Partner Hoang “Quan” Vu was interviewed on the KPRC 2 Newsmakers Extra program, “Moving away from hatred,” about changing the dynamic of anti-Asian hate in America.
Vu, chair of the Houston chapter of the American Leadership Forum, is a refugee from Vietnam who came to the U.S. with his family in 1975 at the age of five.
“The day I became an American citizen was one of the proudest days of my life,” he said. “And Asian Americans all around this country have stories that are similar to mine, or maybe a little different from mine, but we all share one common thread: we bleed red, white and blue. We are Americans first and foremost and we are all a part of this community. We are not the other. And we really need our community’s help and understanding to support us as we fight anti-Asian American hate in this country.”
Community leaders need to be proactive and not reactive against hate, he added. “We should not wait until a wave of violence has occurred before deciding to show up and speak out,” he said. “We should meet racism at its apex and not at the ground level by doing all the little things every day that can make a big difference against hate later on.”
