It was in the early 2000s when Korean-American sports writer Joon Lee first saw Japanese outfielder Hideki Matsui on the front page of Sports Illustrated for Kids. Lee’s portrayal of the Asian community on the front page helped spark his passion to work in sports one day.
The left aspiration is filled with several stereotypical answers, such as “You can be a doctor” or “You can be a lawyer”.
But that didn’t stop Leah from finding out what she wanted to do later in life.
“I remember it was my gateway to immersing myself in the sports industry and just following teams, and what it meant to be Asian and watch baseball, football or basketball,” Lee said.
Lee shared this story at the 2022 Asia-America and Pacific Islands Symposium on Sports and Culture, held in New York on May 19. This marked the fifth year of the symposium, a joint event of Asian resource groups employed in MLB, NBA and NFL.
The event marks AAPI Heritage Month with a mission to recognize the AAPI community in the world of sports as it explores the importance of sports and the media and how they create affiliation with the AAPI community.
The roundtable began with an introduction by Billy Bean, MLB’s SVP for Diversity, Equality and Inclusion, as well as the Special Assistant Commissioner.
“It’s just a real privilege,” Bean said. “It’s an honor to represent the community of resource groups of employees and provide platforms to get to know each other, better understand the experience that this group and those in front of the camera go through, which I can’t understand and what it feels like and makes us feel a little closer together. ”
That introduction sparked an interview for the panel, which consisted of Lee, covering baseball for ESPN.com; Nj / NI Gotham FC defender Caprice Didasco; and the founder of the AMAZN staff, Pranav Ijer.
Lee, who was leading the conversation, talked about growing up. He grew up in Massachusetts and grew up as a minority in a predominantly white neighborhood. As an immigrant born in South Korea, his upbringing illustrated the importance of the national team.
“I think it was a big turning point for me [former NBA star] “Jeremiah Lynn, and seeing that there is a story that only people from Asia can tell in a truly authentic way and understand the nuances and cultural factors that made his rise so important,” Lee said. “But also to see people on television, people like Michael Kim, who has been at the Sports Center for so long. See people like [ESPN personality] Pablo Torre, for me on the show Around The Horn was a really big thing, and just kind of point to him and be like he’s a guy who vaguely looks like me doing something that’s vaguely representative of what I want to do at some point .
“It was all very important for me to look at my parents and say, ‘Hey, this is something we can do.
Didasco, who is of Chinese, Guam, Japanese, Korean and Hawaiian descent, experienced a different way of life far from her home in Hawaii, where the Asian community was dominant. It was nothing like when she came to the United States to play football for UCLA.
“I never saw myself as a minority in Hawaii until I went to college.” [when] “I realized that I am the only Asian in my team,” said Didasco. “And when I went to professional football, I was still the only Asian on my team.
Ayer is the creator of AMAZN HK, a sports media company that highlights Americans of Asian descent in professional sports with the intention of giving a voice to the Asian community and breaking the stereotypes that are set for them.
His dream of growing up was to be an NFL quarterback, and he pursued that dream by playing college football at Chapman University. Then he went through a small “culture shock”.
“Since we are Indians, we were Americans of Asian descent, there are not many of us there,” Ayer said. “For many of my teammates, I was the first Indian they ever met.
Each of the panelists accepted their unique identity and the way in which each of them serves a purpose in their communities.
“With teammates in the locker room, people could see things about Asian people on social media,” Didasco said. “I spend a lot of my time explaining that it is just one representative of the Asian community and trying to educate them.
“Many people are asking for answers from you,” Ayer added. “You are the one who represents the community in many ways, so you have to portray the community in the right light, but the Asia-Pacific community is very broad and diverse, so it’s hard to do it as an individual. You have been forced to take on that role many times. ”
Lee added: “The way I treat people, whether it’s a stadium, NBA arena or conferences, especially in the sports world - that’s something that’s on your back because I’m the only Asian or one of the Asians here. Anything I could do could be representative of someone not communicating with an Asian person every day. ”