[upbeat music] - There isn't a singular story for any one of us, for any one person, any one group of people.

I think at the core of my being, I'll always be seeking to create communities, to form communities.

I think it's because I live here in Warren County and that I have lived a different story, and I find myself to tell a different story, to show people that there are other stories.

And I think those stories are critically important to be told.

[upbeat music] My grandpa had a shop, a print shop that was, like, right there behind you.

Turn around, look at that.

- [Boy] Oh.

- You see that one?

At that time this was his shop was the only Chinese business on this block.

[soft music] I came to United States when I was six from Shanghai, China.

We've always been legal residents, gone through the immigration process.

My grandparents lived in Chinatown.

Just learning about immigration patterns and policies and how different groups of people came to America my family is part of the story of America.

Grew up in Queens in New York City.

Grew up around all kinds of immigrants.

The diversity was just what I thought was normal.

When I went to college it was a bit of a culture shock.

All of a sudden I felt like I didn't belong and I was perceived as different.

I think that's when I started to investigate and to just really try to learn why some people always belonged and some people didn't.

When we first arrived here in Warren County my oldest was in third grade, and she was one of a few students of color in this school.

It was not very diverse at the time, but there's definitely been a demographic shift over the past 10 years, but I'm not so sure that the culture is catching up with it.

A very charged political atmosphere we've had over the past four, five years has just been the microcosm of those things happening right here in this little community.

2017 was a really hard year.

The rights that we just Americans thought we had, women's rights and rights of LGBTQ students, rights of students to be safe in the classroom have just been challenged.

In 2017, my child came out as a transgender person and then I realized that the world just was not safe for my kid to exist.

My child was no longer in the school district but I just wanted to be sure that it was safe for other kids.

So I am on the school board in our township and my passion is educational equity.

So here we are at the school.

We have to drive through a neighborhood to get to the school.

I saw how important it was that our students see a teacher that looks like them, or hear stories that's not generally reflected in their textbooks and their curriculum.

In education there's an analogy about windows and mirrors, how we learn the curriculum that's reflected to us.

They're either windows into a world that we don't know and we're becoming aware of, or they're mirrors that reflects back to us that tell, you know, that we find ourselves in those stories, and both are necessary.

For people of color we've only seen our curriculum through windows and not mirrors.

White European children they've only seen through mirrors and not windows.

And so while we're here telling them that, like, another window exists, oftentimes, we don't get believed, right?

Like they're like, oh, no.

When these stories become normalized in everybody's life and education and awareness, like, that's how we erase the other.

I love this one about a Chinese immigrant girl learning English.

I'm like, yes, that's me.

New Jersey is only the second state to mandate Asian American history curriculum, and I was part of the effort to advocate and push for that.

I wanted to make sure that our district was safe that we have policies in place to protect kids and just have a seat at the table.

Okay, but maybe they'll get to know each other and maybe they'll be friends, okay.

It wasn't until I was in seminary, I went to Princeton Theological Seminary that I saw that there could be a different possibility for me, and not introduce myself as, hi, I'm the pastor's wife.

My faith demands that I love my neighbor, period.

You're so loved.

There's no qualification.

There's no condition.

People should not have to earn their inclusion, earn their belonging.

Radical love comes with no conditions.

Do you need a hug too?

- [Girl] Can you give me a mom hug?

- Give you a mom hug.

- [Girl] Oh, the one I don't get.

- Well, I'll be your mom.

I want a different story for my kid.

One that's full of more possibilities and more hope.

Two major things that I identify with now that is not a part of the conversation or the culture at all in the Asian American community is LGBTQ inclusion and mental health.

I think I just find myself in all these spaces where, and opportunities where I can affirm people's existence.

I wanted to affirm my own child's existence, even though at the time, like, she didn't feel she deserved to exist and that was really, really hard.

I think we went through a couple of years of me fearing that my kid won't live into adulthood.

Think about how much beauty can be created when we move beyond the discomfort, when we move beyond fear.

Where I live in Warren County now definitely affects how I live.

I love that this is a space that we can all share and live in together and we have to find a different way to be community.

What we all long for is a safe community where our children can grow up into decent human beings, and have a decent education and be safe.

And so I think these are common grounds that we can agree on.

You guys have such good imaginations.

At the end of the day I wanna create communities where everyone feel like they belong and that all of their stories matter.

My hope and my vision that I do what I do, not to wait for the world to change, but embody the change now that we need to create that normal within ourselves.

I think the courageous work needs to continue to create those spaces because there's always going to be resistance.

Within a community interpersonally we can all extend that love and that grace and radical inclusion.

[soft upbeat music]