Sit on this chair right here.
Oops. I'll have you write your .
Just my God. Hold it up to your
face and this thing comes down..
Professional when waiting for this moment.
So first of all, just tell me yr
name and what is your ethnicity?
My name is Shell Sindanaguri
and I'm Filipino American.
My name is Raj Sundar and I'm
an Indian American, Sam Cho,
Korean American, Mari Sugiyama.
And I am Japanese American.
Do you ever feel the need to explain your
identity? Yes. I don't know
where to start. And whenever
I'm asked that question, I have to explain.
I was born here. I'm from here.
I feel like it comes up a lot fe
in terms of explaining my ident,
particularly because I'm a fourh
generation Japanese American
born and raised in Seattle.
For me, when people ask me like,
what is my ethnic background,
I typically just say I'm Filipio
American for racial classificat.
You know, I'll say I'm Asian. Naturally,
I'll just say I'm Filipino Amer,
just my last name.
I feel like when my parents camo
America, they had to even change
how they said their last name.
To feel like they belonged
because in Tamil, it's Sundar.
But my dad who's a doctor,
none of his patients could say his name,
so he changed it to Sundar.
And that's how I always said my name.
So now it's our new identity and
this evolution of what it means
to carry our family forward
and be an Indian American here.
How do you think Asians are
viewed in the United States tod,
where I would characterize it
as being a perpetual foreigner,
as the good immigrant, the model minority,
and even without using that ter.
I think it's the feeling that we
supposed to not speak up and cause trouble,
Filipinos being domestic worker,
Filipinos being caregivers,
that no matter how long you've been here,
how many generations removed you
are from the immigrant experien,
you are never fully American.
I often get the
the question, where are you fro?
My family immigrated here in 19.
My parents immigrated here
in the 80s. Grandparents,
but on both sides, maternal and paternal,
were incarcerated during World
War Two and I think that greatly
changed the trajectory of my parents.
I think about how that has chand
where where I'm at now and also
how I view some of the things tt
are coming up in this day and ae
different forms of racism and
discrimination that they fought against.
Wanted to highlight is obviousl,
you know the last couple of yeas
have been very tough for the.
Community with COVID-19 and thei
Asian hate things that we knew existed
in our society and our culture t
was maybe not as mainstream. Wht
do people misunderstand about y?
People misunderstand
what it means to be Indian beca.
What is Indian for a lot of
folks is unidimensional. People
question whether Filipinos fit
within being Asian because we're
a different kind of Asian.
I don't eat chicken, tika, masala and naan.
I eat dosa and chutney and pong.
What other kind of stereotypes o
you find you have to fight that
Asians aren't really seen as leaders?
You know, we often refer
to the bamboo ceiling.
I face maybe other types of racm
or microaggressions. They're qu,
they're hard workers,
but they're not leaders.
School staff told our families o
only speak to us in English at .
There's kind of a loss of langue
and a loss of culture going on there.
What makes you proud?
My family makes me really proud.
Community makes me proud. Watchg
family members prepare the foodd
understand stories behind the f,
the dancing, the movies.
Growing up in 90s, it was never
sexy or cool to be Korean, righ?
But if you look today, you know,
Korean pop music is very popula.
Everyone knows BTS, everyone ass
me where the best Korean BBQ is,
this desire to kind of reclaim our culture,
you know, go back to our roots d
learn from the communities and e
countries where our families came from.
My name is Raj Sundar. I'm
ready. Try it again.
My name is Mari Sugiyama.
I am a proud Japanese American.
All right, I'm ready.
Sam Cho, Korean American.
My name is Raj Sundar and I'm a proud
Indian American. My
name is Shell Sundana Gary.
And I'm Filipino American.
OK, that's it.