James Huang is the president and co-founder of GenAZN, a student-run grassroots movement advocating the rights, empowerment, and diversity of this generation's Asian Americans. Born and raised in the Bay Area, Huang is no stranger to the unique struggles and experiences of growing up in such a diverse place. Huang leads the music production club at his school, where he found himself at an intersection between his Asian American identity and music—an area historically lacking representation.
Student, musician, and activist, Huang demonstrates how activism shows itself in everyday life through community, conversation, and reconciliation. Ultimately, his story teaches us how anybody can and must take steps to change if we are to create a more just and inclusive future for all.
Kayla Wang:
The mission you and your team at GenAZN strive to achieve is very inspiring and it’s impressive how you were able to gather so much support in the Bay Area. Can you speak a little bit about what inspired you to bring your vision to fruition and the importance of youth, especially high school students like ourselves, getting involved?
James Huang:
From getting called chink in the locker room to our grandparents being attacked, we’ve always wished to improve our realities of being Asian American in the back of our minds. There marked this racial awakening when we went to the November rally held by Will Lex Ham and China Mac. We’ve never seen someone so courageously standing up for us and they really did prove that it is possible to fight against racism through building community.
Honestly, it was really empowering, for my friends and I to hear because we’d never seen someone in our area, at least before, saying “We can make things better for ourselves.” That is what inspired us for the GenAZN mission: to encourage more youth to realize that we have to do something about these things, that no one is going to put us out of our silence if we don’t do these things.
Wang:
You mentioned on your website that GenAZN aims to have more inclusive curriculums that educate people on the realities of AAPI struggles. What specific topics do you see being excluded at your school and how will your campaigns target these goals? How do you think the administration would react to them—would they be receptive? Would you want this initiative to be spread nationally, and if so, how would you go about expanding it?
Huang:
The main problem with the lack of Asian American education in our school system is that a lot of people treat Asian American struggles, contributions, and achievements like they don’t really exist—like we’re just kind of here. But the truth is that we’ve been here in America for a long time, contributing to the country. We have always been patriotic, strong, and an important part of our country's narrative!
Education plays a role in our textbooks. The Chinese Exclusion Act. The Japanese Internment Camps. The 442nd Infantry Regiment. There were two sentences in our textbooks. I think the humanity of the whole education system is not very oriented towards Asian Americans, and moving forward we must take accountability to create a curriculum more representative of our struggles and contributions
I think moving forward what’s really important is that we talk about the contribution of Asian Americans, the struggles of Asian America, and the realities. For one, we should connect more students to GenAZN because we have a lot of Asian American students in the Bay. Going back to your question, “What specific topics?” I think most of it—I think the humanity of the whole education system is not very oriented towards Asian Americans.
Jacob Roy:
I noticed that GenAZN works with other grassroots organizations like Asians for Black Lives Matter. How do you think the AAPI community can better build solidarity with the Black community? Are there specific projects you are collaborating on that you would like to highlight? Have you witnessed Anti-Black racism personally when doing your work?
Huang:
What’s on my mind when we are marching on the streets and when we are holding rallies are my friends, my family, and my community. When we’re talking about these other movements that want to work with Asian Americans and the Stop Asian Hate Movement, I think the first step is always getting your friends involved—whether they’re Asian or not. When you start having these conversations with people, they really start to care. At the last rally, I met Danny, this Latino guy, and he was talking about how important it is that he met us in person and got our vibe. Now, we’re friends and that’s an example of what helps other movements come together. Personally, I haven’t seen the anti-Blackness as much because we’re pretty young and more liberally oriented in this area. However, I’ve definitely heard stories. My teacher Mrs. Nguyen was talking about how the older Vietnamese American community was struggling with anti-Blackness and blaming the Asian hate on the Black community. Fortunately in my experience, I haven’t had that as much but I’m aware that it exists.
Roy:
What do you think is the most challenging part of organizing versus what’s the most rewarding aspect? Is it getting people to listen—or even more simply, to care?
Huang:
I think people are generally receptive to these things—which is surprising, in a good way. When you talk to your friends about these things, most of them will care. As high school students, I think the harder part has been balancing my academic life, my social life, and activism. Activism takes a lot of time because it requires a great deal of community building, meeting people, and hearing all sides. Once you listen to other people’s perspectives, you come into conversations with a constructive attitude. Most people are pretty open to changing their ideas. Oftentimes, people give really good feedback which helps to build your own perspective. Ultimately, the most rewarding part of organizing has definitely been the community. I remember last Sunday, we were marching down the streets. We had megaphones and we were marching to We are not a virus, Silence is violence, Stop Asian Hate, We belong here, Stand up fight back. It all felt really rewarding because, at that moment, you genuinely do feel empowered—which we don’t get to feel a lot given what’s going on right now.
Roy:
For Asian Americans living in predominantly non-Asian communities, how do you think they can feel empowered and heard in these types of movements?
Huang:
The foundation of this movement is pushing for better representation in the little activities that you do every day—especially because there are a lot of misrepresentations of Asian Americans in the media. I think it starts on the community level. We shouldn’t believe that just because they’re not Asian, they can’t help. Allies play a major role in ending the violence and pushing for a better change for the future. Talk to your friends first and get community-level groups organized. For us, we would go on Zoom every weekend to discuss what was going on and to get insight into each other’s perspectives. The more you do it, the sooner you’ll develop goals and recruit people who are interested in helping you achieve them.
Wang:
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Huang:
I just wanted the opportunity to spotlight my community because without everyone making posters with us, sharing the message for the rally, coming to march with us, and spreading the word, I don’t think this could've been done. It was really a team effort, and I was just the person on stage. I don’t want people to come out of this thinking that it’s a one-man show.
Shoutout to my team members: Tiffany Bui, Minh-Anh Pham, Serene, Ashley Cue, Kai, Rina, Arthur Wei, Ethan Maruyama, Eddie, Jamal, Brian Liu, Gabe Calamba, Ellen So, Kiara Dixon, Alan Li!
Inspired by GenAZN’s mission, and interested in joining their team? GenAZN is looking for members who will dedicate their passion, energy, and perspectives to this cause! Click here to get involved.
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