Joseph Nguyen, State Senator @ the Washington State Legislature
Joe Nguyen is a State Senator for the Washington State Legislature as well as a Program Manager at Microsoft. As the son of Vietnamese refugees, Joe grew up in an immigrant community and was raised by a single mother. Joe is also one of the few Asian Americans within the State Senate and is passionate about reducing barriers to civic engagement for younger generations.
In this episode we spoke with Joe about the following:
How he responded to colleagues who mocked his last name in a speech on the Senate floor
Why there’s no space for Asian Americans and other communities of color to settle for mediocrity in systems that have historically excluded them
Breaking out a scarcity mindset and embracing an abundance mindset as a child of refugees
You can listen to his episode below, on Apple, or wherever else you get to your podcasts.
Growing up with parents who were refugees
My mom and father were refugees from Vietnam. My mom was evacuated out first and was unable to leave at the same time as my dad. Basically, for three years, she had no idea if he was alive or dead. There was no text message. There was no email. No direct line from the Washington States, where she came to, and Vietnam. My mom went from being in rural farmland in a village with rice patties to Seattle. We moved to White Center, a small suburb outside of Seattle because they had access to public housing. I was a product of a social safety net. Despite not growing up in an affluent community, there was a lot of love and trust which built my foundation for who I am today.
On speaking up against a racist incident on the Senate floor
When you give your first speech on the Senate floor, there is a tradition where the other senators kind of haze you. It’s usually nothing deeply personal and is kind of fun banter. In this case, a couple of members decided to make fun of my last name. Interestingly, when it first happened, I was numb to it because, as Asian Americans, you face these things in school. This moment was not that different from when I was bullied in school.
I didn’t know how to react. Do I just keep my head down? Do I really want to blow this thing up? I ended up speaking up about it. One of the reasons was because I know that other people were looking at me to set an example for other people in our community. If these people don’t take the time to learn your name, I have little faith that they’re going to fight for the issues in my community. That’s how you have stereotypes. If people don’t challenge the status quo, it compounds on each other. And I need to make sure that they knew that that was inappropriate and not okay.
Joe’s thoughts on why people should work in the public sector
It is damn near impossible to get young people involved in politics at this level because you either have to be independently wealthy or retired. When I say I’m a part-time legislator, that comes with a part-time salary. I would not be able to afford to be in the legislature and live in Seattle if I wasn’t working at Microsoft.
I will say that getting more young people engaged is to first get them involved in policies. I happen to do a lot of work in technology, climate change, etc., because that happens to be my background and is what I care about. It’s important to bring up these issues that are important to your communities.
One thing that people should know about the legislature is that we see 4000 bills any given year. We only end up passing 200-300, meaning less than 10% of the bills we see get passed. People often think that politics is about right or wrong or about Dems vs. Republicans. That’s not actually the case. It’s more about making sure that your issue is worthy of being discussed. This is why it’s so important to be vocal about the areas that you care about most.
Like reading about Joe? You can listen to his episode on Apple, or wherever else you get to your podcasts. Want to get notified of any new episodes of the podcast? Subscribe to our newsletter here.
Until next time,
Jay and Angie