sa国际传媒官网网页入口

Dispelling myths is a vital tactic in the battle against bias, according to sa国际传媒官网网页入口鈥檚 Tony Russell 鈥淩usty鈥� Chan.

Chan, 60, was recently elected national president of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance (C.A.C.A.), the oldest Asian American civil rights organization. It has 650 members in 20 lodges or chapters across the country.

He said the emergence of the pandemic in 2020 fueled an accelerated wave of anti-Chinese and anti-Asian sentiment.

鈥淧eople have these strange perceptions they develop that come from not understanding our history,鈥� Chan said, such as, 鈥溾�橝sians are here to take your job, they are opium addicts, they are spreading the virus.鈥欌��

The Chinese American Citizens Alliance was established in San Francisco in 1895 as a response to the Chinese Exclusion Act, federal legislation that restricted Chinese immigration, and later legislation that denied naturalization, voting rights, land ownership and access to education to those who had been permitted to immigrate.

Those restraints remained law until 1943.

Chan, president of the sa国际传媒官网网页入口 chapter of C.A.C.A., was elected national president at the organization鈥檚 September convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. This past week, he attended his first national board meeting as president in San Francisco.

He said C.A.C.A. programs that work best are those that erase the myths.

鈥淟ocally, one of the ways we have of doing this is the (sa国际传媒官网网页入口 Chinese American Film Festival) 鈥� documentaries in the morning, more commercial films in the afternoon 鈥� that focus on the Chinese American experience. We get reactions like, 鈥楪ee, I did not know that this had happened to you, that this struggle was in your background.鈥欌��

The sa国际传媒官网网页入口 Chinese American Film Festival, which recently completed its seventh year, is usually held just after the Balloon Fiesta. Chan said C.A.C.A. chapters in New York, Chicago, Phoenix, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles have similar film festivals.

That kind of communication is well suited to Chan, who has a bachelor of fine arts degree in theater and history from the University of New Mexico and a master鈥檚 in business administration from the University of California at Los Angeles.

He worked with a small theater company in Los Angeles and in foreign-language TV in Southern California. Now, back in his hometown of sa国际传媒官网网页入口, he is a freelance video editor, an information technology consultant and also manages commercial property.

He is of C.A.C.A. lineage. His mother, Carolyn Chan, was the organization鈥檚 national president from 2009 to 2013, making Rusty Chan the first son to follow his mother in that role. And both his mother and his father, Tony, are recipients of the C.A.C.A.鈥檚 Spirit of America Award, presented to members for lifetime service to their communities, state and nation.

Tony Chan, New Mexico鈥檚 first licensed Asian American optometrist, was the founding treasurer of C.A.C.A.鈥檚 sa国际传媒官网网页入口 chapter in 1961.

Rusty Chan said other myths are that Chinese are 鈥淛ohnny-come-latelies鈥� to America and are not as patriotic as other Americans.

鈥淲e have been here since the 1800s,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e actually had people who served in the Civil War.鈥�

And many thousands of Chinese American men and women served in all theaters during World War II.

Rusty Chan was editor of C.A.C.A.鈥檚 38 oral histories of Chinese American World War II veterans, part of the Library of Congress Veterans Oral History Project.

The oral histories Chan edited were a step toward the creation of a C.A.C.A.-championed Congressional Gold Medal Project honoring Chinese American veterans of World War II.

鈥淲e are just as patriotic and deserving of respect as any American citizen,鈥� Chan said.