I grew up (and still am) vegetarian, and during school trips, I’d always have to remind teachers so that I wouldn’t go hungry.  Sometimes people would respond, “why don’t you just pick off the meat?”  As in, if we’re having pepperoni pizza, just pick those pepperoni pieces off.  

Picking off the pepperoni means the pepperoni grease and smell stays on the pizza, and it’s not an acceptable solution for a Hindu vegetarian.

Growing up in the 80s and 90s, public approaches to minority issues seemed to be, “just pick off the pepperoni.”  There wasn’t much awareness about different cultures, and we just had to deal with the fact that government programs and other aspects of public life did not consider our cultural issues.

Figuratively speaking, we could either bring our own food (rely entirely on private services), pick off the pepperoni (take public services as they were, though they didn’t meet our needs), or go hungry (go without both public and private services).

But in the past few weeks, I’ve learned that the federal government is actually trying to tailor government programs so that they are culturally relevant.  For example, at the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders conference for federal employees, attendees were urged to act from within federal agencies to ensure that they were reaching out to Asian Americans, who vastly underuse federal services.

Things aren’t perfect, but I find it encouraging that this matter is on the federal agenda.  We, as Asian Americans and South Asians, need to stay at the table and teach them how to make programs culturally relevant, complain when things aren’t right, and recognize them when things do go right so that efforts can be replicated elsewhere.  

In a powerful place.  White House to the left.  World Bank to the right.  The National Mall, the site of historic civil rights demonstrations, straight ahead.

In case you missed it, here are the details about the National Minority Health Blogger Townhall.

There is so much to say about it that I’ll break it down into several posts.  In this post, I’ll address the substantive message of the Townhall and what it meant for me personally.  In a future post, I’ll go into greater detail about what each panelist said.

The Townhall Message in A Nutshell: 

Mayra Alvarez, Director of Public Health Policy, Office of Health Reform, HHS, welcomes the group.

The goal of the event was to garner popular support for the Affordable Care Act.

The event was billed as a way to raise awareness of disparities in healthcare that minority groups face and to celebrate the strides made by the Affordable Care Act.  All of the panelists talked about how the ACA would narrow health disparities for minorities.  The Act’s focus on affordable health care would allow folks who previously relied on ER treatment for all of their medical needs to finally get preventative and ongoing medical care by giving them access to health insurance.  Several of the panelists also talked about preventative care and providing culturally relevant health programs, including ones that take into account our languages, foods, and other factors.

Secretary Sebelius said that she is confident the Affordable Care Act is constitutional and that HHS is involved in an aggressive implementation program.

Someone asked Secretary Sebelius what would happen if the Supreme Court struck down the Affordable Care Act as unconstitutional. She said: 1) she and the administration are confident that the ACA is constitutional based on 70 years of legal precedent, 2) HHS is pushing aggressive implementation of the law now so people know what they would stand to lose, 3) if the law gets struck down, “We’ll be ready.”  She did not explain how the agency would be ready.  Finally, 4) she asked the bloggers to help with outreach — to maximize participation in the preenrollment campaign, especially for the most vulnerable groups. All of this seems to be an effort to ingrain Affordable Care Act programs in communities, perhaps to make it difficult to invalidate. 

My Experience:
The experience of attending a national event at the White House was amazing.  

It was a valuable opportunity to network with the people at the highest levels of our national health system (like the Surgeon General) and regular folks who are fighting for better health for our communities. 

Indian American Mom with Vice Admiral Regina Benjamin, Surgeon General of the US

Attending events like these also opens my eyes to new opportunities to advocate for the South Asian community. 

Here were the other lessons I learned from the event:

1. We Belong Here
This morning before I attended the event, I was the most nervous I’ve been, probably since my wedding day.  Part of the reason was that this was a WHITE HOUSE event, and it was so IMPORTANT, and golly gosh, I had to do a GREAT JOB.  I was representing OUR ENTIRE COMMUNITY.

In retrospect, I should have had more confidence in myself.  I had prepared for the event by consulting with numerous people who work on South Asian American public health issues and by getting everything I would need ready ahead of time (directions, camera, pen/paper, id, etc.). I’m a good speaker and like meeting new people.  All of these were reasons I should have expected that everything would go smoothly.

Of course, it is an honor to attend a White House event, but we also have to remember that we BELONG at the highest levels of government.  By feeling that we BELONG in the political process at the highest levels, we can ensure that they reflect our issues and that our government is truly representative of our society.  We’re part of this great nation, and we need to make ourselves heard.

Professional videographers recorded the event and livestreamed it to www.whitehouse.gov/live.  If you have limited time, watching streamed events and participating in online events is a great way to start getting involved.

2. We Are Minorities Within the Minority
I was happy to learn that there’s an Office of Minority Health at the Department of Health & Human Services.  And it was wonderful to walk into a White House event and be surrounded by people of color, especially because we’ve traditionally been underrepresented in government.


But something was missing.  The Townhall seemed to represent the 1980s idea of minority groups — primarily African Americans and Latinos.  Asian Americans, Muslims, LGBT individuals were missing, or at least underrepresented.  The panelists did not come from these groups, nor did the panelists draw much attention to these groups’ issues.  In the audience, I saw maybe 2 other South Asian American faces and 1 other East Asian American face.  I overhead a guy behind me mention that he was from a Muslim group, so there was some Muslim representation.  But I didn’t see or hear of any LGBT representatives, even in the audience. 

The panelists prepare to speak

Surgeon General Regina Benjamin and lifestyle expert/restauranteur B. Smith exchange smiles.

3. We CAN Make a Difference
Sometimes it seems pointless to speak up, doesn’t it?  We don’t see the immediate effects of advocacy on behalf of our communities, while we do see the immediate effect of going to work (I get a paycheck), changing a diaper (the stink will be gone and baby will stop crying), or cooking dinner (we get to eat).  So advocacy gets pushed to the back burner.  Someone else will do it anyway, right?  Plus, it seems scary to speak up when we aren’t the experts on every public issue.

But being invited to this event taught me that speaking up DOES make a difference.  I write this blog in the little spare time I have between working full-time and raising Indian American Toddler, usually sacrificing sleep and other personal time to do so.  Doing so makes a difference–it helped me to be one of the few Asian American voices represented at the Townhall (one of the event organizers told me that she decided to invite me after she found my blog on Google).

There are days when I wonder whether it really makes a difference if I blog or not.  It can be discouraging at times.  Opportunities like today’s confirm that even when it seems like no one is listening, someone is listening.

At the Townhall, I sat in the front row because I was a member of the “media.”  And that’s part of the reason I started I Am Moms.  The mainstream media and blogs weren’t covering our issues (or at least not as in-depth as I wanted), so I decided to do it.  In doing so, I helped give a voice to the Asian American community.

By sitting in the front row, I had the opportunity to ask a question about minority mental health issues.  Numerous people sought me out after the event to thank me for raising the issue, as many other minority communities suffer the same stigma that we do.

By pointing out all these things, I’m not trying to toot my own horn.  I’m like you.  I’m busy with lots of things.  I’m afraid to speak up at times.  I’m nervous that I’ll do something wrong or look dumb.  I’m fairly new to political involvement and advocacy.  But I’m glad I’m doing it.  I hope that by reading my journey you will be inspired to be a voice for our community and share that voice on I Am Moms.

Next time, I’ll talk about the nuts and bolts of attending a White House event.  From getting there, to security, to what to expect, and some tips for bloggers. 

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