The newly-founded Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Political Alliance at the University of Georgia brought in District 101 Georgia State Rep. Sam Park over Zoom to speak with the group about the importance of political action, his policies and his career in politics Wednesday evening.
APIDAPA, founded this semester, is a nonpartisan student organization that promotes political empowerment among Asian, Pacific Islander and Desi American UGA students. While the group has had policy discussions this semester, the meet-and-greet with Park was the first big event, said Executive Director Hannah Oh, a junior political science major.
Park, the son of immigrants and the grandson of Korean War refugees, has served as a state representative since 2017. After his mother was diagnosed with cancer, his experience with the healthcare system pushed him to run for office. Park has since focused on healthcare reform in his position as representative.
During the meet-and-greet, Oh asked Park questions about his policy on healthcare, along with his stance on inflation and the rise of Asian-Amerian hate crimes since the Atlanta spa shootings in 2021.
Park stressed the importance of Asian, Pacific Islander and Desi Americans coming together through relational organizing to vote and use political influence to make change within the government.
“[I] encourage them to have those difficult conversations with your parents, your aunties, your uncles, those who may not understand where the two political parties are today,” Park said. “I think that’s really important.”
Aaalia Garrett, a senior international affairs major, attended the meet-and-greet and said hearing from Park about his experiences as an Asian American politician was educational.
“I’m very interested in social justice and I’m doing a law minor, so I’m starting to learn about the law a little bit,” Garrett said. “So it was interesting to hear from him to see, or at least to confirm that a lot of the things we touch on in my classes that these laws are very important and they do end up affecting everybody and in a lot of different ways.”
Directly engaging students this way is the first step into political participation, Oh said, adding it’s important that Asian, Pacific Islander and Desi American students not only vote, but know who is representing them in the Georgia state legislature.
“We really hope that at the end of the day, not only do we want to promote political empowerment among APIDA communities, but also build a multiracial, multiethnic coalition within the UGA community,” Oh said. “A lot of the efforts towards civil rights for the APIDA community is not only in us, but all of us.”
APIDAPA will be tabling at the upcoming APIDA Night Market on Saturday, Oct. 22 to encourage attendees to vote in the upcoming election.
