UTLA’s Arlene Inouye Fights On
I wrote the message below to family and friends on Facebook after my 70th birthday. I added some additional context to the basic message for the LA Progressive.
I want to thank family and friends for the birthday wishes and support as I enter the next decade. I am thankful that through zoom I could be surrounded by close family- with song, pictures and expressions of love. It is always a treat to see my beautiful 13 and 11 year old granddaughters, as we have struggled through the quarantine together. And an unexpected call from my Mother’s nursing home, where my 98-year-old Mom was holding a happy birthday balloon. When I asked her how old I am, she said “I don’t want to tell”. It was wonderful to see her alert and spunky. I am grateful for my husband, Michael, who did his best to cook throughout the day, and be supportive, as it was another working day for me at UTLA.
Upon reflection I more fully realize that my life has been in three stages, and it has taken me longer than most to bloom. The first stage was from the age of 5 years old, when I decided to try to be the good little girl I was supposed to be. Not realizing the intergenerational trauma of the incarceration during WWII, I took on the model minority myth, white supremacy culture and internalized oppression. When growing up in Los Angeles I was constantly asked “where are you from?”. Saying that I was born in LA wasn’t good enough. I was encouraged to go into home economics, and felt the societal pressure to get married at a young age. This led to my vulnerability in being in a marriage and situation where I was further devalued and felt that I was never good enough. I closed off my heart to survive for 26 years.
But at the age of 47 years old, I left that situation and started the second phase of my life. I made a CONTINUE READING: UTLA's Arlene Inouye Fights On - LA Progressive
