Cultural Celebrations and Events
As part of CCSJ, CCDC organizes cross-racial and cultural celebrations for residents in their larger housing sites in Chinatown and Tenderloin. The residents of these sites are racially and ethnically diverse, including Arab, Black, Chinese, and Latine families. With the displacement of Black families from San Francisco and residential segregation, there are few places in our city where Black and Chinese families live side-by-side as neighbors. CCDC’s housing, especially the Ping Yuen sites located in Chinatown, creates a unique opportunity for cross-racial healing and solidarity between Black and Chinese community members. Cross-racial and cultural celebrations offer low-stakes ways for neighbors to experience shared joy and build a foundation for empathy.
Credit: Joyce Xi
Outreach team members distribute safety resources, such as victims services fliers and safety whistles, and ask how community members have been doing. In these conversations, the outreach team learns about recent incidents or emerging concerns and connects merchants with resources. These resources can help merchants repair their storefronts, contributing to a sense of cleanliness and order. Over time, community members come to recognize the faces of the outreach team members as people who are here to help, contributing to a sense of safety.
Main Program Components
Food
It may be corny, but food can literally bring people to the table. Food is also easy to bond over without needing to share a common verbal language. People can see each other enjoy food by the expressions on their faces and share in a positive experience. Moreover, serving dishes that are rooted in different cultural traditions is one avenue to expose people to more diversity. Food engages multiple senses and can be an experience that shows how cultural diversity can be positive.
Games
Simple, physical activity-based games create another opportunity for people to enjoy a shared experience. Some examples of games include tumbling towers, ring toss, and bullseye ball toss. These games also help to entertain children and allow for play across generations. The shared experience of enjoying the laughter of children also connects people across cultural backgrounds.
Cultural performances
Including cultural performances can create positive exposure to traditions that might otherwise be viewed as foreign or through negative stereotypes. Hosting performances gives an explicit endorsement from organizations that community members respect, which helps them to keep an open mind. This allows people to understand cultural performances as artistic expressions that are informed by diverse cultural traditions.
Resident leadership
CCDC’s cross-cultural events are typically organized in collaboration with resident leaders and resident groups. For example, the Ping Yuen unity block party was co-organized with the Ping Yuen Residents Improvement Association. Involving residents in decision making and leadership roles helps make events more culturally competent and accessible. It also cultivates additional event stakeholders who can encourage attendance.
Positive media coverage
Cross-racial social events battle the perceptions that different immigrant communities and communities of color are impossibly divided. Media coverage of these events amplifies positive examples of cross-racial interactions that can serve as a model for others. Spreading news of the event with photos of positive cross-racial interactions can provide hope, heal community wounds, and move toward a cycle of positive interactions.
Keys to Success
Sharing joy across language lines
Many program components (food, games, dancing, performances, etc.) provide common experiences that can be enjoyed together without a high level of proficiency in the same language. A lot of good will can be communicated through facial expressions, gestures, and basic vocabulary. Very basically, they remind us that we have a shared humanity.
Low barriers to entry
Although some of the events had explicit themes of unity and overcoming cross-racial divides, the events did not ask people to discuss sensitive topics, like anti-Asian hate. The events focused on building joyful, positive experiences, with little risk for running into pitfalls. More serious events would likely get attendance from a smaller group of people who are more engaged in social issues, but a low barrier to entry means more people can access cross-racial healing programming. We need to explicitly reckon with racism, but we also need to enjoy shared experiences to build community and familiarity, which can help us navigate more tense situations.
Embedding cultural education
Many of the events aim to educate communities about the history and traditions of other communities. For example, the City Hall Iftar Celebration was an opportunity to learn about the significance of Ramadan and its associated traditions to Muslim communities. In another event, Ping Yuen hosted a Juneteenth celebration, which was an opportunity to learn about the US’ history of slavery and to celebrate Black freedom and heritage.
Cross-racial inclusion
Celebrations that represent different segments of a residential community can also create inclusivity. These events can signal that community leaders and the community at large see you and celebrate your culture. In particular, Black residents may feel like they do not fit into the primarily Chinese community in the Pings and the surrounding neighborhood. Opportunities to witness Chinese residents enjoy and celebrate Black culture can support feelings of belonging and vice versa.
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