COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY
My journey
Why diversity is so important to me
I spent almost a decade of my pre-teen life in Montreal, Canada. My memories from there are very colorful, dotted with thick blankets of snow and lively downtown scenery for a playground. But as one of only two Asian kids in my grade, there were also difficult moments I normalized. “Microaggression” was not yet in my vocabulary, so when my classmates chanted “ching chong” to me or asked if I ate dogs, all I could acknowledge was an enigmatic, uncomfortable feeling, which I ignored. Before playdates, I would boss my mom: “No fish soup or baozi. Pasta and meatballs only.” I hated my mini eyes and suppressed anything connected to my culture.
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Moving to Michigan, seeing “Welcome” in 14 languages on my middle school’s entrance — including Chinese — made all the difference. Noticing classmates casually eating tomato eggs and celebrated for bringing dumplings to Culture Day slowly reconstructed my once-eroded love for my heritage. The inclusive, diverse environment of my new hometown was the main factor for re-growing my confidence. And I have found that when someone is confident in every part of themselves, great things can happen.
Though my time in Montreal had unfortunate moments, my years there showed me the importance of diversity and inclusion, the extent to which it impacts them to live to their full potential. My Montreal years undergird the equity work I unwaveringly pursue and mindfulness I exercise daily, especially through the journalism platform. My childhood was far from the utopic snow globes, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Journalism x Diversity
It's more than writing. So much more.
One of the main reasons I love journalism is the outlet it provides to share experiences and perspectives a reader may not understand otherwise, thus pushing for open-mindedness. My time as Marketing Director at the digital magazine, The Diversity Story, allowed me to not only write and share my experience in Montreal but also help others amplify their stories.
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I was especially moved during my time in The School of New York Times' Diverse Voices course when I interviewed people from all backgrounds: a laundromat owner from the Lower East Side or an immigrant from Jackson Heights making money from truck driving to send back to his mom in Mexico. I felt the power of hearing others’ stories — stories I would never live, but I would always know were real.
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A few weeks later, I went to Los Angeles for the Asian American Journalist Association’s JCamp, where I found all my emotions validated. Over the span of the week, I heard leaders in the journalism field talk about the importance of diverse voices in reporting, because “no one will do it but us,” and expressed what it was like overcoming the many times they were the only person of color in the newsroom.
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I walked away from all these experiences resizing my image of journalism: writing, photography, design, all the content, that was just a dot amongst a world of bolstering beings. All these experiences excited the gears in my brain so that when I got home, I knew what work needed to be done, and I got to it.
BRINGING IT HOME
A.K.A. The Emery.
Throughout my time at The Emery, I practice and urge my team to practice and be mindful of who they reach out to when reporting. Sometimes it’s as simple as a Q&A we are posting at the bottom of our page 11 print. Are we being inclusive in terms of age, gender, race? An ideal I work hard to push is to avoid convenience. Though it may be easiest to reach out to a friend for a quote, that’s often not what’s most representative of all voices. It usually takes that extra step to tap the shoulder of that one person who was never interviewed by The Emery before, and that’s why they need to be heard.
Diversity also goes beyond an individual’s identity — it includes one’s beliefs. For some of our pages talking about political views or big decisions like COVID-19 vaccines, we make sure to include both perspectives. When I was designing and organizing the articles going onto our “Period” spread, something our team kept in mind was to include a variety of viewpoints: a personal narrative of a menstruating person’s relationship with their period and its stigmatization, what it was like for a non-menstruating person to gradually learn about this topic, and how people who can’t afford menstrual products carry on their day-to-day lives. A similar process was followed for our “Sex” spread. Over the four pages, there was coverage of a person’s journey with understanding what sex was for themselves, the construct of virginity, the history of sex education past to present, and local sexual health resources. Especially when it comes to complex topics, every perspective needs to be welcome on the page.
Writing
please click on the image to view the full article
The Huron Emery, May 10, 2021
Having grown up in Montreal, Canada, a bustling city, my parents were always weary of my safety, cautioning me in so many ways because I was a girl. Today, the piles of warnings my parents gave me for my safety are ingrained in me like an instruction manual. It’s part of my identity. I began to reflect: why should it be? Many boys don’t feel half of what I do. In other words, I was passionate about this topic, so I shared my spirited opinions.
a modern American portrait
The Huron Emery, November 12, 2020
Third Place, Diversity Coverage, Michigan Interscholastic Press Assocation
As I was searching for the first feature story I would write (**ever**) I thought back to a classmate. Lily. She sat next to me in World History freshman year, and one of the first things I learned about her was she was half-Native American.
"Really?" I asked instinctively, regretting the words immediately, not wanting to sound dubious.
"Yep," she said. "Most people don't believe me because I'm so pale."
And she was right. Many people in our class doubted her words. And that's how I found my first story. This story was what pulled me into journalism. After Lily's story was published, I witnessed the power of the pen when readers not only better understood their classmate's unique heritage but also the overall lesson to be open-minded about all diverse identities.
The Huron Emery, May 2021 & January 2022
I first got to know Joyce Lee for an article I was assigned. Lee is the author of the children's picture book "Young, Proud, and Sung-jee," talking about racism. During the interview, while Lee was talking about the inspiration and process of creating this book, I knew there was another underlying story that needed to be shared. So, a few months later, I reached out again, we scheduled another interview, and I wrote a profile specific to Lee's life experience with racism. What I love about the second story is that the in-depth nature of all the difficulties Lee had to overcome to come back to America and feel a sense of belonging here explains to a reader the reasoning behind the mountains of pain from hearing casual phrases like "You don't belong here." When someone can understand all the obstacles another goes through, they become more open-minded, and a seed of empathy is planted. I hope to water it with stories like these.
Honorable Mention, Diversity Coverage, Michigan Interscholastic Press Association
Published on Best Of SNO
Chinatown: From History to Today
The Huron Emery, January 8, 2023
During my time in New York City, one of our assignments for The Diverse Voices in Reporting class was to report on gentrification in Chinatown. I worked to merge research and reporting. When I interviewed the residents of this town, I made sure to be inclusive of all perspectives. Though some business owners were zealous about their job, others were here because they had to support their families — it wasn't about the passion. Additionally, there was often a language barrier, so I worked with my teammate Grace to use our Chinese knowledge to translate the quotes. Back in Ann Arbor, I wouldn't be able to gather such perspectives. Just like how I can't capture the voices of Portland and New York as well as I can for those of Ann Arbor, many people don't fully comprehend the scope of what it is like to live as a Black man in America or a woman alone at night unless they carry those identities. That's why stories like these are needed. Though not the full scope of a 3D view, it's sufficient to get the conversation started and kept going.
The Huron Emery, January 2022
Gold Key, Regional Scholastic Art and Writing
Sometimes in journalism, I find myself so focused on others' voices, I forget I have a story, too. This personal narrative is one I have verbally recounted and written in numerous forms, whether it be college applications or an introduction to a "Commitment to Diversity" website page. But none ever went into full detail. So, I wrote "My Grey Bucket." This piece emphasizes the subtlety of racism, and the impact it had on me subconsciously. It's a story that far too many people share, with a hue of an Allison voice.
Design
please click on the image to view the design
The Huron Emery, May 2021
our adviser told the main Zoom room: "If you would like to help with social justice reporting for the next issue, please join this breakout room." Immediately, I clicked "Join." As important as writing is, something I had to reflect on is most of our readers access our stories through digital platforms like our website, and when they look at print, usually the design itself determines whether they will give the article a chance. With those truths in mind, I took the initiative to expand our Issue 5's back page Q&A to our website. Additionally, when designing the spread "We Are America," I was very thoughtful towards color choices, font, sizing, and placement of graphics relative to articles. Just like how every word in a story is intentionally chosen to hold the meaning of the piece, I prioritized each detail of the visual aspect, so that it holds a valuable meaning to the page as a whole.
The Huron Emery, February 2023
Unlike the coverage in response to the anti-Asian hate crimes arising in the country, I had less perspective when it came to coverage of Black History Month. In The Huron Emery history, when it came to Black History Month coverage, the content creators were not majority Black themselves. So, when I took on the task of creating a social media series with our Social Media Editor-in-Chief and designing our Issue 3 back page in honor of this month, I knew I couldn't properly represent this topic alone. So, I reached out to our school's Black Student Union (BSU). My first question for them was "When it comes to Black History Coverage, what did you wish platforms that recognize it could do better?" The answers followed a theme of emphasizing their culture (recipes, art, significant figures, hairstyles, etc.) instead of focusing only on the difficulties Black people face. When creating both social media and print initiatives, that's exactly what we kept in mind. Though the BSU members did not design or write, they were there for every step of the process: choosing the colors for the design, the content blocked on the page, and all the way down to the final version.
