated against for being educated; but she knows that education is a pathway to a better life.
• Did you know that our trustees of color all come from immigrant families? Some of whose families have immigrated due to political persecution? Our trustees know the cost of freedom and seek to create opportunities for all of us, especially those that have historically been marginalized.
• Did you know that many of our trustees of color have all experienced discrimination and harassment just for being a person of color, including having negative stereotypes about Asian Americans and blacks imposed on them? And especially now when our trustees of color are taking on leadership at PCC.
• Did you know that ALL of our trustees of color have higher degrees of education, including doctorates? They know the value of hard work and that obtaining an education is key to a better life.

Instead of applauding their accomplishments and having the courage to lead our institution, a small percentage of voices have chosen to attack our new trustees of color by making personal character attacks with baseless accusations. All they seek is to create more opportunities for all of us.

We practically have no Asian representation in high level positions at PCC, and now that we have four of us in leading the college and doing an amazing job, they are met by continued misguided attacks. That’s the reality of being Asian American in these roles, people cannot handle having educated minorities in positions of power. Have you seen Trustee Board President Chen Lau’s response to the MA’s claims here? https://www.pasadenanow.com/main/guest-opinion-pcc-president-sandra-chen-lau-standing-up-for-good-governance.

And now, you plan on attacking the very people that are in a position of leadership to open pathways to our community. This is not just anti-Asian hate but it is also self-hate. By attacking our API trustees, everyone involved will be responsible for creating barriers to advancement for all of us. Do the right thing and follow your conscience. Remember all of the trailblazers that came before us so we all have opportunities to pursue our careers. Don’t ruin it for others by attacking the API trustees that want nothing more than our success.

The mere thought of taking part of this defamation campaign is extremely damaging to our community and I urge you to stop weaponizing race to further selfish agendas that are not in the best interests of Pasadena City College.

It is blatantly clear that this is nothing more than political theatre, all designed to bully and intimidate our trustees of color, while the white trustees skate by under the radar.

Everyone involved has a choice: continue the political theatre and continue to grandstand and inject conflict– all to the harm of our students and community OR, better yet, engage in adult dialogue with our trustees and clear up any misunderstanding.

Remember: We in the PCC community are role models for our tomorrow’s leaders. They deserve the best in us, not the worst in us.

Please do not exploit official positions in our shared governance groups as a platform to perpetuate hate against our Asian American leaders. They want nothing but the best for us.

Catherine Cheng is an Adjunct Faculty member of Pasadena City College