Sunday, May 15, 2016

A Race Forward Future

Thank-you to PSAC for inviting me to speak at your BC Regional Conference for Racially Visible Members. It was such an honour to speak to your theme “Race Forward: Our Union, Our Community, Our Future!”
 
Dialogue is the beginning of understanding and fostering respect. Dialogue leads to strategizing and mobilizing initiatives to bridge and build knowledge, understanding, and the respect needed to foster communities that better embrace and celebrate diversity. Each of our lived experiences are powerful inspiring stories to begin that impactful dialogue. Your discourse here will hopefully lead to strategies that will facilitate “race forward” policies, workplace environments and events,
and community outreach opportunities. Mobilization of your strategies will require you to infuse your learnings, your passion, and determination for change.
 
Conferences like these are catalysts to creating change within yourself, your organization, our community, our region and nation. The impetus to change starts from ideas and discourses, like the many national campaigns that exist today: Terry Fox Run, Pink Shirt Day, and 100in 1day (https://vancouver100in1day.ca). I think that 100in1day is an invigorating way for you to make a “race forward” impact in your organization and community.
 
“100in1day Canada is part of a global initiative with the goal to inspire change in cities across the country by compelling residents to activate 100 innovative, thought-provoking ideas into interventions to enhance their city all on one day.” 100in1day was started in 2012 by a group of design students in Bogotá, Colombia. It has since spread to over 31 cities around the world. In Canada, currently 5 cities are participating in this campaign. June 4th is this year’s 100in1day in Canada.
 
We inter-exist in living and ever evolving communities that embody all walks of life. A few weeks ago, I celebrated Vaisakhi in the streets of East Vancouver and in February, Chinese New Year in Chinatown. Our communities are so alive and vibrant with cultures of the world and celebration of our diversity. If you live in Greater Vancouver, you know that we are enriched by cuisines, groceries, novelty shops, malls, and arts and cultures that vivify our multicultural existence. Yet, conferences and discourses like these still exist today in 2016. Having to be “race forward” means that issues of racism still need to be championed.
 
Growing up in Greater Vancouver, I have experienced my share of racist comments and negativity. In the playground of my elementary school, in the hallways of my high school, the boulevards of UBC, and in the hustle of my multicultural, metropolitan communities. You would think that after all these decades of co-existence that racism would be far from being an issue. Compared to 10, 20 years ago, I see more interracial unions and children. I see cultural and religious places of worship and gathering standing as neighbours. We teach and celebrate cultural differences in schools as part of the curriculum. Yet we still deal with racism in our communities.
 
Once, after parking my car in a residential neighbourhood and activating my car alarm, I heard a man in his 40/50s yelling from across the street to me and I just heard the words “beep beep.” I thought the gentleman was making a funny comment about the sound of my car alarm, but it turned out he was making negative comments about cars parking in the residential area and alarms going off. He proceeded to shout across the street at me about bashing my car in if my alarm goes off and then made comments about me being a China-man and that I should return back to my country.
 
Another time as I walked down Davie Street with my friend, a guy in his 20s who was walking towards me made negative comments about me being a member of a Chinese gang. As he walked beside me, he lightly gave me a nudge on my arm. 
I was on Davie Street, wearing my jeans, sequin army-glammed motif shirt, a tuxedo jacket, and funky dress shoes.
 
The stereotype that I face for being a person of colour who looks visibly Chinese, are further propagated and sensationalized by our entertainment and media industries, and perpetuated in our workplaces and communities.
 
I am of Chinese descent and I am very proud of my roots, but I grew up in Canada. I am not good at Astro physics, or Calculus. I do not know your friend Joseph or Li Ping in China. I live in an average house in east side Vancouver and not in a huge mansion on the hills of West Vancouver. I drive a 2003 Hyundai Santa Fe which was passed down to me from my parents and not the latest Mercedes convertible. I wear H&M and finds from thrift shops, not Gucci and Louis Vuitton. However, I do know some martial arts and I am very skillful with my chopsticks. I am a person of visible colour but I’m not the person of colour that many still misunderstand.
 
I am the first person of colour to win the title Mr. Gay Canada. When I entered the competition it was from a mindset of being able to do advocacy work for my LGBTQ+ community and my role as a human being in our society. My colour and cultural heritage were not a part of my mindset but that soon changed. Before I entered the competition, someone said to me that I did not realize the impact of my participation and if I won the competition, the impact I would have on the Asian communities everywhere would be exponential. This comment took me by surprise and I did not realize its impact until I received countless messages in my social media accounts and in my emails about the impact and difference I making as a representative
of the Asian community. The messages of gratitude for being a voice and face for those who have to live their authentic selves through my presence and protected reality awakened my extended social responsibility.
 
I think being a person of colour in the position of leadership and title is another challenge I face. Even within my own discrimination-experienced LGBTQ+ community, I felt and experienced a double standard when it came to my treatment compared to my non-coloured counterparts. I need to have alligator skin to be heard and rejected. I have to combat predominantly non-coloured boards and organizations about the importance of ethnic representation and relevant cultural content. 
 
Look within your P.S.A.C. organization and you will notice the imbalance of coloured people in the positions of power. I think that our society has definitely been progressing with “race forward” acceptance of people of colour in the position of power; however, this still needs to be fully welcomed. 
 
I think it takes education, revelation, and time to champion this social and cultural reality. I think that more proactive family, school, community, and government based initiatives and campaigns should be implemented to address and educate about racism. Its heightened education and awareness could only benefit our ever evolving society.
 
Our “race forward” advocacy efforts to build compassionate, empathetic workplaces and communities require continuous education and implementation of measures to promote understanding and respect. The evolution of racial equality calls for us to reflect on our history and focus on its evolution through education and awareness. “Education and awareness are the links from ignorance to knowledge, denial to acceptance, and hate to love.” – Pride Winnipeg 2015 Pride Guide
 
Jane Addams once said, “Social advance depends quite as much upon an increase in moral sensibility as it does upon a sense of duty.”
 
Being empowered and inspired comes with the responsibility to utilize that empowerment and inspiration to change the circumstances around you whether it’s in your home, workplace, organization, community, and or country. Racism in our lives will be an ongoing issue unless we each take an active effort to champion it. Let your community building efforts encompass positive “race forward” agendas and actions. 
 
You have a voice. How are you going to use it for change? Activism to me is a daily exercise of our voices and proactiveness in our actions. Let what you have learned and experienced here at this conference be the catalyst for your activism today and the tomorrows to come.
 
#PSAC #raceforward #ourunion #ourcommunity #ourfuture #inspiretoempower #racialequality#championracism #eliminateracism #stopracisme #mettonsfinauracisme #buildingcommunity#activismisadailyexercise #empowerment #inspiration #socialresponsibility #impactfuldifference#interexist #interare #understanding #respect #evolutionofracialequality #education #awareness







Week of Farewell Surprises from my Remarkable Students and Colleagues

I think the most enriching lesson my students learned from me so far is making kindness their daily breath. Through many group and individual acts of kindness, my students have learned the complexity of being a respectful and compassionate person and how their kind acts impact lives.
I am so proud of their continuous efforts to better our classroom and school communities by consciously and proactively putting other’s and the larger needs before theirs.
#actsofkindness #RAK #beauthenticallyyou #beyou #doyou #inspiretoempower #loveislove #compassion #respect #understanding #kindness #safespaces #interexist #acceptance #youareasuperstar #yourocknomatterwhoyouare #kindnesswillchangetheworld #kindnessisonesizefitsall #kindnessnevergoesoutofstyle #makekindnessyourdailybreath #buildingcommunity
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The bell rang and I had no students in my class…I started to wonder…It’s my last week teaching these 66 students before moving onto another group of students after Spring break…I walked out my door and turned the corner and saw them marching towards me, ALL as ME…What a fabulous surprise…Ms. Peng you didn’t have a meeting at 8:45 did you? Thanks so much everyone! I will always remember this moment!
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I opened my door this morning and boy was I surprised! Thank you division 11 for the wonderful surprise!
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Thanks to KC and LT for this very thoughtful album with our wonderful memories of the last 7months.
Thanks Divisions 9, 10, 11 for signing the album and for all your thoughtful cards and gifts.
I will cherish our memories!
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Welcoming Refugees To Our Home

Let’s remember that we are all immigrants to this land that those before us colonized from our First Nations brothers and sisters. Let’s acknowledge the many from all walks of life who helped build this great “True North Strong and Free” we all call our home today.
I am proud to be a Canadian because our political correctness and progressive activism set us a part from others and allow us to lead by example. I am proud to be Canadian because our laws protect my rights to be authentically myself and embrace the rights of humanity in our outreaching national and global effects.
Look around you as you study, work, dine, coffee, or stroll. I am reflecting as I sit across the views of the snow covered North shore on Adolph Mueller II’s bench at the Stanley Park seawall, home of the shared territory of three Coast Salish Nations – the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh. Along my walk from downtown Vancouver to here, I saw you…a person of colour, the lesbian couple holding hands topped with a gentle kiss, tourists, bankers, bus drivers, cafe clerks, float plane staff, the child touching names on “The Komagata Maru” monument, the gentleman working on his laptop on the bench beside mine, the parents and their children enjoying this sunny Winter day.
We inter-exist in this space on this land regardless of who we are and where we came from.
Citizenship is a word that embodies layers of compassion, respect, understanding, diversity, unity, and harmony that celebrate our daily lived experiences in Canada and the World.
I encourage you to be proactive instead of reactive to what it means to be a true citizen of Canada and the World. Be that individual who is at the centre of the solution and progress. Be the catalyst that will create “a nation where differences are respected and traditions are honoured.”
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McLaren Housing Society of BC’s Floats for Vancouver Pride 2014 and 2015

#HappyPride everyone! #McLarenHousingSocietyofBC presents #SAMESEXMARRIAGE for this year’s #float entry for #VanPride @vancouverpride
The pioneers who have fought for our marriage rights, those who have exercised our liberty to marry, and our counterparts everywhere who have been victorious and who are still striving for their marriage rights are our #GenderSuperheroes !
Canada celebrates 10 years of legalized #samesex #marriage !
Thanks #FalseCreekDesignGroup @gardenworkscanada #SeaCoastSound #DJBella @bellaellaeheheh for your continual support and contribution!
HUGE #LOVE goes out the the best Pride Team: Kim, Anthony, Peter, Ceanna, Don for the months of brainstorming and planning!
#Kisses to the many volunteers especially #Mike #Mark for your hard work and dedication and thanks for joining us on the float #DarrenHo #Katie #CadenceChen .
#HIVAIDS #community #LGBTQ#LGBTQA#positivehousingforpositivepeople #HappyPride @cityofvancouver #Vancouver #BC #Canada @christepherwee @mrgaycanada

Celebrating the McLaren Housing Society of BC from the inside out. This year's theme was "Royalty" and my title lends itself to it. The design of this float was inspired by the sense of community at McLaren Housing Society of BC. The float embodies the essence of home through its beautiful garden scape nestled among the structures that is home to McLaren Housing Society of BC's clients. McLaren Housing Society of BC does so much for those living with HIV/AIDS, it is my honour to contribute what I can in support of their efforts. Bravo to the team, who worked so hard to bring to live an idea from my sketch. The love and dedication can be seen from the float. Thank-you to the MHSBC team, False Creek Design Group, Garden Works, Sea Coast Sound, and DJ Bella. I think we had the best float coz it really reflected what MHSBC is all about: Positive Housing for Positive People with a real sense of community and home.