Incarcerated and free members of the Bay Area Asian community met to build a shared vision of comprehensive community safety and healing.
The two dozen outside guests included elders and representatives from organizations connected with Oakland Chinatown. With the goal of making their neighborhoods safer, they came into prison for open discussions with two dozen members of the San Quentin ROOTS group.
The ROOTS program, Restoring Our Original True Selves, is a group of SQ residents led by community volunteers in weekly classes that explore the history and culture of Asian, Pacific Islander, and other communities to learn and practice cultural healing.
The inside and outside groups got together in the SQ chapel March 25 for the “ROOTS Community Safety Conversation.”
To break the ice, Kenneth from the Asian Pacific Environmental Network led an animal showdown, with everyone striking poses of rabbits, tigers, snakes, and dragons until only one remained victorious.
“Today is a monumental day for APSC,” said Asian Prisoner Support Committee Co-Director Nathaniel Tan. “We are bringing elders from the outside together with the inside community for a unique opportunity to realize intergenerational healing.
“ROOTS is APSC’s flagship program. It is prominent, informative, and transformative. So much true community healing starts with ROOTS inside San Quentin,” Tan added. APSC is the outside organization that created and sponsors the ROOTS program.
“Our goal is a safer, more vibrant Chinatown,” said Janie Chen, a founding member of the Oakland Chinatown Community Coalition. OCCC is a broad neighborhood-based alliance of community organizations and residents that created a community education series of events, including this day’s conversation inside The Q.
APSC Development Manager Hien Nguyen helped to coordinate and facilitate the event. Ben Wang, currently with Asian Health Services, returned to SQ for the first time since Covid for the event. Wang was a co-founder of the ROOTS program, which started in Solano State Prison and then began in SQ in 2002.
Kamsan Suon said, “I started with ROOTS in 2013, sitting in the back and listening to others’ stories of family and cultural trauma. Within the safety of this group, I became able to share my own stories and heal together. Now I’m in the front seat.” He is now a member of the ROOTS leadership.
A Bay Area volunteer originally from Hong Kong named Harvey translated in Cantonese for several monolingual guests.
May, a patient of AHS, introduced herself through the interpreter. She said that for more than seven years she has been part of a group with members from different countries that provides services to the community like the Wilma Chan Park food program and cleaning up Chinatown.
“Each one of us is here today to process our shame, guilt, and anger we’ve experienced from our cultural and intergenerational trauma,” said Taiosisi “Sisi” Matangi, a first-generation Tongan and member of the ROOTS leadership. He moderated a panel of two other ROOTS members.
Panelist Jonathan “Jay” Huynh described growing up with domestic violence between his mom, dad, and siblings.
“I was beat up by White kids all the time, but couldn’t tell my family because it was seen as shameful in Asian cultures,” he said. “I would get in trouble for getting beat up.”
The other panelist, “John” Liu, described living in Oakland as the man of the house because his father had returned to China.
“I felt unsafe outside the Asian part of the neighborhood and even at home at night because of guns and gangs,” he said. One Saturday, 20-year-olds kicked in his neighbors’ door and robbed them — a red door, with shoes outside. “That could have been us,” said Liu.
“A better understanding of my roots would give me more courage. We need more engagement like this dialogue with elders today to understand and be proud of our cultural differences.”
The 50 participants then separated into smaller groups to delve deeper into how intergenerational trauma — trauma passed down from one generation to another within families and communities — can be cured and prevented through cultural healing.
One group had people from Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Puerto Rico, Europe, Japan, Guam, and Hmong cultures.
Through the translator, one outside community guest named Lily said, “I listened to the stories and feel that parent relationships at home are very important. Especially with immigrants in a new place, we want to make sure the children know they have a safe home where they belong.” She asked if there are programs to support people like the panelists when they leave prison and return to their communities outside.
Nguyen answered that APSC is near Chinatown, employs formerly incarcerated people, and provides other support to graduates of the ROOTS program when they parole. Some returning graduates engage with Chinatown through direct services and advocacy.
Another guest, Lisa, was visiting prison for the first time. Through the interpreter, she said, “I learned about different people and different races coming together to help each other heal. You guys went through lots of trauma when you were younger and didn’t really know what responsibility was. I feel you are pure of heart. Your past failures don’t matter. Once you are ready to return home, when you decide to make amends, one thing is for sure: We will accept you unconditionally.”
