Leaders look like me.
Kay Moua, Leadership Programs Manager
It’s been a long journey of unlearning and relearning how to step into my leadership and take up my rightful space in this world.
My childhood and education experiences were filled with constant messages and reminders that the terms “Asian American”, “womxn”, and “leader” don’t belong together. From being called “the quiet Asian girl from Pitch Perfect” to having teachers who reinforced my quietness as standard for students of color, I grew up thinking I wasn’t destined for greatness – that my voice is insignificant.
In sophomore year of high school, my homeroom was voting for student council members. Across from me sat two white students. I saw that one began carelessly crossing out names. His friend asked, “Why are you crossing out their names?” He answered, “Oh, I am just crossing out the Asian names.” They both looked at each other and laughed out loud.
I was horrified, but deep down inside I understood where those boys were coming from. They, like me, had over 10 years of formal education where none of us had never read, seen, or studied a positive Asian person in our curriculum. I realized that the two white male students were merely a reflection of our broken, inequitable, and exclusionary education system.
In those 10+ years of formal education, all my ambitions, passion, and voice were constantly erased, and my identity didn’t matter. What happened in homeroom that day struck me. It motivated me to explore and define what being an Asian American womxn meant to me. I began to embrace my various identities – Asian American, womxn of color, child of refugees – and embraced them as assets. I began to think of them as the foundation for how my leadership could show up in the world. It was the beginnings of an important shift.
When I graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2017, I discovered the Coalition of Asian American Leaders (CAAL). I loved seeing the terms “Asian American” and “leader” together in a sentence, and it felt like a happy ending to my high school chapter. I feel grounded at CAAL, knowing that everyone who enters our network is already seen a leader regardless of their titles. They each bring important assets, experiences, and expertise into the network. They bring their full selves, and that is enough to build from. This resonated so much with my own leadership philosophy. I always knew in my heart, but doubted it’s validity because of my experiences growing up.
It’s been almost 10 years since I started high school. Now when I have conversations with Asian American youth, they share similar leadership and identity challenges – they name the persistance of racism. It is heartbreaking hearing that they feel exactly the same way that I did in high school. Not much has changed.
I believe young people deserve better and they can indeed take up leadership to help end historic systemic practices of erasure, denial, and exclusion. So, as 2019 came to a close young Asian Minnesotans co-created Becoming Organizers, Becoming Advocates (BOBA) with CAAL. BOBA invites youth to unapologetically celebrate and honor who they are, and supports and builds them to show up as their most authentic and brilliant selves. Young people don’t have to wait to be leaders; they are leaders today.