The right to say who you are

Transcripts available in the following languages:

As long as people are active and adamant about saying that they have a right to say who they are, and that no one else gets to tell them who they are. That’s the really important thing. I think that’s—if I have a kid, that’s one thing I’d like to instill in him or her and I think that if you have kids and so forth or if you have friends, that you don’t have a right to tell someone they’re not black enough, or they’re not—you know? You don’t have that right. And if someone says that to you I’m like, “You know what? You don’t know me well enough to say that.” I like people to be able to have—hopefully this project in some small way will help someone do that.

Date: May 3, 2006
Location: California, US
Interviewer: Jim Bower
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum.

hapa identity multiracial

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