A conference billed as the first ever summit on Asian American stereotypes sought Saturday to go beyond what it called the bad and the ugly.
The LA Times reports that a crowd of 200 was urged to speak their minds and to define themselves.
“You think I know martial arts? I don’t. You think I’m smart? I’m dumb. We decide how to build or how to react to our environment,” said author Beau Sia in the opening session.
Others implored those in attendance to tell their own stories, to pursue your own projects, and that change starts with ourselves.
“We need to search for writers, producers, directors of all color. We are criminally underrepresented,” said actor Parvesh Cheena, from NBC’s “Outsourced. “It’s nice to see makeup people, camera people of different backgrounds, but to really reflect our lives, we’ve got to be able to see our grandparents and family” with multiple views, in multiple dimensions.”
You can read more about this conference and how it started in the LA Times.