From left: Chinese American Museum board president Dr. Gay Yuen, board member Evans Lam, Ron Wakabayashi, and museum executive director Michael Truong.
By ELLEN ENDO
RAFU SHIMPO
A human rights advocate who throughout his life and career has investigated many of America’s most high-profile hate incidents has a warning: Racism increases during national election years.
Retired U.S. Department of Justice regional director Ron Wakabayashi made the comment as he accepted the Ron S.W. Lew Visionary Award during the Chinese American Museum’s 28th annual Historymakers Awards Gala at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites in Downtown Los Angeles. Wakabayashi, who has spent most of his professional career advocating for human rights, was one of six Historymakers recognized by the museum at the Sept. 19 event.
Wakabayashi’s election-year caution is supported by statistics from the FBI and DOJ, among other publicly sourced data. A 2023 report by the Leadership Conference Education Fund, a national civil rights group, shows data going back to 2008 revealing increases in hate crimes against racial groups around general elections in 2012, 2016, and 2020.
A Little Tokyo merchant, who opted not to be identified, states, “There’s going to be protests after this (presidential) election no matter who wins. We just have to get through it.”
As Wakabayashi accepted his Historymaker designation, he said he based his cautionary comment on his decades-long experience in the human rights field. Prior to his 20-year career with the DOJ, he served as executive director of the Los County Human Relations Commission and was head of the L.A. City Human Relations Commission prior to that.
He was also the national director of the Japanese American Citizens League, serving during the campaign for redress, culminating in the passage of legislation signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 and the federal apology and redress payments for the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans.
He currently works with the Divided Communities Project (DCP) at Ohio State University’s Moritz School of Law, examining community conflict, truth and reconciliation commissions, and hate crimes.
Others named as 2024 Historymakers are: Domee Shi, Academy Award-winning animated film writer-director; Dominic Choi, interim chief of the LAPD; Jeannie Wong, China-town community leader; Koo and Patricia Yuen of the Yuen Foundation, philanthropists; and the L.A. County Asian American Employees Association.
Former Assemblymember Mike Eng received a special award from the Friends of the Chinese American Museum during the gala, and museum board member Joe Quan accepted the President’s Award.