One of the things I wish is that I could say hello in all the languages that are
represented at this convention and in this Chicago area which includes more
than 65,000 native people and a hundred and seventy-five different tribes and I
thank you for letting us be here I am profoundly grateful did you want to
applaud for that you can
I am profoundly grateful to stand before you as the 2019 president of the
American Psychological Association thank you
some of the members of my family are here today and I want to thank them
because they are my foundation so family I'm gonna call your name and you stand
up my sisters Oh Theodore Chen Carioca Sheena and Kara's husband Johnny Oh Josh
Sheena and my brother Larry Phillips my son Michael I kill Apollo David and my
best friend and partner in the whole wide world
my husband John Davis he may be in the back anyway stand up oh there you
but I have I have some I have some more family so y'all can stand to the rest of
the family stance and they're my sisters who are here with me doctors Alvino Rey
Albright and her husband and dr. Barbara Henley and her husband and wish you all
please just thank them
I don't had a lot of help in graduate school dr. Murray Bach LC and dr. Bruce
Wong shining little Bruce's in the house but some other people I'd like to stand
on my presidential team cheer by dr. Michael Hendrix and they included dr.
Miller Vasquez then the forest Olivia Morehead
slaughter bravado Gary get back and Sonya Candice Hargens ill Turner Linda
and a rainy Stanford and about a hundred and twenty five other people any of you
in the audience please stand oh by the way and they include the
co-chairs of my science advisory cabinet doctors Diane Halpern and run resisting
I stand on the shoulders of presidents who preceded me including our current
past president dr. Jessica Henderson Daniel and all past presidents of APA if
you're in the audience would you please stand
oh and it's a big job to be president of APA there a lot of people who help the
Board of Directors so I'm gonna answer these people to stand and then y'all
just join in as the group stands the board of directors would you stand the
council leadership team would you stand and just keep standing the council
leadership team okay members of the council representatives would you stand
and voice and committee members if you're out there please stand a newly
formed act advocacy advisory Coordinating Committee you stand
thanks Bruce I see you up there standing and the executive management team led by
CEO Arthur Evan to see the staff of APA the convention stand and then my folk
who keep me going Joe and mercy Maureen O'Brien
amber donors from a Pierre anybody state associations and divisions president
stand yeah
it takes a it takes a village now I ran on a theme of dream big and do
more and in critical times like these we really need more than ever but we must
embrace our science and that's why people call and ask us to talk on CNN
and those kind of places because I psychological science is what gets us
going and so we I desperately want to understand why fear is so easily
kindling the human spirit and why it's so hard to eradicate I want to
understand how we can allow our society to be so divided and I don't understand
shootings in El Paso and Dayton and New Zealand in Paris and I don't understand
the churches being burned in this sound I do not understand targeting Muslims
and Jews and brown people and little black boys and little trans girls I
don't so in order to try and help the public understand science we did a video
festival because we want people to understand nearly 200 people did videos
to help the public try to understand something about psychological science
and I was struck by those videos as I review them one especially on harmony
and how much better we work together when we do things together you can see
those over at the convention in the registration area over the next few days
you'll get a chance to look at some of the things we've done with poverty we
have here somebody who's not a psychologist but somebody who lives in
the community that is helping with deep poverty in Memphis Tennessee I hope you
will take advantage and go and see that we will debut a poverty toolkit
developed by our deep poverty workgroup chaired by dr. Wendy Williams there's a
session on working with poor people so you can see poor people and earn a
living there's a session there so there's a lot going on here I am just
proud and humble and for those of you who don't know in 1967 52 years ago dr.
Martin Luther King jr. took the stage at our convention he said he was taking a
moment from his day to day demands in the struggle for human free
to discuss dignity and issues surround this around struggle and he thought that
we could do a good job he said we were good people dr. King talked about
poverty in that speech and then in 1968 he traveled to Memphis where those poor
people were fighting against poverty they were fighting for the sanitation
workers his life was violently snatched away and I told you my dad was one of
those people that dr. King died here so I stand here as part of the fulfillment
of dr. King's dream and although my standing here is not enough to fulfill
their dream it's good enough to keep hope alive
and and I I believe that we can answer the call to send her back because we go
back voluntarily we go back to fight for freedom for every individual we fight so
that no little child will go hungry we go back to fight for immigrants and
cages we go back to fight for escape mountains and calm rivers we go back to
fight for an outstanding education for every individual to fight for access to
health care we go back we go back to fight for black people and brown people
and yellow people and white people and for people we go back we go back we go
back we go back
yeah yeah
yeah yeah we go back to fight for the science and practice of psychology you
don't have to send us back we go back because we were psychologists in that
fight is one of my dear friends it is now my pleasure to present the APA Award
for outstanding lifetime contributions to psychologists to dr. Daryl Wing Tsun
so dr. Darrel wingsu is one of the most esteemed multicultural researchers
educators mentors teachers who live today from serving as a consultant to
presidents to advising graduate students dr. Seuss wise counsel has touched the
lives of hundreds of thousands of people there are you're a global leader in
psychology and social justice as this evidence value of more than a hundred
and fifty publications and editor ships multiple leadership and service
endeavors and commitment to fostering the next generation of social adjust
psychologists your numerous writings have influenced over several generations
of psychologists to incorporate cutting-edge phenomena such as cultural
competencies and microaggression theory into their daily practice teaching
research and public advocacy work through your courageousness and
challenging predominant monocultural and ethnocentric psychological paradigms you
have made the invisible visible by revealing social injustice is that
marginalize and prevent people from reaching their optimal levels of human
development it is my great honor my great pleasure to present you with the
2019 APA Award for outstanding lifetime contributions to psychology
I am pleased honored and humbled to accept this award and to join past
recipients I have long admired and respected I would like to thank my good
friend and colleague dr. Rosie Phillips Davis and the American Psychological
Association for this great honor special thanks goes to my diverse professional
family to numerous to name but they know who they are to Division 17 the Society
of Counseling Psychology and to division 45 for the psychological study of
culture ethnicity and race they provided me with a home in the profession and
sustained nurtured and validated my work on cultural competence the psychology of
racism and social justice I would also like to thank my many students past and
present who have journeyed with me on the path of multiculturalism and social
justice they have been the inspiration that have provided me the insights and
vision to carry out my work but no one has been more important to me in my work
than my wife paulina who has taught me the importance of family and provided me
with her life that has allowed me to continue my research and work how she
puts up with my work obsession and long hours of the office is beyond me I know
that she dislikes me doing this but paulina could you please stand she's
right there
we have been married for 46 years my research has been on helping others to
hear the voices and concerns of those most silenced marginalized and oppressed
in our nation they have taught me that empirical reality must be balanced with
experiential reality listening to their voices and concerns have made me realize
that our worth as living beings derives from the collective relationships we
have with our people that we are people of not only intellect but also emotions
intuitions and spirituality psychological science in this attempt to
be overly objective and dispassionate oftentimes ignores this important aspect
of the human condition I accept this award on their behalf and thank them for
teaching me that a science of human behavior that fails to recognize a
holistic aspect of the human condition is a profession that it's emotionally
spiritually and morally bankrupt thank you again for this great honor