AAPI Heritage Month: Anti-Asian Sentiment, its History, Trauma, and Healing
Channel: GLIDE sf
Date: 2023-05-27

San Francisco officials received 60 reports of hate crimes against AAPI people in the city during 2021, more than a 500% increase compared to the nine incidents reported in 2020. Between March 2020 and March 31, 2022, the group Stop AAPI Hate recorded nearly 11,500 reports of hate incidents against Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) persons across the U.S. 

Currently, Anti-Asian incidents are reportedly down across the country, but the trauma and reality of it remains today.

Join the Center for Social Justice in this in-depth discussion with those in the forefront of what is occurring, its history and how it’s shared with other communities of color, its trauma and how to heal.

Host: Tri Nguyen, GLIDE Director of Marketing /Communications 
Tri is a Chinese-Vietnamese American. He immigrated to the US when he was 7 years old with his parents. He grew up in the Bay Area and earned his BA and MS from University of San Francisco. Over the last 15 years, he has worked in a communication role for higher education, healthcare, and the non-profit world. 

Panelists include:

Faauuga Moliga is an elected member of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee and a former Commissioner and Vice President of the San Francisco School Board. He earned a master’s in social work from San Jose State University with a concentration on mental health and social justice. Faauuga founded an organization to support Pacific Islander students titled TOUCH that focuses on providing PI students and at-risk youth from all marginalized communities with the resources to thrive. He also led the creation of Puma Prevent to address consent amongst male student athletes. Currently Faauuga is a Clinical Social Worker with Comprehensive Crisis Services Public Health Department.

Gaynorann Siataga is a Pacific Islander of mixed descent who was born and raised in San Francisco, California, a Mission, and Bayview District native. She is the oldest of six siblings, raised by a family of community-oriented powerhouses! Since the age of 14, she has been an advocate for the underserved, underrepresented, and marginalized communities. I am a proud alumnus and parent/guardian of an amazing young teenager of the San Francisco Unified School District.

She received her credentials in Administration of Justice, named valedictorian, and graduated with honors as a Medical Specialist in IT in Sacramento, California. She gained experience in politics in her younger years working under three San Francisco Mayors. Former Mayor Art Agnos gave me my first opportunity at the age of 14, then Former Mayor Frank Jordan, and Former Mayor Willie Brown Jr. My career in Public Safety, Violence Prevention/Intervention, promoting higher education, and health and wellness has brought me to a lifelong commitment to my communities in my City, State, and Nation. Her mission is to continue to advocate in spaces that make decisions on issues that impact us all. She has done this by working together with elected officials, mobilizing, organizing, and empowering our people in disparities. This passion stems from her journey of being a survivor of violence and abuse.

She sat on the Victim Services Board and Crime Survivor Boards. She passed the Civil Service test at the age of 18 and was a Crisis Responder in San Francisco. She sits on several boards addressing the housing crisis, gentrification, violence, education and wellness. She founded and co-founded twelve successful non-profit programs to provide services and resources to our communities in San Francisco and successfully created policies by advocating and/or co-writing them. She has also effectively taken part in creating equitable solutions for services to communities. She co-founded and created funded entities within California and continues to collaborate with diverse communities within our nation that address numerous issues affecting our world today. She elevated her mission as a citizen in continuing this work of service to our people for the remainder of her existence.

Nick Gee (he/him) is a descendant of paper sons, native Texan, and stage production enthusiast. Currently, he leads as an Advocacy Manager with Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA), a civil rights-based organization in San Francisco’s Chinatown. CAA, AAPI Equity Alliance and the Asian American Studies Department at San Francisco State University are co-founding partners of the national coalition: Stop AAPI Hate. As an advocate he develops campaigns to address key policy issues on language access, voting rights, and ending anti-Asian hate and discrimination.