Transcripts For CSPAN3 1960s Asian American Activism 20160820

Has the league curator on the project karens focus was to , empower the individual voices that were unknown up to that time. One of her most remarkable skills through the process was just to listen. She listened carefully, compassionately and with the critical mindset to understand better the experiences of these former inmates. She worked diligently with our exhibition designers to provide a powerful platform for these voices to be heard missing their making their stories accessible, compelling, and relevant to a multigenerational audience. Intersecting the past, the present and the future. In typical fashion, in typical ja fashion, karen is quick to deflect credit and pass it on to those who worked with her. But the truth is as a leader her , methodology of engagement was inspirational for all of us. Watching her interact with so many individuals who endured the camp experience she illustrated , a Compassionate Care for them and their stories. As a result everyone on that team wanted to make sure that our work would also reflect that same dedication, sensitivity and care she gave to each and every one of the stories. Her book serve the people, making asianamerican the long 1960s is her news work. It tells the story using firstperson voices of the social and cultural movements that brought together many of our disparate communities into a more unified political unity. Help me welcome dr. Karen ishizuka. [applause] dr. Karen ishizuka that is the nicest clement has ever been to me. [laughter] thats because i acknowledged him as being the most important person that the museum and i really mean it and anybody who knows the museum knows what i mean. Thank you for coming today. Im especially gratified that so many activists who actually helped make asian america are here today. Of course, there are 1000 more people who helped make asian america that i couldve included in the book. But what people like kathy he was here, david, and so many others of you asian america , would not exist with all that you provided, the substance and the soul and the stories that make up through the people. It is very fitting that the panel today is taking place during the 50th anniversary of the black Liberation Movement that is being commemorative right now with events across the country. As ive read remarks about this half century milestone, they resonate with me because they sound like they are talking about us. For example, the sncc legacy project wrote, the call of black power lead to new goals and redefine the measures of success inspiring a new generation of activists. It called for a black consciousness, establishing new independent organizations and institutions that were controlled by black people. It shaped personal as well as political activism. So in a very real way they are speaking about us. Stuart hall, the former black foremost black british political thinker said that when black was first coined it signified the common experience of racism and marginalization. More downhome, my friends went to her cousins wedding in the crenshaw district and chuck, who was black, asked where they only why are they only playing black music from the 1960s and 1970s . And mari answered because its a wedding. In los angeles, 10,001 gold creams, cantonese food, james brown and earth wind and fire. It was not just l. A. Lawson inada said been musically most loved and played was negro music. It was something we could share in, in common, like a lingua franca in our code communities. In our distorted reality of aliens and alienation it even felt like citizenship. Thats because yellow isnt is neither white nor black but in so far as asians and africans share a subordinate position for the master class yellow is a shade of black and , black a shade of yellow. It in this historic and National Context im so pleased to be joined by activists young and not so young. Or maybe old and not so old. In looking back in the making of asianamerican looking ahead to the work that needs to be done. I have the amazingly good cahang to have jeff right the intro to my book. Jeff chang wrote cant stop wont stop, the foremost book on hiphop. Who we be, the colorization of america. In it he writes, there was a term when dust of the time of the term asian america was not a demographic category but a fight you are picking with the world. This book is about that fight. Most asianPacific Islanders now have grown up with so many asianamerican and is in Pacific Island organization that asianamerican has become neutralized into a mere adjective. Its been depoliticized. Until the 1960s, there were no asianamericans. We were chineseamericans, japaneseamericans, filipino americans who constituted the majority of asian ethnic groups in the country at the time. By 1970, 80 of japaneseamericans and 50 of chineseamericans and filipino americans were born in the u. S. But regardless, rather than americans, we were lumped together as orientals. Because we were nonwhite, we are subject to the dominant and white, the dominance of whiteness and subsequent subordination taste by all americans of color. Neither were we black in a society that was rendered in black and white. Hence we composed a liminal category, foreigners in our own country. During the 1960s and social change was happening around the world we realized two important things. One, as separate asian ethnic groups we were overlooked and ignored. Two, assimilation not only did not work it was no longer the , goal. War, aby the vietnam racist war against People Like Us and pulled by the promise of , the third world that called for selfdetermination rather than assimilation, asians throughout the u. S. Came together to form a political identity of Asian Americans and in order to be seen and heard. With this new voice we created a new world. It marked the end of our being sidelined as orientals and the emergence of a homeland we called asian america. Like the parable of the blind man, each describing the elephant differently depending on whether they were holding its long trunk or its thin tail or broadside there are conflicting memories, analyses and conclusions about making asianamerica. There is no single correct interpretation just as there is no single correct political line. As a feminist said of the new left, no unified center couldve represented the multiplicity and variety of perspectives and activities. This book is about the fight. This new world we created. It is told her stories of people who fought that could fight. Jeff chang also wrote the preface in 1969 asian america was about young people waking to their in betweeness between black and white, migrants and citizens, silence and screaming. Finding collective relief and mass up willing a feeling. Through the people in the history of what it felt like to live in those times. Its this sense of what it felt to live in those times that i attempted to capture in the book. Every person i interviewed would maintain the asianamerican movement was greater than their part in it but a movement does not make itself. Social movements are more the demonstrations and demands, political slogans and ideologies. They begin with individual epiphanies. Ah ha moments that demand to be heard. I called on activists among the first to transform themselves and others from orientals the asianamericans. I talked with as many and as different kinds of people within the constraints of time and resources. About 120 over approximately eight years. Some were movers and shakers and others were grunts, the proletariat of the movement. All were makers of history. I asked them to share personal discoveries and experiences that led to their intervention as contributors to the social change. Together, their discoveries, activism and reflections are symbolic of our generation of political cohorts as a whole. In this way, this book is more theirs that is mine. The book does not tell the whole story. No one book or film or exhibit can. One of the agendas that i had is to really encourage, inspire or even provoke people to also put their stories down paper. It does tell some of the most amazing, awful, and wonderful stories from across the country ive ever heard. Like helen in boston who was called to stand trial by her africanamerican and asianamerican comrades who demanded she tell them whether or not she was a lesbian. Because homosexuality was a white bourgeois disease and they can nothing to do with her she was. Bea tam in San Francisco who married harvey dong. In between picketing, she went out to buy a new dress before running to city hall to get married and back to join the picket line where she was teased by the strikers on the line because in her haste she had bought a scab dress from macys, which they recognized as one they had sewn. I hope you read some of the other stories in the book. Now i have the honor and pleasure of introducing four activists and very good friends. And also one of her younger activists who is carrying on the work that needs be done. The reading from the book before mike murase emigrated at the age of nine he had been given a book about Abraham Lincoln freeing the slaves. When he landed in San Francisco he noticed that all the people in uniforms were white and all the people who were hauling the cargo were black. And i said to myself, he said, i thought these people are free. Not long after that the black white dichotomous a zation of the u. S. Was made clear to mike by means of his black and White Television sets. Since his family had settled in South Central of a most of mikes parents were black and asian. At that time i thought like people run television and black people populated reallife. Mike is currently the director of Service Programs with the Little Tokyo Service center. He is a serial facebook longer blogger and facebook social justice entrepreneur. One of the Many Organizations he founded. 1968 and 1969, mike was instrumental in organizing the first asianamerican study center in the country and ucla and also the newspaper deidra, the monthly of the asianamerican experience which was the first, foremost, and longest running asianamerican newspaper. He has continued his activism nonstop from that time forward. But as i said its important to , remember that although the terms asianamerican and api are commonplace now before the asianamerican movement they did not exist. Mike was there at the very beginning. The most revolutionary moment creating while manifesting a new asianamerican political consciousness. I wanted mike to begin because he can share what it was like to create something from nothing. Mike . [applause] mike murase thank you very much, karen. That was very eloquent. I think you should just keep going but i will try to add to the discussion. I want to thank karen for inviting me to speak here but , more importantly for the book that she wrote. As you can probably tell, it was a monumental effort to capture a period in our lives and in society and to tell it in an accurate truthful narrative. I think thats something thats really lacking in our movement. Before i begin to talk about some of my experiences also want to acknowledge many activists who fought in the trenches with me and fought together who are still here today. I think when we talk about the assessment of the asianamerican movement that began, the first picture was 46 years ago. It did not begin with us. I think it was a period of time when many things coalesced. The friends that i made during that period are still my friends today. Because we struggled together i think we have a special bond that we dont have with other people. Im given about nine minutes to talk about my reflections. Ill probably have to talk and not in complete sentences but just about random words. Youll have to kind of catch the meaning of what im saying. I think youll understand. If i could steal time for any of the other speakers, i like to do that to. [laughter] karen talk about context. Someone told me a long time so that text without context is pretext. Text without context is pretext. You have to have the whole picture to understand a kernel of something thats being told to you. I think about that a lot and i think karen did provide the context and does so in her book. The context for us, not only my personal history that karen talked about but in the world has that time of the latebreaking six. And in this country there are many things going on outside asianamerican communities. The National Context is that in the long struggle of black in black people in this country to gain equality and political power there was a resurgence during the 1950s and 1960s that impact a lot of asianamerican. The Civil Rights Movement with dr. King, sncc, malcolm x, black and other party, cesar chavez, united farmworkers, the brown berets, many others. There was the student movements, Neighborhood Community movements. The womens movement. Peace and antiimperialist movements. There was the counterculture. That was challenging the value system as they existed at that time. That was the National Context. Globally it was the aftermath of world war ii. This was right after eisenhower, kennedy. The u. S. And soviet union were establishing themselves as the predominant superpowers. But the wrath africa, asia and latin america people were standing up and struggles to free themselves from the yokut yoke of colonialism. China stood up against british domination and imperialism. Vietnam struggled for national liberation. All across africa they were kicking out the portuguese british, dutch and other , colonial powers. Whenever you think of the developments in those countries from that point on, i think you have to look at it from when we talk about the asianamerican movement from the lens of what was going on at the time. I think we were influenced by both those national and global context in very profound ways. There was a quote that i found made by a chinese representative. Red china, communist china, whenever negotiating with the u. S. It was trying to some of the world at that time. He said, wherever there is oppression there is resistance. Countries want independence nations want liberation and , people want revolution. Irresistibleing trend in history. And we in the Asian American movement in many ways embrace that old statement of whats going on throughout the world. A lot to take in. In the beginning we were exposed to things that we never really thought about prior to that or imagined possible. Things that we were not prepared for. We were young people. We had to just muster up the courage to do what we thought was right. We said lets march. Lets picket. Well talk to strangers but racism and war. Study history, read the news, struggle to develop consensus. Make a speech, right something. We did all those things. We learned by acting. It was in that milieux that the asianamerican movement was incubated. In its essence it was an effort to say we want to be connected to our own history in america. We want to understand where we came from, what weve done. We want to learn things from our perspectives, not from the point of view of someone else and then change would needed changing. As karen mentioned, we engage in struggles in her own communities. But having that broader context made us realize quickly my con commonalities of our plight and our struggles. That led us to spawning the foot of a country called asian america. I have to skip over some parts. Think there are a lot of stories to tell. But i think if we did that and acknowledged all the activist here if we told our individual , stories, we would be here until the 4th of july. I only have 9 minutes. Probably only be minutes left. Let me just get to the lesson that i learned. Some of the lessons i have to say the asianamerican movement is a broad movement. It involved many hundreds of thousands of people across the country. There were different sectors, different tendencies. There were people who are focused on the arts come a of his son writing, fist on research, focused on activities. Organizing a lot of things. There were also differences of opinion on how to approach different questions. Even a political range from progressive. We thought of ourselves universally reformists. So there was a range politically. I happen to embrace ideas that i think are considered left. Some people call it radical, revolutionary. But that is the sector of the asian america that i worked with. So the first lesson was theory and practice. Ok. We were always skeptical about people who was all talk and no action. And we were critical of ourselves when we didnt act on our beliefs. People referred to as the insprablet of theory and ractice. When you think something had to done, you have to sum it up, learn lessons from it and move on. You couldnt do it by just sitting in the library. There was a lot of trial and error. But we acted and we tried to change and made things better. And as the actual act of being involved that taught us the lessons that we needed to learn to raise our consciousness and figure out what was right and wrong as we move forward. Thats theory and practice. Another lesson that i learned was collective action and organization. The movement was not for the most part, the aggregate of just individuals acting on their own. But it was a movement of a collective of people marching in step. It didnt mean mindlessly. It meant working together, thinking things out. But it was always a combination of standing leaders. Weve had many outstanding leaders in the movement but also many people just acting together. And sometimes we butted heads but mostly, we stood shoulder to shoulder, locked arms and marched on. For myself, for many years, i worked for worked in the movement under the collective wisdom of a disciplined organization. It provided me the guidance for my work and gave me bearings for my world view. Acked i said, none of us alone in a changed society. Acted alone in a changed society. Before karen wrote her book, there had been a handful of books about summarizing the asianamerican movement and many of us who took part in that movement are not quite satisfied feel that they accurately represent the movement that we were a part of. I think a lot of these socalled holarly books and articles attempt to provide analysis but one which is tend to be negative and dismissive of the experience of we went through. And that argument goes Something Like this. This is not a direct quote but somethings just that i wrote that sort of represents that. Asianamerican movement started out as being a good thing but as different transforms and cos colessed into the organization, the differences among them became antagonistic and sectarianism became the dominant force that destroyed the movement. Ow for many of you who did not participate in the movement, all of this might be kind of like over your heads or doesnt make sense to you or not relevant, but for many of us who did participated in the movement, i think, you know, this i wont say prelimic, but this discussion is deserving of more analysis because i think for people to think that the movement somehow disappeared or died or went away and to consider the Asian Movement as a historic relic, i think is a wrong analysis. I think in my mind, anyway, there are the continuation of the asian America Movement 60s on through the 70s and 80s and 90s and even to today, i think we dont call it that and maybe the earlier period what was more of a heyday of the movement. But i happen to believe that its something that continues. In terms of the sectarian and other mistakes that were made tend to characterize the asianamerican movement as overall negative or a failure. I think its, again, like missing the point. When you look at the many contributions that were made and i would again point to many asianamerican activists in this years later 47 were Still Standing on our feet. Were still active in our communities at various things. That, itself, is a testament. Another is that there have been byproducts of the movement in creating values, work meadowlands, aspirations for our community and institutions like the asianamerican study center. And i dont pretend to think that only asianamerican activists contributed to the development of those things. But we think that as a collective, we had a great deal to do with it. So despite the sectarianism, amateurists and hundreds of we r mistakes that we made, do think we changed minds and hearts in raising consciousness and improving peoples lives in a material way so much if anyone says sectarianism was the main character of the movement, theyre full of thats a joke. I hope you got the joke. But anyway. Today, many activists, young and old are involved in important work, do community organizing, serving the people and all. But i want to say its kind of a final thing. A lot of people are involved in nonprofit sector, volunteerbased organizations and ack dem ya and electoral work. And with very good intentions. Very movementminded people. But i think its a mistake to think that progressives can make fundamental change, revolutionary change, the kind of thing that we need in this society to real sectors alone. I think those are very important institutions or sectors to participate in. I happen to be in three of those four sectors. But i think we also have to take the time to embrace social justice agenda and policy and take part in protest politics to involve ourselves in movement litics to really think about the continuation of sort of developing ideas and about how do we bring about fundamental change in this society . So like this year, the election this year is kind of a scary year and i think we have to be involved the electoral process for sure. But also, we have to be involved in many other aspects of our social change. I said finally, but this is really finally. Now the other lesson is that to have a broad overview a world view. Internationalism, building unity with other communities. I think all of us kind of recognize that already and so i might be speaking to preaching to the choir, but it is not enough to just say we have to be concerned about the japaneseamerican community. Just to be concerned about little tokyo. Just to be concerned about whatever goes on around us immediately. T to really build ties with within the asianamerican communities but also with acks, latinos, women, lbgt communities and in particular, for us to understand whats going on with the international situation. This idea that muslims cannot come into this country or that mexicans will be walled out of this country. I think i mean, those are serious, you know, things that we need to really embrace. And i think people do that. People who have been in the asianamerican movement has that. So what have i learned personally from all these experiences . I think that being involved in the struggle made me a better person. Hats sort of a selfish thing. It taught me to appreciate the diversity of society, to respect poor and working people who struggle every day, to listen better to check myself when im going off track, to have a healthy revulsion to not only those like the 1 percenters, but those who want to make America Great again. And, you know, when we think about it, history is not cyclical. Its kind of in a spiral we come through these periods every once in a while. Whether its with reagan or with trump or whatever. We have a lot of work to do. As progressive people generally, we can continue to make changes. Thank you. [applause] dr. Karen ishizuka thank you, mike. Reading from the book again, warren had been a weekend surfer , a kier leader who was voted best personality in high school, a typical Southern California teenager before he came one of the students of color in the Innovative College Readiness Program in 1968 in san mateo college. One of the hallmarks of the program was for students of each of participating racial gloop to learn how to speak in public. Because there were few asians in the program, warrens turn came around often. Here, ive been this kid from gar deana who also did things the right way. I didnt want to be different. I wanted to be like everybody else. But when i started developing my voice, it gave me power. Geez, it gave me power. Now warren has parlayed his Community Activism into electoral politics recently. And im pleased to say is on the brink of becoming our next california state senator. He is currently in the top two for the runoff in november. So i hope we all go out and beat the bushs and get those extra votes that warren needs because we need him. Now we need good people in all places. And warren is one of the few a. P. I. Progressives who have made the personal and economic sacrifices to represent us in public office. He has the opportunity to upset policy but also to change stereotypes of asians as quiet and acquiescent. Here is warren taking assemblyman don wagner out for his racist remark on the floor of the assembly in 2011. I remember when this came out, we were just all so proud of you, warren. Warren was also one of the few two traveled outside their local geographic fear of activism in the early days and got a feel for the spontaneous risings that were happening around the nation. His unique Vantage Point gives us a feel for the National Nature of the burgeoning asianamerican movement. So warren. [applause] good afternoon, everybody, and thank you, karen. If we could change that picture, i would appreciate it. [laughter] im sure its going to be in the hit in terms of do you want to elect this crazy person . But i wanted to be here this saturday to speak on the panel because having this book to serve the people is really critical as far as im concerned from the standpoint of having someone write it that was a part of the movement. Rather than from a third person afar of someone that was in the trenches, someone that was a participant, clearly in every possible way and even with the family that was a participant is really important perspective and point of view. Plus, i wanted to use this opportunity to correct and i havent read the whole book yet. Ive been little busy, but i did sneak a peek about a couple of pages where she wrote about me. And i have never been a cheerleader. I just want you to know that. [laughter] that is not a part of what ive done. Gardena. Personality in high school but interestingly, the myth was a dear friend named julie jefferson, africanamerican woman who came from working class family but julie was sort of one of those individuals that was the glue that brought people together. And her family was very thoughtful in that they had a big family room in the back of the house where we always had a party and i came to find out later that the reason they did that and always allowed us to have parties there was because then they always knew where their daughters were at. They were in the back room. So it made a lot of sense to them. But julie was the one who taught us all to dance. Julie was always the life of the party. Julie definitely had a personality whereas mine because i dont think people could find a reason to dislike me. I was so wallflowerish and sort of two dimensional. It wasnt difficult to find that maybe we dont like him, but if they really like me, i would have been the most popular, not the personality. So julie goes off to college in her and her familys tradition to go to a historic black institution in the south. So she left the life of the party. Everybodys friends. She had a Mary Tyler Moore hairdo at that time. Long straight hair that was flipped up at the end. She was africanamerican. Went to knoxville university. And she was gone for about a year. Our partying really tapered off at that time because julie wasnt around. When she came back rather than the Mary Tyler Moore hairdo, she now had a really big natural. And we kept losing stuff in it, losing pencils, losing just could not find them once they entered that universe. But she also came back not the life of the party anymore, but really pissed off and angry. 1996, 1966, she was confronted by a south coming from a middle class working family. Her father was a lifelong postman. Mother was a clerk at the local elementary school. Her sister went to college. She was going to college. And she came back angry and mad. Never having this experience. So im talking to julie about when were going to to the kappa house, the next dance, the next party. And julie said were going to hear Stokley Carmichael speak. So i pretty much did what julie said in those days because it was always fun. And i went to south park and watt and had not really knew who Stokley Carmichael was but had gotten an inkling and the percolation, you couldnt help at 19, mid 1960s, you couldnt stand on the sidelines without being affected by what was going on in the black Power Movement and the growing latino brown Power Movement, what was going on in the vietnam war, what was going on in the womens movement. There was so much Political Movement you couldnt help but feel the bubble common sense all of the activity. So i went to hear Stokley Carmichael speak, one of the new nonblacks in the audience. I knew by that time as well as i could dance and i could dance, let me tell you. That i wasnt black. I figured that out. I wanted to be as much as possible, but i also wanted to a surfer. And so i grew up in gardena so you were split a lot of different ways. But i wanted when i heard carmichael speak, he said the most important thing for black people to do was to define themselves for themselves and by themselves. And as i said, i had reached the understanding that i wasnt black. So i didnt think he was talking to me. And then some time after that, not too long after, i have this epiphany, this aha moment that karens talking about that we all have. Where i said wait a minute. If i take out black and i put in oriental, its exactly the same thing. And my brothers and i learned pretty early that people had a hard time pronouncing our name. We didnt know why. Japanese names are pretty easy because we put a vowel every other letter. So its pretty easy. But every time you went to class and i was not warren for a long time. Youngpavel for most of my ife. So i was always tavel to my friends, even. But i figured out pretty quickly theyre having a hard time for last names. They were not going to do real well with tavel. So i then became warren in kindergarten. But you learn other things pretty quickly relative to how different you are. The first day you bring your school lunch. This became a part of my experience and my brothers and i knew that when we went to disney land, you didnt hang your camera around your neck and walk around. And all of these other assumptions that we dealt with, prejudices, preconceived profiles. Why did i have to take physics . I was terrible at math. But i still took physics. I knew about the tracking system. If i got in the class and jane was in the class, i knew i was screwed. If i got in the class and larry fuller was there, i not only knew i was in a class that i could handle academically, and i also knew that larry sat in front of you because we always sat alphabetically. There were universal truths and the developing of my understanding of the world. But then i got to this point of being tired of these assumptions that people had about me and just sort of rebellious feeling of wanting to chart my own path. And then that i realized at that concept that carmichael spoke about was not a plaque or africanamerican concept, it was a human concept. And it was applicable across the board. And so i started to apply it. I started to redefine myself, for myself and by myself. And in that context, i stumbled ignorantly for the longest time. But in my ramblings, i started to run into other people, other people like mona tschida when i came to los angeles. This was preSan Francisco state strike and prethird world strike at berkeley. And we had a big rally because our Program Funding was cut. We brought in all these nontraditional students to get a college education. We started to have demonstrations as was said by karen. He speech was coming up a lot. Chinese kids from San Francisco chinatown, and the africanamericans from the filmore. And also east palo alto, we had latinos from the Mission District and redwood city. We had American Indians from a local reservation down the peninsula. We had White Working Class kids. My turn kept coming up to speak. And bob hoover, the director of the program demanded we always had a black, latino, white, americanindian and asian woman. We all spoke. And what started happening is i started to get a voice. It was based upon being angry and being pissed off and realizing that certain realities existed that i then could impact. So i started using con step about talking about the negativity and the food and what that meant to me. The key part of our understanding was understand our identity, who we were. And if you want to understand who you were you go to two places to find that out. One, you go to history books. The genus of your life, your community, your story. No history books. So where do you go then . You go to live history. Our parents. My dad promoted to my brothers and i dont be afraid to be different. Dont be afraid to be different. We all wanted to be like everybody else. Just to give you a small example. I want a basketball for christmas. So we bought me a yellow basketball. Who in the hell has a yellow basketball . [laughter] dont be afraid to be different. In that context, we started stumbling around. It was interesting to me to run into people you had no connection with that were going through the very same thing you were going through. You felt like this . Yeah. Me, too. Then you start finding out it is not just individuals you are running into. You are running into groups of people. And fortunately, and as i became more involved in the community after being arrested at the college of san mateo, i got invited to speak at this are you yellow . Onference at berkeley. I got invited to speak and i was the one that was arrested. That was my only credential. I was giving voice to my anger, to contradictions, to why is it this way, when it should be hat way . For japaneseamericans, the big touchstone in our history is the camps. When you talked about camps and the hushed over tones that always took place when families got together and when strangers wanted to find out some reference point, suddenly, and maybe not for the first question, what kind of car you drive, was, where you were in camp . Did you know so and so in that camp . Or did you know so and so in that camp . Although that context was always there, it still did not provide any real depth of understanding until those of us that were born after camp started asking questions that really werent welcomed by the japaneseamerican community. But if you cant find a history book, you go to those that lived the history to find out the story. And thats why ethnic studies became so important. Because ethnic studies was the manifestation of taking these live, living words, ideas, stories and putting them into a context where people have access to it beyond just sharing it over dinner. It would be institutionalized, it would be a part of this education system. As we did did this another context was the vietnam war. You would look at people that were fighting for and against that you were looking at the victims of this war and you notice that they looked like hunched over, old, spoke different languages but they were family. And as i saw this and ran into other people that saw it, put it in other contexts, then you started to realize it was not only in los angeles but it was in the bay area. It was in seattle. In new york, in chicago. It was everywhere there were asianamericans. It wasnt like we had a dr. King, we did not have a malcolm x. It wasnt like we had Harriet Tubman who went around and spread the seed, nurtured the plants and watch them grow. You would go to all the different people running into disparate people with disparate experience but have the same touchtone. We all came to the same threshold called asian america. We all crossed over simultaneously at the same time with the same feelings and our voice took shape in song, in dance, it took shape healthwise, people wanted to be barefoot doctors, into asian healing arts. People went into philosophy, into politics. So many branches grew off the so many branches grew off the trunk of the tree, with the trunk being the Asian American movement. Those branches have grown with a lot of different flowers and blossoms and different leaves, but that is what this movement is and that is why what mike said is true. It did not end. It took different forms. If you look at the banyan tree, a lot of the branches grow back into the ground and form roots for other trees, and that became the movement. That is the movement. We are still part of the movement. That is why your heart and when you see somebody at 74 running for president of the United States and he wants to be called a democratic socialist. Those of us that come from the 1960s, we are not afraid of the word socialism. There was sectarianism. People went so far left they came around right, became fundamentalist. There was no room for creative thought or different thoughts. You had to follow the dogma. That became the death knell to creative ideas. People had to reinvent themselves. In that we continue to grow the movement. And so, this book is important but the thing that karen told me from day one and i was fortunate to read some of the drafts. She told me she hopes the reason this book is such a seminal pieces it will challenge people to write their story, what they saw it as, what context they put it in, how they grew. So, thats why i think this was important, not as a trip down memory lane, but as a piece, another step, a starting place, whatever you want to call it to talk about social justice and where we as asian Pacific Islander americans fit into it. That the work is not done. So, ive been browbeat a bit. Are you going to be an elected official . You are selling out. I have had to tell other people ive had to tell people i am not afraid to speak im not afraid to go beyond the small pond and get into the bigger pond because i know we have been successful in empowering our community. Its a dangerous area, i grant you. It is a subject of arrogance, abuse. What were talking about is not empowering our community. What were talking about his is political power. And thats different. Political power is different than empowering. I have personal individual arrogance to think i can handle power, that i make decisions that affect those that live in our communities but im ready to go out there and talk to people that think im a jerk, a progressive that should not be elected. That is how hard im willing to work to get elected, get the money needed to do this. So, thats why i do what i do. I am 68 going on 69. Damn it, im not done yet. Thank you. [applause] ms. Ishizuka see the photo . The photo tells it all once again, reading from the book, im introducing chris. When he attended cal state long beach, having grown up in an allencompassing japanese cosmos, it was the first time she had been in a nonasian centric environment. When she took in art history class and discovered that she was unfamiliar with many of the biblical references others took for granted, she was astonished to learn how the standard of art in this country was so predominantly judeochristian. As a graphic artist, i think that is why she said, as a graphic artist, she noticed you need some point of reference to pull from in order to convey information. I think thats why my imagery is so Asian American. This is chris. Third from the left with the big hair. And mike is on, third from the right. Mike is on the far right. Many of you will recognize the others in this campaign of Community Redevelopment around 1975. Chris is a Graphic Designer and artist whose work has formed a visual identity for th japanese american and Asian Pacific american communitye. While based in los angeles, her work is been nationally known across the country. Chriss work was featured in the spread, asians Pacific Islander Community Posters in 1980, a 10year retrospective. Some of hers are on the right, right here. So chris will be showing some of for other work from the 1970s and 1980s, because it was not just the demonstrations and the rhetoric that got us to where we are. A lot of it was visual and things that touch to the soul in ways that may be we did not quite understand then. So, chris. [applause] thank you very much, karen. I hope i do good. I hope i do you good. Thank you very much for writing this book. It is a very important book wit information to understandh what the Asian American movement was about. Before i show slides, i wanted to give you context and what my work was about. So, one of the things that karen asked was how critical were the arts in the area of political, social and Community Activism . To me, activism is supported by an exchange of ideas, and ideas can be exchanged can be verbally and visually. Before the rewards, there were images and sound. Different art forms were created from different experiences presented to music, performance, visual arts, and the written arts. Those experiences provided an alternative means to see and understand information and to communicate and support change. Years ago, an activist told me making art is a bourgeois endeavor. People needed to put their time into talking to people to bring about change. What this person did not understand was by practicing art one was developing skills to communicate ideas to support change in a much more effective manner. Art in whatever form can leave a longlasting impression. It can make words more relatable and familiar. Together, sorry. Together, the message is stronger. A broad exposure to art helps to create a broader means of communication. This sense is often created by rearranging familiar traditions to reflect new experiences. Art, whether music, performance, visual or written, helps to make the exchange of ideas more interesting. Art is communication. Now, in talking about posters, the function of posters were to provide information on events while at the same time unknowingly creating a marketing time established by the style of art. The responsibility of the artist is to make information accessible. Visual, impact brings attention and awareness. If a poster can make a person response, it is a successful tool whether the imagery used was familiar or curious. Often, oftentimes, the image he creates a reflection of personal experience and visual trends , current or traditional. Though the original purpose of the poster no longer exists, it continues to function as an historical marker, a reminder of what happened and our original vision. Posters also document lessons learned, reflecting on what was in comparison to what is today and what still needs to be accomplished. One of the things in my work is that familiar makes transition easier. We talk about transition, we are talking about change. I grew up in a japaneseamerican buddhist environment, not able to distinguish what was culturally japanese and what was buddhist. It was always around. I never questioned it. I accepted it. Beyond that. I continue to explore this environment to the point of rearranging things to reflect my experiences. This environment helped me establish my visual icons used in my work. As i developed posters, i used images that were familiar to me as a japaneseamerican buddhist, images that were familiar and nonthreatening but curious. Images that were asianamerican. Colors, balance and traditions came together to catch your attention. People responded. The posters did their job. I would like to share with you some of the posters i created from the 1970s into the late 1980s. And i hope i can do this right. So, ok. This is a poster i created in the mid1970s. I had become part of a group called out of a buddhist temple. You started as a chanting group. We started as a chanting group. We discussed a lot of buddhist ideas and how they impacted us here in america. One of the things we dealt with a lot was about, one of the big things in buddhism was dealing with your ego which is interesting because when you go to your performance, it is hard to perform without an ego. So, it was kind of trying to balance those types of things. It was a very good learning experience. This poster was done for the International Womens day concentrating on health care. This poster was done in, also i think in the, here we go, in 1978. This is a poster that is really reflected of trying to use traditional images and include things that are now or part of my left, like mochitsuki has been part of my life. My family has been doing it for 100 years in america. I cant even imagine life without it. This is the second or third poster developed for the Little Tokyo Community mochitsuki was was created to bring people together. It has always been kind of an event as a reunion and for the community of brought people together to work together, to talk story and to understand what the situation in the community was. This was a poster for hito hata, the first asianamerican film created and produced by asianamericans. It was a very monumental endeavor by visual communications, and has the support of the community. I bet half the people in this room were in this movie. In 1983, i was commissioned by the womens building to create a poster in a series they had called private conversations, public places. Immediately, i thought of executive order 9066 when japaneseamericans were taken away to camps. Part of it was to place your piece in a public place. I place it on the corner of first in san pedro. And every day i walked there to see if it was there. On the third day, someone had taken it down. But once i created this poster and what i did is i gave many of them to ncrr for fundraising purposes. I hope you guys made some money. This is another holiday, i guess holiday, in my life. I cant imagine starting the new year without it. This poster was created for jccc. And once again uses icons t represent oshogatsu, good luck icons. Presenting them in a different matter but sort of familiar and announcing their programming. In 1988, the Mark Taper Forum did a play called sensei about hiroshima and the individual members enter history. So, it became a big challenge in creating something that would represent what they did, what their past was, where their music came from and the common history that we also shared with them. This poster was done around 1988. Senshinobon poster. Up into the point, all of these posters look the same. I was thinking lets do something a little bit different. And this is addressing the whole thing about from ones experience, taking tradition from ones experience. For example, the striped lines in the back are usually put out during celebrations. Heres this guy dancing in a summer garment, wearing tennis shoes. Thats what we do in america. They might do it in japan now. The way the imagery is treated and just having fun with it, and it was different from everybody elses obon poster. This final piece was for ncrr for their day of remembrance. Day of remembrance was to me very important and it was a very important thing to remember what it happened and to continue to learn from what had happened. And i just wanted it to be very stark and in your face. So, ive continued to do posters. And things have changed as my life is changed, as ive changed jobs and as i have grown. But posters as art and communication. Thank you. [applause] ms. Ishizuka thank you. I was telling chris it is wonderful to see her work in a sequence like this, because it really made me appreciate and remember all the times that when i first saw it and how much it encapsulated some of the things that we were doing. So, it acts a real visual memory as well as inspiration in going forward. So, to bring is on home is tracy who im proud to say is a fellow angry asian reader of the week. This is tracy. With her eyelashes. Tracys not old enough to have been in the book and have me read some story about her, but there are a lot of revealing stories. She was my intern when i was working here. Tracy is a writer, author, arts educator, and community organizer. Shes the favorite emcee for Community Events and started tuesday night cafe, a free public arts and performance space, which has been named best mic in both the u. S. A. Today and l. A. Weekly. Tracy is representative of a Younger Generation of artists activists. Here i have her with maya osumi, a member of the next generation of asianamerican activists. Lawrence lan wrote a wonderful piece about the book and about this panel. And in it, he opened with a quote from the late great tracy boggs. She said, you have to keep changing because what has happened and what you have been a part of is no no longer there. The ideas that we develop remains in our head. Our challenge constantly is both to learn from the past but also not to be bound by the past. So i asked tracy to bring us into the present and the future and speak to the importance of continuity and interconnectedness for carrying on this legacy of asianamerican Community Activism. Tracy . [applause] thank you. Ill set my timer. This is the first time its, ill always remember this day for many reasons but also because earlier you called me old. Awesome. Its official. Let me set this. So, sometimes, most times we write as we read, to find ourselves, to read the word bouncing around our bones. The text on the page is a magnet that moves the ideas around. Lets some process and congeal with our inner visions. We are moved to the next level of our thinking. And thus our storytelling. Philosophizing, our discussions, conversations, our writing, our poetry. As reading Something Like serve the people is a collaboration between known and unknown, between personal experience and contextual linkage. Between the words bouncing around our bones and the articulations that are allowed and guided to the surface of our lips. So, thank you so much, karen. Its an honor to share the space, as a teeny part of a larger whole of many younger activists. And i have the fondest memory of this basic of being your intern and then your staff to work on americas concentration camps 20 years ago, over 20 years ago. Yes. [laughs] i am old. I can wear it, its cool. When i turned 40, my friend said youre middleage. I have coined the term postyouth. In the process of working with you, and all the people you introduced me to, you affected my language, my vocabulary is, was became transformed and continues to transform because of you. And so many of the folks in this room. And i feel like this book is obviously, the product of a lot of time and countless hours of questions and interviews and discussions an amazing experience you have. And i think this book is also a product of selfdetermination. And in hearing mike and warren and chris talk, i was thinking how much i appreciate how we are all using the word context so much and collectivity and interconnectedness. I was thinking about the things i was raised on. And how i was raised on tv, raised on fewer channels at a time. I was raised on all of us watching roots. It was different from how it is now. I was thinking about how i grew up on all of you. You know . You are such a part of my education as well. And since this is a book release party, i like reading, you know. You get to hear parts of the book. So that is how it i thought i would spend most of my time today is to read different parts of the book. Im so excited to get into all of the rest of it, and these are just a few smatterings of the things that bounced up to me. I want to read from the introduction on page 3. Ill read from this part spurred by the black Liberation Movement, we claimed our place in the United States as americans of color and strength and the multiethnic and strengthened the multiethnic scaffold of u. S. History and identity. This new found consciousness and activism led to an awakening and overhauled how asians in the United States were viewed and more and partly how we viewed ourselves. Against the backdrop of the vietnam war, and the revelation of third world, the concept of Asian American was formed as a political identity developed out of the oppositional consciousness of the long 1960s in order to be seen and heard. And i was thinking a lot about, through this book, what my takeaways are. Thinking constantly about context and the legacy of intersectionality. And the relationship with other communities. And i think to talk about our relationship as Asian Americans and the formation of that identity in our politics and we are talking about the asianamerican community or movement or engagement in any way, to remember its roots and linkage directly to the black Liberation Movement, especially in this day and age when we are trying to reach further into our own community and the japaneseamerican community to remind ourselves of our legacy and thus the work we have to do beyond our own community. As i was also look into this, i went to record to the index. And i was trying to look for some of the questions i have asked with many of my mentors about, so, during the movement, what was it like for queer folks . Im looking at lesbiangay or homophobia. I love that you read a bit. And i would like to read a little bit more from page 198. Helen who had not come out as a lesbian was tried before a court of her comrades. The official position of marxistleninistmaoist groups was antigay. It would say that homosexuality was a disease that was harmful to the working class. It would be vile, just as bad as the catholic or mormon church. I mean, really. It was the same kind of close minded vitriol, but it would be massed in all the scientific marxism, leninism, maoist language. One day helen was called to a meeting of the study group she was part of an boston consisting of african and Asian Americans. Since they were meetings. All the time, she thought nothing of it until she got the when she arrived everyone was sitting in a semi circle. Helen was seated in front of them. She continues, they did not waste any time. The africanamerican leader began, helen, we have noticed you have been hanging around a lot of lesbians. The Africanamerican Community does not accept homosexuality. This is a white disease. If you are a lesbian, we would have to break off ties with you. the asianamericans nodded in agreement and the Asian American leader commanded, tell us, are you lesbian . i was all of 23. I had never dated a woman. I thought, am i a lesbian . I didnt know. My chinese upbringing had taught me to value family. Suddenly my extended family, my community, was threatening to disown me. So, i said, no, im not a lesbian. Then the meeting was over. Everybody was happy. It was like i had said the magic words. And it never came up again. Except for me. It was the equivalent of stepping in the closet and slamming the door shut. Four decades after her trial, having been in touch with her asianamerican inquisitor over the years through their activism, one day helen asked him if he remembered the incident. He said, no, cant say i do. it was as though i had asked him if he recalled the fly that landed on his sleeve 40 years ago. I was struck how such a significant event in my life was nothing to him. It was a clear example of heterosexual privilege in action. But to his credit, he added, but i do not doubt it happened. We were very homophobic then. indeed. I thought that was very striking that in this book, you really allow people to speak for themselves and it gets more and more complex as we go through. And i think that is a great lesson for all of the work we are doing. If im to say anything at all about the Younger Generation, i feel like first of all, im so unqualified in a way that there are probably three ways, i love this photo because theres my age, the 30 and 40 some things. And then you have the twentysomething, and the millennials. Then maya grace, part of the youth. It made me think of one other aspects, gosh, the time goes by so fast. I was thinking about this film that came out not too long ago called uploaded the asianamerican movement. I could get in trouble for this. Im going to say it. I was not of the screen but i was not at the screening, but handfuls of good friends of mine were. And people were challenging some of the folks for the title, the asianamerican movement. And because some people were trying to challenge the fact that centering was around asianamerican cinematic experience and empowerment, kind of centering as starting as of a film called better luck tomorrow in 2002. And so, that sort of critique around calling something the asianamerican movement, but not really bringing it into context for a much larger legacy and picture. And one person was talking about how he did not feel like he had any connection to the real asianamerican movement. But i think with the funny thing is, two things i take away from that. We can get really mad at the millennials and whatnot. One, the maker of the film that they were centering around, one, the maker of the film that they were centering around, justin lin, he comes from an obvious legacy. Two of his principal mentors were bob nakamura and karen are ishizuka. They get to screen this film at the Asian American film festival. We have so much context and we have to know it, though. And the same generation, those folks in the audience challenging it were fellow millennials. So, i was thinking about that and i was reading through this book, that as you all were very different from each other, so are they. So are we. And so, one thing i want to end on is the thought that how our organizing is intersectional. I feel like now as tough and challenging as it is, our organizing is exciting. I was a part of the iftar thursday night that was organized by members of ncrr, and care, the council on American Islamic relations. It was not just intergenerational. It was interspiritual, inter community. I think we have so much potential. That is exactly why a book like this is so important, because it allows us to have conversations about a greater, more complex context. So, i say thank you so much for that. And all the folks here who have children, greatgrandchildren buy this book for them, the greater context, because i cannot do my organizing without you and without folks like maya grace. I wont do my organizing without folks like maya grace. I wont do my organizing without folks like you. Thank you so much, thank you. [applause] ms. Ishizuka thank you so much. It has been such a treat for me. Speaking in our hometown with such old and good friends. Like so many said there are so many stories we could go on and on. But we have at least five minutes for questions, answers, comments . And liz will go around with the microphone. Please use it. I was really pleased with today. I learned so much. One of the questions i have is about asian indians. I have not seen your book yet. I cannot wait to read it. But did you include anything about him in your book . And did that affect the asianamerican movement at all . Ms. Ishizuka i forgot to ask. [inaudible] im sorry. Once again, just the gist of your question . Did song affect any part of the asianamerican . Ms. Ishizuka why dont we open that up . [inaudible] a lot of people do not know about him because he suffered while in office. The first asianamerican elected to congress. He is from punjab. He became a farmer after getting a phd, because they did not let orientals become professors at berkeley in the 1950s. You guys werent aware of who he was in the 1960s or 1970s . This isnt so much a question as a comment to chris. Have your posters gone to the center for political graphics . If not, they must. Yes, they have gone there. The center for political graphics is a wonderful place. Im glad you brought that up because it is a place where some of our visual art can be continued, archived, used in the future. Anyone else . [inaudible] so, thank you all for your presentation. When Stokely Carmichael came up, it reminded me of an aural oral history i did in seattle. The first time he heard the term asianamerican was when Stokely Carmichael said it. It made me wonder, for each of you, when did you first hear the phrase asianamerican, and what was your response at that time . The First Organization i organized was called the oriental coalition. In 1968. Then, i met a young woman from San Francisco state who is with the asianamerican Political Alliance. I said, damn, that sounds so much better. [laughter] but that was the empowering process. We could use any term we wanted. And in terms of starting a movement relative to the first question, there is no history of it. So, the point about us being able to remember or know somebody when there is no history, thats why asianamerican studies are so important because it is just happening. So, being a part of it and the continuing redefinition it is interesting for me because my family [inaudible] but that is the whole issue of empowering yourself. You define that. But he was elected to congress. You have to write the history. You have to make sure he gets out there. Im a historian, that is why im asking. I have another history question. I can comment on both of you. I think the term asianamerican, i heard for the first time, the same organization asianamerican Political Alliance formed by a person named yugi ichoka who became a professor at ucla much later. He introduced the term as, i think as an empowering term. You saw another movement going from colored to negro to black to africanamerican. I think it were not just semantics. In each stage of the development of the movement, it was an analysis and an ideas attached to the words. So, like when we first started the asianamerican studies center at ucla in 1969, the first class was orientals in america. But it was called asianamerican studies center. You follow from that. Particularly the asianamerican movement in los angeles, i think we have centered around east asians, japanese. Koreans, some koreans, chinese and filipinos. And i think its a process of development, and i think we ourselves were separated from each other. And i think it was an effort to build coalitions. Even within the asian community, it was not always a smooth process. And as society and the city of l. A. Diversified more and more people included in that asianamerican category. And Asian Pacific american. And native hawaiians. And a lot of things got added. It was not just the demographic construct, it was a political construct as well. Ms. Ishizuka i know u. C. Berkeley has been the most known and credited for the term asianamerican. But in my research i did find an older group of established middleclass, there were reverends and doctors and lawyers and they formed a group called Asian Coalition for equality in seattle. They had the idea to do that in 1965, but he realized that at that point there had nothing, there they were so far apart. We were separated and even the asian, chinese, japanese and filipinos, saw no reason to get together. So, they worked for two years in discussing things to each other. And then finally came together to form Asian Coalition for equality. But it was just about the same time that yugi and apa had formed asianamerican that they had discussed what they were going to call themselves. They did not want the term oriental. So it went around and around and they came up independently with the term Asian American. So, at that point, they had not known of the groups in San Francisco or anything else that was going on. Like warren said, it was a spontaneous arising, and all of us stepping over the threshold at the same time. So, i always want to credit ace, which was very much like, the New York Group that was made up of older people. So, it is not just a youth organization. I think it took all of us to come together and make something bigger than ourselves. Can i just say . I totally appreciate the question because i think, like, it is kind of lovehate relationship with any kind of identifier. There is a new term aahpi. Asianamerican hawaiian Pacific Islander. Oh, god, it is getting so complicated. It should be. We should be a little bit uncomfortable, right . We should always be asking, who is determining that . At the same time, it is like, you know, i try to check myself on the word everyone. No, in your few sectors, cohorts and college students. But in our organizing we also work with young people and people at Community College or elders, a bunch of people that are not using any of that. So, its good for us to be constantly, like, what is the origin and what is the next . It was really complicated when we we were trying to figure out what color to wear. The panthers have a black beret. The brown beret. American Indian Movement has a red beret. Yellow berets did not work for me. [laughter] context. As the everything was color. Then in meeting someone said, wait a minute, i am not yellow. Im bronze. The filipino said, im brown. And we thought it was rice. We all ate rice. Then there was an argument about short grain rice and long grain rice. [laughter] all of those initial attempts at being able to define ourselves around superficial things, just did not work. Thats why what tracy is saying is true. We had to look at history and all these other things. But it comes from a political concept for you empower yourself. Like my son, he is part owner of a restaurant called yellow fever. What . Your restaurant is called yellow fever . I totally eat there. Their bowls are really good. That is what is happening. They took a term that was it on itsnd flipped head. Just like black, if you call the negro person black in the day that was not right. You take a term, but you take the power to define. That is the power. Like that, exactly. Hello. I had a comment and a question. Comment was there was a lot of discussion about how there were marxist groups leads to hate lgbt people. There were a lot of other groups. A friend of mine was in one. There were a bunch of people in it that were gay. There is another group, i think it was called progressive unity league. There are a lot of groups, just like any other political beliefs or religious beliefs, there are many spectrums to it. If you were to conclude, back in the day, they hated lgbt, youd be wrong. Because there were other groups that did not. What do you think were the greatest contributions of the asian left that really inspired and brought a backbone to the movement . I think mike is right. There are all kinds of different people involved. And for the j. A. Community, redressing reparations would look really different. I think it wouldve happened but maybe it would have looked really different. My question is, what do you think the contributions were and what should the new Asian Movement, which is not a lot of japanese, it is totally different, what would you see as important things to go on . One of the big issues in the 1960s and 1970s was the vietnam war. What the asianamerican movement brought to the antiwar movement, the general sentiment of the antiwar movement, people in the middle class got engaged when their sons were being drafted and they wanted to bring the boys home. Bring the troops home. That is what they wanted to do. The Asian American movement, because of the connection in terms of looking at asia and understanding some of the history, we became a part of the anticriminalist part of the movement where we are looking at political motives beyond bring the boys home. And i think the Asian American movement brought that to the fore relative to the issue of the vietnam war. In terms of this Identity Movement and a lot of other things, this whole approach to looking at different ideas, it was an interesting dilemma, at least i felt, i mean, you look at chairman mao out of china before the gang of five in the cultural revolution, and you cannot help but look at ho chi minh, look at chairman mao looking at progressive politics in the context around anticolonialism and the war. Che gueverra, fidel castro, all the movements going on. The dilemma was chairman mao and the united front, he was talking about let 1000 flowers bloom. And the cultural revolution took place and became a lot more fundamental. Just a lot of different reference points. This was all a context or the that the movement was not in a vacuum. It was on a political context. And as that evolved to the fore, and it changed, so did we. That is the strength of any movement is change. If you cannot change, you do not have a movement. I hate to do this because this is really a conversation so great, but we are out of time. Please help me in thanking the panelists. [applause] thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us. And for karen, congratulations on your book. Karen and the panelists will be available after outside in the lobby if you want to talk with them. But we thank you for coming to this program, and have a great afternoon. [applause] if you need to pick up a copy of the book, serve the people, it is sold in the lobby. Thank you. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] the National Park service celebrates its anniversary join us from 7 00 p. M. To 9 00 p. M. Eastern time to learn more about the park service and the arlington house. Each week, road to the white house rewind brings you archival coverage of president ial elections. The first debate between al gore and george bush from the 2000 president ial race. In this event, topics include tax policy, medicare, medication education reform and abortion. Governor bush defeated al gore in one of the most highly contested races in u. S. History. The u. S. Supreme court stopped the florida recount. This awarded the electoral votes to governor bush. This is just over 90 minutes