UCLA scholars and students gathered with leaders from the government, community, corporate and entertainment worlds at a Feb. 10 summit aimed at creating a future that is inclusive of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities. The AAPI Policy Summit at UCLA’s Luskin Conference Center shed light on issues including health and mental health inequities, anti-Asian hate, immigrant protections, mobilization of voters, diversity in corporate suites and fair representation in Hollywood. California Attorney General Rob Bonta delivered the keynote address at the daylong summit. “You can’t fix the problem until you face the problem,” he said. “I believe that the folks on the ground who are doing the work —community leaders, researchers, nonprofit leaders — that the folks who are closest to the problems and the challenges are also the closest to the solutions.” Touching on his experiences growing up in a family of Filipino immigrants who fought for civil rights, Bonta urged members of the audience to recognize their own capacity to stand up against injustice. “We are not bystanders to what is happening in our state and in our nation. … We can make a difference,” he said. “The road is long but we are bending that arc of history towards justice, and it’s going to need the fingerprints and the hands of all of you bending it together to get us where we need to go.” The AAPI Policy Summit was sponsored by UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center and Luskin School of Public Affairs in partnership with the California Asian American & Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus.
View photos from the summit on Flickr.
