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Removing the invisibility cloak — leading while Asian in 2022
This May, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month is complicated. There is pain, nuance, and from my corner of the world — a gleeful reach for moments of joy. I just returned from two weeks in New York, where a group of friends and I launched a fundraiser for the area’s first Vietnamese-American bakery in Brooklyn. There was a line around the block. We walked the line carrying samples of durian ice cream (unheard of — it’s now a trending flavor!) and sticky rice treats from our childhood. We smiled at each other, acknowledging how far we’ve come, and for the first time in a long time, felt seen—a wondrous moment of peace in the suffering.
We were miles away from where Christina Yuna Le, 35, was stabbed and killed when she was followed home by a stranger. We were also blocks away from where a gunman open-fired onto the subway in Sunset Park the week prior, in a predominantly Asian neighborhood. In the same state that the Buffalo shooting happened last week. How do you work through your pain? What community do you reach to acknowledge your shared experience, witness your struggle, and support you as you rise?
Since the pandemic, I’ve been meeting tirelessly with Asian American executives to prep them for public speaking— and for some of them, the first time they’re sharing their personal…
