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Zero to Hero: The progression of Asian and Asian Americans in Comics
33 Plays2 days ago
In this episode of Hidden in Plain Sight, Dr. Mark Martell, Director of the Asian American Resource Center, discusses his journey as a Filipino American living in Miami to becoming a leader in higher education. He emphasizes the importance of representation, sharing how his lack of visible Asian American mentors influenced his career. Mark's work includes research on microaggressions and teaching courses that integrate comics and superheroes to explore cultural identity and social issues. He highlights the need for diverse representation in media and the workplace, advocating for visibility and empowerment of underrepresented groups — listen to the podcast to hear all the details!
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Overview
00:00:10
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of Hidden in Plain Sight. I'm one of your co-hosts, Doug. I'm Jenny. I'm Echo. Hi, everyone. I'm Mark. Well, the so surprise the secret's out. Mark just said hi. So we know that Mark is our special guest today. Here on Hidden in Plain Sight, typically we talk about the workplace and what people are doing to make changes or differences within the organization. But I think like sometimes you know we forget where these employees come from. right They come before they join the workplace. Where do they come from? Well, typically they come from
00:00:44
Speaker
high school or your local community college or your four-year college or university. Today we have Dr. Mark Martel, and I'm going to do a quick intro, Mark, right now. Dr. Mark Martel is the Director of Asian American Resource and Altos Center since 2015. He's been working in higher education since 2000 at a Land Grant University, R1, in various departments including campus housing, student employment, office of career services, and he also of course teaches at the university. He's co-chaired some chancellor's committees on the status of Asian and Asian Americans and served on various other organizations within the university.
00:01:29
Speaker
He's been an active member in the community and participating in Asian American theater organizations as as well as LGBTQ organizations. He's earned his PhD in ed policy at the same place, or he did research on racialized experience of ah students at that university on the effects of their success.
00:01:54
Speaker
ah based on microaggressions. He's taught at colleges around the
Journey and Identity of Dr. Mark Martel
00:01:58
Speaker
university. Will you say, Mark? Is that correct? Yeah. yeah ah He's also, of course, a co-principal investigator. I mentioned earlier that Mark teaches at this university, and some of the courses include Asian American and pop culture, superheroes and cultural mythology, and comics and strategy at the university. Of course, I think that's part of the Honors College as well, too. Comics and Society. Oh, Comics and Society.
00:02:25
Speaker
yeah Thank you, Mark. Thank you, Mark. Mark is also a 1.5 generation Filipino-American who grew up in Miami, Florida, and moved to a very cold, cold city. Mark is a professor, a scholar, and someone who's trying to bring other folks along. Mark, is there anything else you'd like our audience to know about you? No, I mean, that's been a wonderful introduction. I really appreciate that. I think you've captured pretty much my different hats that I wear for the past, you know, 24 years.
00:02:56
Speaker
So many hats, so many places to start and the intersection of all the your identity and the work that you do. Echo and Jenny, where should we start? Any thoughts? I'd love to hear from Mark on your like own journey in terms of your involvement in the education community itself. like how like At the beginning, you start just a basic education policy. like How does that journey takes you to be a leader in the Asian community in the higher ed. Love to hear a bit of that personal journey a bit more from you. Sure. Thanks for that question and thanks for that wonderful introduction. You know, as I reflect back to my own professional journey, it really made me think about how parts of the journey there is discovering who I am as a Filipino-American or just what would we refer to as Asian-American.
00:03:52
Speaker
um You know, I grew up in a Miami, Florida, which is primarily Hispanic culture, which being Filipino made it a little bit easier to kind of, you know, relate to the majority of of the community there. It wasn't until I moved to the Midwest that I really realized I was Asian American or Filipino or Filipino American.
00:04:19
Speaker
You know, growing up in Miami, you know, you learned the traditional, you know, K-12 curricula, but then suddenly moving to, like, Chicago, which is a very diverse city, it made me realize that I actually was Asian. And and and here's a funny story when when it comes to that kind of epiphany. When I did all my ah HR paperwork, you know, when when I started at this university, I actually marked Pacific Islander as my race.
00:04:49
Speaker
biz most Yeah, most Filipinos either just say I'm Filipino or I'm Pacific Islander because
Challenges of Representation in Higher Education
00:04:56
Speaker
if you look at where the Philippines is regionally located, it's in the Pacific Ocean, right? And then if you think of how some of the cultural differences are, it's very you know Pacific when it comes to some cultural practices.
00:05:10
Speaker
So I remember being at a meeting and we were just looking at demographics data in our in our center and my boss like looked at the list, my boss back then looked at the list and he's like, we have a Pacific Islander? And I think at that time I had forgotten that I checked that because I think it was that period where the university suddenly like shifted demographics and I couldn't check more than one boxes. So I had to like remove Pacific Islander and check um Asian, Asian American. And I'm like, thinking, who was that? And I'm like, I think that's me. Because I remember when I first started there, I, you know, ah chose Pacific Islander as a racial category. And that kind of made me realize that there's, there's still parts of my identity that I had to learn about and also figure out where I fit, right. And that in it also ties into my professional trajectory.
00:06:08
Speaker
All of my professional experience, including when I was an undergrad graduate student and then eventually professional, was all higher ed. I've always worked at a university campus, college campus, and you know even though I wasn't truly aware of my Asian-American-ness,
00:06:26
Speaker
I didn't have mentors that look like me or saw professionals that look like me as i grew in my professional career and i would even say that the reason why i think I was chosen for my first initial professional job was because I was, I looked like the majority of the students on our campuses and they never really had that visibility or that representation. And then that made me realize, oh my God, my own professional trajectory also lacked that representation and that lack that role modeling. So it wasn't until I got into more like the community involvement here in Chicago
00:07:10
Speaker
or even in like higher ed conference like committees like that, did I realize there are people that look like me and want to make a difference within the profession? So with that, I realized I needed to do you know research in addition to like actual administrative work that centered on Asian-Americanness. And that's why my dissertation looks at you know racialized microaggressions that impact Asian American student success and how that you know impacts their academic experience. So hopefully that answered your question, Echo. Wow. It definitely was. Mark, what you said about representation and seeing yourself represented you know at at the leadership level or just represented in the organization, could you talk a little bit about why having people who look like you in different levels of the organization is so important?
00:08:04
Speaker
Yeah, that's a ah great question. I think when it comes to the importance of representation and why it's important in like career trajectory or just professional success, I think it's because number one, I'm a first generation to college, probably first PhD in the Martel, like branches that I know of. um And I had to somewhat, I guess, quote unquote, borrow knowledge from different mentors that I had in my career in order to help define who I am as an Asian American leader. It's no different from when I did my dissertation where there were very little literature on the populations. So I had to draw from different resources or different disciplines and then come up with my own.
00:08:56
Speaker
argument framework theories, right? So I think that is how I kind of navigated my professional career is, you know, learning from certain folks who I considered mentors, adapting or ah adopting some of their knowledge and practices and then kind of turning that into something that I could use in a way that uses the lenses that I come with as a Filipino American or Asian American.
00:09:26
Speaker
And I think that also trickles down to you know the students that I work with. I remember I used to teach this graduate course that looked at educational policy. And this was during the Zoom era when pandemic was happening. And I had one Filipino student who literally burst into tears at the first day of class. And I had to check in with him. And he's like, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get emotional.
00:09:52
Speaker
but I've gone through life. He's let's say back then mid twenties or early twenties. And I never had a Filipino professor or a Filipino teacher. And you're the very first. And it just brought so much emotion for me to see someone that looked like me in a leadership role. So then that made me realize the passive impact, but also active impact I have just being who
Networking and Leadership as an Asian-American
00:10:18
Speaker
I am. And when it comes to representation.
00:10:20
Speaker
ah Wow, Mark, what you have caught out earlier on how you very proactively like trying to learn from others and then establish that model for your students. I'm curious because that also brought me back some of the session that we had in our previous guests where in terms like the networking and how you really established some of those connections like intentionally in your exercise or in your practice were there any like intentionally like say like I need to connect it to this person so I can learn this from them
00:10:55
Speaker
And is there anything special that you actually thought about in that intentionality? Yeah, I think at the moment, there wasn't anything specific that I was looking for, right? I think it was maybe maybe more later or an afterthought that I'm like, oh, wow, this is something that I could practice or adapt to what I hope to to do in the future.
00:11:20
Speaker
Um, I think it's just, especially in my current role, it's hard to kind of separate that now, because it's the primary, I guess, framework I work with when it comes to just identity, because it's always going to tie into literally my daily work. Because I manage a Asian American, you know, cultural center, and I can't escape that. So as I look back to what I think was useful, I think originally at the beginning it was a matter of how do I
00:11:58
Speaker
Be visible, right, because it goes back to representation. How do I network? Because I think as, surprisingly, I'm a very shy individual, um you know, as we kind of learn as Asians or Asian Americans,
00:12:16
Speaker
we tend to practice more you know humility and quietness and you know not boasting about our successes. So I think I had to somehow network, not necessarily to a social client, but network so that people knew the value I brought as an individual, as a person, as an Asian-American, Filipino-American professional.
00:12:45
Speaker
And maybe sometimes being the only person in that room that is Asian-American, right? I think that's also learning how to navigate, but also network to the point where you are being visible and recognized and eventually hopefully valued, which then I think leads to where I am now and how I think I've kind of drew from others to utilize the type of leader that I've become. So I don't know if that answered your question, Echo, but I think that's how I heard it. It does. It does. Thank you for that. So Mark, I'm hearing you say self-awareness, pulling from different disciplines, networking. But I think there ah we're we're we're avoiding this like elephant in the room, where I think in the intro we mentioned that you tied this in with comics. Yeah.
00:13:45
Speaker
um So my question is if we started with why does representation matter? I kind of follow up to that to add on top of it of all this is why comics, why comic books as a as a medium to share this knowledge?
00:14:04
Speaker
Yeah, so I think it ah really just all connects together, right? I think it's this interdisciplinary multi-layered framework I always use in my work, whether it's administrative or teaching. So when you think of comics, primarily they're superheroes, right? Superhero comics. And even in the realm of comics for superheroes, there has been very little visibility or representation of Asian American characters or Asian American superheroes.
00:14:34
Speaker
which if you think of leadership, superheroes are leaders. So if you don't have superheroes that look like me or look like us, they're not, you know, the readers or consumers are not going to think they're, they're superheroes or could be leaders. So then I think that also applies to the workplace. If a workplace doesn't have the visibility or the representation, then someone who aspires to be in that role or in that environment won't see themselves as So it's it's, I think, really key. For me, it's all about representation. You know, when I consult with businesses or even when I do Comic Con talks, I always talk about representation. Who are the faces on your website? Who are the faces on your pages? Right? Like that to me is just about visibility. And I think visibility, you know, can lead to empowerment.
00:15:28
Speaker
um So when it comes to superheroes, it's the same thing I mean historically there has been an absence of Asian American characters or let's just say superheroes and the one the early representations that have been present have been stereotypical have been the villain or the sidekick or the the um You know foreigner that has never assimilated to American values. So it's always placing um Asians in a secondary nonheroic
00:16:05
Speaker
situation. And I think when it comes to, you know, readers, if that's all you know, that's all you're probably going to believe. And then if you tie that into the workplace, if you only see individuals in you know servitude roles or um assistant level roles. And there's nothing wrong with that. I'm just saying that you know we need more leaders that could represent and be more of a role model for people who want to climb higher professionally. um and And again, there's nothing wrong with being in a servitude role or in an assistant role, but I think
00:16:49
Speaker
um historically, we just been there. Can't we move forward and be, you know, a little bit higher when it comes to what they say, breaking that bamboo ceiling, right? Like, let's, let's blow that roof off and build our own roofs, right? Our own ceiling. So that's how I think that's how it ties for me when it comes to even like the superhero content that I use and the work that I do.
Comics, Education, and Cultural Identity
00:17:17
Speaker
Just to follow up on that, so what was it like presenting at Comic Con? Was this the one in San Diego? Yeah, so I've done Comic Con, San Diego Comic Con. I think I presented there about...
00:17:29
Speaker
four times um you know since I think I started in 2018. Of course, pandemic happened and then ah it reopened. But I would say it um about four times as a presenter and then maybe five times as just ah an attendee. um And then I do local ones here in Chicago as well.
00:17:53
Speaker
And then I kind of you know kind of turned it where I'm like, I'm going to do it also at higher ed conferences. So surprisingly, it's so like there's this like desire in higher ed where you know I would say a lot of higher ed professionals are geeks. So you know we the last one I did looked at Star Trek. I had a co-presenter from University of of Michigan, and he did Star Trek and I did comics and we talked about how you can utilize sci-fi and comics in classroom and outside of classroom. um But the one that I did with one of her colleagues, Sai Islam, was at Comic Con San Diego and also at a higher ed conference in New Orleans one year.
00:18:39
Speaker
But yeah, it's it's amazing. I think that the audience is always either the same, I think and that they would attend a higher ed ah workshop and also go to a Comic Con workshop. That's so cool. That's so cool. Thank you.
00:18:57
Speaker
Can I just make a comment real quick? I mentioned that you know for me, you know in my like middle school years, I actually struggled with reading. And for me, comic books was actually a medium that allowed me to get interest.
00:19:12
Speaker
did in in reading because like I didn't have someone in the family that that read to me that really actively read that we didn't have 50 books or 10 books in the home. ah But what kind of did it for me was when we had this like read a million minutes kind of program at like our middle school, what I read was I read Garfield comic books. And that's why I recorded my minutes under. I didn't tell the sixth grade teacher that I read Garfield comic books.
00:19:41
Speaker
because I was kind of ashamed of it, but it was something that actually got finally got me to actually to pay attention and actually read like book after book. i mean it took me i mean Granted, like most of it are you know pictures and whatnot, but it got me to do the small steps, which was reading. So like when I hear you talk about bringing this coming books to yeah the university,
00:20:05
Speaker
level course, it really makes me think about how that changes kind of the the the culture or the environment that you get to teach and under and how that has changed from maybe pre-comic book versus like comic book. What differences do you kind of see with that when you're engaging with students in the ah platform that you publish ah under and work with other professionals? yeah so i think Comics are a great way, it's a great way and a gateway to get people to read more, right? um I always say if you have young folks or kids, expose them to comics. And I match that experience too is, you know, I think
00:20:48
Speaker
as a child in the Philippines, I was exposed to what's considered Filipino comics, with comics with a K, um where it was just more like drama or adventure comics, and nothing really superhero. But I mean, we had like cartoons and all that. It wasn't until I moved to the States that I'm like, oh, you're some superhero comics. And I would just read them and eventually start collecting them and then eventually start teaching about them or with them. um So I think there's also this kind of like um assumption that comics are just for kids and it's just for entertainment. It can, but it's also more than that, right? There's a lot of thought. There's a lot of narratives. There's a lot of creativity that goes into comics that if people take the time to actually appreciate its art and its form, they'll realize that it's
00:21:42
Speaker
doing or saying larger things, right? Comics are social commentaries. Comics are tools for literacy. Comics are ways for the brain to be more creative. There are law schools, there are medical schools that use comics with their students so that they're using a different side of their brain when it comes to work and the profession. um The students that I have in my classrooms are honors students, so they're eventually going to be doctors, pharmacists, engineers. And the type of um exposure they get to superhero as
00:22:24
Speaker
um as a genre or as a figure of understanding and also the comics that we read that really centers on identity and social issues really You know, make them think beyond what they already think of superhero movies or just general comics they read. They actually see the deeper things, right? Like, can superheroes kill? So we explore ethics and i have them debate this.
00:22:56
Speaker
um You know, what makes a superhero? Does a superhero need powers? Right? And they're like, yeah well, yeah, I'm like, well, what about Batman? He doesn't have powers. Right. And they're like, well, his money is his power. Right. So then we talk about, like, you know, what does it mean to be a millionaire and, and and you know, social responsibility?
00:23:17
Speaker
right So we get into the nitty gritty of what is a superhero, but then we tie it into cultural identity. So this goes back to representation and the initial ah conversation about why superheroes are are representation is important for superheroes. So each of my students have to create an original superhero that reflects their cultural or racial identity.
00:23:40
Speaker
is this is my way of putting diverse superheroes out there and into the universe. So it's great because my students who may be second generation now, in the States who may never have been connected to their heritage or their culture, suddenly know about like a cultural myth up there from their family and then understanding who they are and then creating a superhero that looks like them or has an essence of their identity and then put into the world this new superhero that could be you know their race or their ability or their their size. A lot of my students you know look at
00:24:24
Speaker
cultural identity beyond race and ethnicity as well. um And then of course, just looking at comics as an art form to to look at social issues is I think important.
00:24:45
Speaker
I love the call out, Marjorie Heather, is having your students to create their own comic character that representing their culture and ah value to a Sunday degree.
00:24:56
Speaker
um And me being a total like outsider, I'm not rev reversing the comic language or anything. But in terms of the changes over the past 20 something years, like have you seen anything? Because I think even when I growing up, I was growing up in China and most of my education in China before I hit the grad school here in the States. But growing up, I was watching Japanese cartoon.
00:25:20
Speaker
stuff. And I was into Japanese characters in the comics books. So to me, all that environment is somewhat like different from where like people here are talking about Star Trek and things like that. So I'm just curious, in terms like because I also know Japanese cartoon or comics are also a big hit here in the States as well.
00:25:42
Speaker
So how how did you see that fusion? Like how ah where do you see those two merge together? um So those were really like two questions from you. Like one is, have you seen any trend in terms of Asian representation in the US mainstream comics and or not mainstream, but comics in general? um And secondly, like how did you see that some of the Asian comics um creating some of the fusion ways the US ones or vice versa? So that was my two questions.
00:26:12
Speaker
Yeah, and Echo, thank you. I love this question because um I've actually expanded my courses to include Japanese comics, and manga, and anime.
00:26:24
Speaker
So I'm fairly new when it comes to Japanese pop culture, ah specifically anime. I just recently discovered my genre of anime are like the horror genres, which are the scary ones. I think one of, or like kind of scientific ones where like Dan to Dan is like high school students who become like, I don't know, with powers and also, you know, connected to to the,
00:26:52
Speaker
spirit world. um There's Uzumaki, which visually is just so beautiful. It's all black and white, but it's so weird that I can't even describe what it's about. um But I've then decided to kind of expand the courses I teach, include those those areas, because for some years now, my students are like, are we going to look at anime characters? What about this character? Is he a superhero? And I will say, well,
00:27:21
Speaker
make an argument for it, right? So eventually I created this course where where I actually bring students to Tokyo. So I brought 19 students last summer and we studied in Tokyo for four weeks, looked at Japanese anime, among the characters, comparing them to American superheroes and looking at how do both cultures differ when it comes to these types of media.
00:27:45
Speaker
um So, American superheroes have always been rooted in social justice, and um the other, um you know, the underdog, and one thing I learned, and mind you, this was the first time we taught it this past summer, this May, Japanese media and superheroes and characters are really not. They're just more for entertainment or fan service or just, you know, what's popular at that time. Like, right now, I think reincarnation is a trend in Japan.
00:28:16
Speaker
anime and and manga, so a lot of that reflects that. So while, mind you, there's a lot of like environmental justice themes and a lot of like you know Studio Ghibli anime out there. So there's still a little hint of like thought in a lot of the anime media but you know animated media, but it's not as heavy on social justice like the US. So I'm looking to repeat that course again this coming summer, and this time with 20 students.
00:28:46
Speaker
and um Yeah, so I think when it comes to kind of like the the crossover, I think any Asian international um ah media, whether music, fashion, or animation, is now making an impact in the US because a lot of my students are and all into it. K-dramas, J-dramas, Filipino dramas.
00:29:11
Speaker
shows I mean, in a couple of weeks, I think Squid Game Part 2 is coming out and everyone's gonna be watching that, right? So I think it's finally like hit the US where I think a lot of people are now being exposed to representation that has not been there, right? um And I'm starting to see a lot, especially in the superhero comics realm, I'm seeing a lot of like,
00:29:39
Speaker
I don't know how to describe it but this like American superhero is getting sucked into like Japanese anime and I think there's like a term a Japanese term to it and and so I'm wondering like is the superhero like industry or comics industry trying to do that because now they found a larger audience people who enjoy Japanese content and then you you know, bringing in American superheroes. So those who are only American superhero comic readers then suddenly discover Japan content. So I think there's a synergy happening right now. Hopefully it'll get bigger, which I think leads back to, again, the representation of American, Asian-American content or Asian content and bringing that into the Western culture.
Dismantling Monolithic Views of Asian Americans
00:30:31
Speaker
It can be monetized.
00:30:34
Speaker
um For our our audience members who can't see what's in the chat, Jenny says, as Mark was speaking, I love i love it. ah And of course, Echo says she wants to enroll in Mark's course. That would have been like I would have totally taken your class, Mark. I would have taken my class. That's the thing, right? And I think it goes back to our conversation. Sometimes we have to create our world in order to make it a reality. And I think that's the same thing with the workplace, right? Like you know like I said, I'm the first PhD. I'm i an executive director, which I never thought I would be. And I'm also a professor, which I never thought I could be.
00:31:16
Speaker
Like, I would have never thought I could combine my hobby of comic books and bring that into the classroom, but there is a discipline out there of comic studies that not many people really realize is a true form and a true discipline. So, yeah, I would have loved to have taken my courses too. Marc, I have a question. What's one misconception that you would like our audience members and beyond to to understand when it comes to representation and underrepresentation of Asian Americans?
00:31:46
Speaker
And what I mean by that is within the Asian American group or Diaspora, we have groups that are underrepresented at all levels, not just at the leadership level. And that's that's that applies for you know South Asians, Vietnamese, Filipino, Cambodians, and yet.
00:32:04
Speaker
they don't get included in the DEI conversations because they're still under that AAPI umbrella. And so given your research, given your own background, your lived experience, what's one misconception that you would like our audience member to take away from this conversation?
00:32:19
Speaker
Yeah, Jenny, I think you you bring up a key thing about the monolith assumption that we're all this one group, right? Like the umbrella term of Asians or Asian Americans, you know, there's so um many groups that fall under that. And there are some groups that are left invisible because, you know, there's smaller more focus on other groups. And then that leads to their needs being ignored.
00:32:45
Speaker
And that's pretty much what I do professionally is um kind of bring out or what I would say unearth a lot of the the quiet voices or the hidden histories or the the groups that tend to be ignored.
00:33:01
Speaker
um So one thing I think listeners could realize is is this this monolithic assumption is something that keeps visibility hidden.
00:33:16
Speaker
um So while yes, there has been progress in more diverse media out there, while there is um you know more courses that are centered on different Asian-American topics, there are still groups that need that lifting, right? And I think That's where I think once an individual gets to...
00:33:44
Speaker
a place where they can make a difference and whether that is bringing in someone with with a perspective that is not usually heard or seen, that is something that one can do. Or something, again, passive where you could just be that representation so that you're making an impact on those that may not be there yet or who aspire to be where you are.
00:34:10
Speaker
or even be just a mentor to someone that um may not have that representative like I didn't have when I was a young professional, right? And they then can be empowered to be mentors for others or people that look like them. So I think um it's somewhat that double-edged sword where it's great to have representation, but it's also um not good because always the representation that may be visible are always the ones that are heard or seen. So I think it's important to uplift people that are not seen or heard.
00:34:58
Speaker
As you were talking, Mark, I was i was thinking about a cliche quote, which is, of course, with great power comes great responsibility. yeah right i mean i think I question whether that started out from Spider-Man or in the comic book somewhere, but I'm pretty sure there's some social activists that have used that in the past. We need we need to look into this.
00:35:20
Speaker
oh yeah I think it started in Spider-Man. okay yeah yeah but Totally hear you because I got i got hooked up on in in the comic, not the comic book world, but like the 1990s, like X-Men. And when they had that diverse cast for me, like, I'm like, that was really interesting to see all these different folks with different superpowers and living amongst each other and having adversaries that also had other powers and the complexity in which they have to live.
00:35:50
Speaker
ah In that world in order to exist and coexist with each other is this ah You know for someone who is I think I was in my teens at that age and like you know I'm like this is this is some heavy stuff for some Saturday morning cartoons you know and I think like the cartoons are only like a smaller version of what the comic books are because I think most of the comic books actually go into a Little bit more depth because they they don't have a 30-minute limit in which they can actually address some of these more serious issues So didn't mean that you know
00:36:21
Speaker
Yeah, it goes back to what we were talking about. Like you brought up the 90s X-Men, where I think two of the most popular Asian or Asian American characters were introduced. Jubilee, who is of Chinese American descent, and also Psylocke, who, if you read my journal article of how complex that character is about having an Asian body but white You know came from a white character mine it was popular right and that I would say is attributed to the artist who was hired that created primarily to believe is I think he modeled it after his sister um ah Jim Lee who is
00:37:00
Speaker
Chinese American. So it's it goes back to the argument of making sure the people that are um writing the stories, creating, again, it doesn't even, I know we've been talking about comics, but that's the same thing in any workplace or workplace environment, making sure the voices, the stories, the the work is being done by by Asian Americans so that there is going to be that visibility in the representation.
00:37:28
Speaker
And I think that's how that ties into your X-Men commentary book. Amazing. I love it. I love it. I know we have a few minutes left. Any other quick questions for Mark? I do have a fun one I want to end this want to end this with. And it's for all of us, actually. Go ahead. I'll get it. Yeah? Sure. Yeah. OK.
00:37:49
Speaker
ah Mark, you're probably going to have a really good answer to this and we're going to have lame ones. so This is our audience member. Given what you do, what is your superhero name? ah What is my superhero name?
00:38:03
Speaker
Okay, so i I don't know if you saw it, but I am a big Wonder Woman fan. like I have a room dedicated to like Wonder Woman, Linda Carter, Gal Gadot. Just the character and the essence of Wonder Woman is something that I relate to. you more Born on an island like I was, you know? um yeah so And I'm also friends with the granddaughter who created a Wonder Woman, Charles Walter Matson.
00:38:33
Speaker
You know, just knowing that connection with her and knowing who her grandfather was and why he created this character for female empowerment and also believe that in order to end wars, women need to be empowered, right?
Superhero Reflections and Episode Conclusion
00:38:49
Speaker
Like this thinking of a man from like the 30s who's so progressive, I think just speaks to Everyday women now, you know now um So my superhero character's name would be somewhat reflective of that character Wonder Woman and it would be Prince Wonder nice they love it Are you playing on the the word wonder? Yeah, yeah, so it's a homage. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah to her and and okay Yeah, and the possibilities of you of what you could do, right? I talked about all the things that you didn't know you could do Earlier. Yeah
00:39:26
Speaker
Oh, that's, ah oh, that's amazing. I love it. Yeah. How about y'all? Let's go first. This is a tough question, Doug. Yeah, I, I'll go first since I kind of cheated and I wrote this down like 15 minutes ago. Mine's kind of lame. So, um, I work in assessments, uh, uh, you know, uh, in, uh, in hiring people.
00:39:52
Speaker
But I don't feel like that's my superpower. like There's stuff I do for um my family, and I feel like the smaller portion of the community in the last one, I say the last few years, that I am empowering them to do other things. And what I've been teaching them is actually about investments in 401k and what they can do to To to enhance the retirement later on because it's a lot of stuff that wasn't taught to us and it was of course something that was created in the 70s and 80s so I would have some sort of lame name like Financial literacy guy or something like that the Asian and Asian American community and eventually hopefully old this spread on as well later on but Beyond like this stuff that we I do with ah echo and Jenny ah That would be something off to rethink and we'll have to go back to the drawing board mark
00:40:39
Speaker
but They're all laughing at me silently.
00:40:45
Speaker
you don' have to mind too we're laughing with It's a work in progress. It's a work in progress. Okay, so so mine is gonna be, um this just came to me. So I've been in a lot of conversations in a lot of rooms where people just are surprised because I'm a very loud woman and I'm very opinionated. And I think people don't assume that because I'm Asian woman. They're like, oh, you're I thought you were gonna be quiet. I thought you were gonna be submissive. So my superhero name would be breaker of stereotypes. Ooh, love it, love it. Breaker stereotypes. I guess that's my term. I actually...
00:41:22
Speaker
maybe I made a mistake, but I was trying to find who is that comic name that I, or anime name that i I aspire to or inspire to, but I was finding this character, Daniel Moonstar, and I don't know,
00:41:39
Speaker
um I don't think this is a very known character, um but she is one of the new me mutate ah mutants in X-Men. Basically, her superpower is, um well, actually, she is one of a Native American that is, at the beginning, she was very vulnerable to her own illusions.
00:42:01
Speaker
ah of her own inner fear and all the vulnerability make her later on actually become very strong. and She had to actually overcome all her illusion in order to demonstrate her superpower. And the wonderful thing is she does bring a lot of culture heritage with her and always advocate for her people. So I felt like I got a lot of inspiration from that culture itself.
00:42:25
Speaker
It's not that well-known character, but I do feel like somewhat degree that represents me, um because she's thriving adversity and she brings her weakness into her superpower. Yeah, I love that character. I put in the chat that her superhero name's Mirage, and she's from the Newton's X-Men world. I agree, such a fascinating character.
00:42:51
Speaker
So um Mark, we usually end our episode with a haiku that's written by Chad Ejibiti. um and
00:43:02
Speaker
And inspired by, yeah, I know. um I can't wait to hear your reaction to what Chad Ejibiti write to us. But basically, i just sometimes I just prompt a little bit with the content that we have talked about for the session itself. so As we were talking, I was just ah typing the prompts and here's what it actually returns.
00:43:28
Speaker
ah Stories spark the mind. Guiding next-gen's vibrant dreams. Culture nights the way.
00:43:37
Speaker
I love this. Thank you. I think it really captures, like you said, what we talked about, the necessary necessity of our our voices and our stories and how that impacts the future. So thank you.
00:43:51
Speaker
Well, thanks for joining us on another episode of Hidden in and Plain Sight. I want to thank Mark again for joining us and sharing his thoughts and leadership and how he has combined ah academia, leadership, and comics onto one as a venue to teach everyone and to bring a lot of folks along in all this process. Mark, thank you so much.