Embracing AAPI Stories: A Conversation with Duy Nguyen
It was being nominated to be his high school’s student vice president and winning the election that first led Duy Nguyen, who immigrated from Vietnam to the United States at age 11, to realize that he had the power to be a voice for the voiceless. From that point on, Duy has continued to seek out opportunities to lift up others, particularly members of the Asian-American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community and individuals with immigrant or refugee experiences similar to those of his own family.
Over the span of two decades, Duy held various roles in the corporate realm, but his calling to be more deeply involved in the nonprofit world and empower the AAPI community never diminished. One year ago, Duy took a leap of faith and left the security of his corporate position to become the vice president and chief operating officer of the Asian Community Development Council (ACDC), where he now works to make sure that the fastest-growing community in his current home of Nevada is represented at all levels of government and has their stories told.
In celebration of AAPI Heritage Month this May, America Votes Nevada State Director Kenia Morales sat down with Duy to talk about the need for groups such as ACDC and how everyone can help empower the AAPI community.
Kenia Morales: Why is it essential to build the political power of the AAPI community?
Duy Nguyen: Looking back at the last few elections, I get so aggravated and frustrated because we are well represented as far as being the fastest-growing population, and we have so many achievements, but no one knows about us. Why are we still missing? It’s 2018. We have had U.S. Cabinet members who are of Asian descent. We have Asian-American U.S. senators and congresspeople, yet in national conversations, we’re still missing. And that’s why we need to do all of this.
KM: Why is it important to have an organization that’s doing this work of connecting and building the visibility of AAPI?
DN: It’s important to highlight the basics because I think a lot of the time we have people who think that we’re so far advanced because of people like Senators Tammy Duckworth and Mazie Hirono or former Governor Gary Locke. They see those people and think that because all those folks know what they’re doing, the Asian community must know what’s going on, but they forget that there’s this huge population that was told by their family to keep their head down, go to school, do their job and provide for their family. There’s a huge disconnect between that group and this other group. And how do we bring them all together? They need to know who those people are so they can look up to them.
We’re also trying to be relatable, because on the flip-side of things, the Asian community has 40 different subcultures. Our similarities are very few and far between; we get lumped into this big group, but our struggles are not the same. Therefore, we are not able to identify as quickly as other people what it is we are fighting for. This activity that we’re doing is trying to bring everyone together from our side of the conversation and say, this is what we need and this is what the AAPI community is about. That’s how we can start — listening to our own people, getting them together and then, as a critical mass, we can go and change the conversations and people’s thinking.
KM: So how do we help achieve that goal of empowering the AAPI community?
DN: We are always looking for resources. We are one of the most under-invested communities in the country. Looking at private foundations, donor databases and corporations’ philanthropic activities, we’re at less than one half of one percent nationally on funding to develop the AAPI community. And it’s sad because we are a significant mass now. The biggest thing that we‘re going to do is to get more resources so that we can develop these programs and outreach tools to be more prepared to deal with these complexities, because reaching 40-plus communities isn’t easy.
KM: Talk to me a little bit about within those 40-some cultures, what are the significant issues that are impacting the AAPI community?
DN: I wish I had the answer right now, but I don’t. Our team is still trying to look for that answer. I can speak for myself because I’m Vietnamese, and our biggest thing is about workforce development. We’re going to spend all this money on education, but when we get out there, do we have jobs? Strangely, most people think that the Asian community doesn’t worry about that, but I have family members that have graduate degrees that can’t even find jobs. Their concerns are similar to other peoples’ concerns, but people think Asians don’t need it. We’re trying to dispel those myths. We’re trying to get the raw data and information about how we can be much more helpful to our community. I’m looking for the answer too, but I need help. I can’t do it myself, and for me to get the other 39-plus communities, I need help.
KM: What message do you want people to take away from AAPI Heritage Month?
DN: We should tell our stories. Because of our culture, a lot of us during our upbringing are told to be quiet, be humble, not talk about our successes or even our failures. I would encourage every member of the AAPI community to tell their story, no matter what that story is, so that people know. And if we don’t know, we can’t help each other. Be proud of who you are, because we have to be able to come together as a community and put that message out there across the United States of America that we are a community that is going to be at the table every step of the way.
