Hearing AAPI Voices: Dismantling Bias and Celebrating Difference
In celebration of Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, the Asian Professionals at Nasdaq (APAN) employee network held a fireside chat with Anna Mok, President and Co-Founder of Ascend, and Emily May, Co-Founder of Right To Be. Mok and May shared how they support Asian Americans, from battling bias in the workplace to changing the faces of corporate leadership.
Mok began the discussion by highlighting the lack of AAPI leadership in America, emphasizing implicit biases and stereotypes about Asian American success that reinforces this disparity.
“Peoples’ perceptions are quite different than the Asian experience,” Mok said. “[Usually] peoples’ perceptions are that Asians are definitely in executive ranks, that they are on corporate boards.”
The actual statistics on Asian American executives are quite different. Over 70% of Fortune 1000 companies do not have at least one person of Asian descent on their boards, and only 4% of Asian Americans hold board positions, according to research by Ascend Foundation, a non-profit organization under Ascend, the largest Pan-Asian business professional membership organization in North America, with a mission to educate, advocate and enable Pan-Asians to become leaders, reach their full potential and make greater positive societal impacts.
May echoed Mok, connecting how biases against the Asian American community affect not just executive promotions but everyday life. As anti-Asian American violence rose during the pandemic, Right to Be jumped into action, creating free trainings in bystander intervention for every setting, including workplace harassment.
Right to Be outlined five D’s of bystander intervention, aimed to support someone who’s being harassed, emphasize that harassment is not okay and empower individuals to make their community safer. The five Ds include:
- Distract by derailing the incident of harassment
- Delegate by asking a third party for help with intervening in harassment
- Document an instance of harassment by recording or taking notes
- Delay by checking in with those who are harassed after the fact
- Direct by responding directly to harassment by naming the inappropriate behavior and confronting the person doing harm
May was hopeful that people were ready to battle discrimination in the workplace and within themselves.
“People are hungry to disrupt violence before it becomes violent policy and violent acts. What we have seen is a rise in people wanting to solve these issues inside of themselves,” May said.
Meanwhile, Mok and Ascend work with their own members, groups like Nasdaq’s APAN and companies themselves to celebrate Asian American cultural differences in the workplace and widen the qualities that define the faces of American leadership.
“We are pushing for our member companies to think about their culture and what is valued, to make sure that they are not looking for leaders who look a certain way. Also, [to] think about the traits of a leader, how we broaden that and make that more inclusive,” said Mok.
Widening the traits that inform leadership, traits that adhere to a multitude of cultural values, allows diverse workers to give their full selves to the workplace.
“Ultimately, if I am an employer, the objective should be to help [the employee] reach their full potential, so that they can fully contribute to the company,” said Mok.
The panel concluded with a call to uplift Asian Americans into leadership positions and stop workplace harassment, implicit bias, and other forms of aggression toward minorities. This requires not just trainings and memberships, but intentionality on the part of companies and people to battle implicit biases and stereotypes that equate to real-world discrimination and diminished opportunity.
“This is not a pipeline issue,” Mok said. “There are plenty of well-qualified people ready to take on executive roles, ready to go on the board. What is important is intentionality.”
Honoring Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
Amplifying diverse and powerful Asian Pacific American voices in our global community.
Other Topics
Board and Leadership
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