Jenna Yokoyama, Pacific Underground

Jenna Yokoyama is a Japanese American. She co-hosts the show Pacific Underground on KBOO in Portland, Oregon. It is heard on the FOURTH Friday of every month at 11:00 a.m. It is also on podcast via Soundcloud and iTunes. According to its website, "There are nearly 225,000 APIs in Oregon. But in one of America’s whitest states, the issues that impact us simply aren’t covered. Imagine: 225,000 stories untold. Pacific Underground is a show by Asians and Pacific Islanders (APIs) taking the mic into our own hands." Jenna covers a lot of ground in this conversation. We discuss religion, racism and the daily indignities APIs face to the social transformation underway with younger generations. She talks about the problem of the European designation “Asian” to refer to nearly half the planet as well as the necessity for APIs to unite as “Asian-Americans” for the purpose of empowerment.