Remarks by Ambassador Katherine Tai at the 2024 OCA National Convention
As Delivered
Well, thank you so much for that very kind and warm introduction and thanks to everybody here. And we just checked, it’s still morning.
Good morning, everyone!
(Audience returns greeting)
Good morning! All right, wonderful, wonderful.
It is an honor to be here today, in this great city of Philadelphia.
I want to thank Linda, Thu, Lien, and the entire OCA team for putting together this incredible convention.
I also want to thank the Japanese American Citizens League and APIAVote for their partnership and support.
Your work on behalf of our Asian American and Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander communities has been vital. We are, if you haven’t noticed, at a critical juncture in terms of our history and our democracy, so this gathering and the gathering’s theme are timely for all of us as we continue to work together to push our communities forward.
I am here representing President Biden’s Cabinet, as Thu said, the first Asian American and first woman of color to serve as the U.S. Trade Representative.
(APPLAUSE)
But today I’m here to represent all of us in the President’s Cabinet, and this is an incredible honor for me, and one that I do not take lightly.
I’ll share with you a little bit of my story: my parents were born in mainland China and grew up in Taiwan. They came to America as graduate students in the 1960s, through President Kennedy’s immigration reforms.
They spent their careers working for the federal government as health scientists. And as I have often told people, including President Biden, I am proud to be a second-generation American and a second-generation public servant.
(APPLAUSE)
And this is something that I think about every single day—what it means to be an American—including on the Fourth of July. Fireworks and cookouts are great, but we also remember what we celebrate and why we celebrate.
On July 4th, 1776, the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence, and about a month later, on August 2nd, 56 members of the Congress started signing that document right here in Philadelphia, inside the Pennsylvania State House, later renamed Independence Hall.
The Declaration enshrined important bedrock principles of our young nation—that “[w]e the people hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
“We the people” began the greatest experiment on earth with the belief that people are at the forefront of our democracy and our country.
But we know that not everyone was originally included as part of that “we.” Blacks were not considered equals to their white counterparts, and women did not have the right to vote.
So, it is incredible to look at where we are today, and to see how far we have come.
I work for a president who has put together the most diverse and talented administration in history—and a Cabinet that actually looks like America.
(APPLAUSE)
Each day in this job, I am reminded of why I do what I do as a part of this Administration.
It is a reminder that, though we have made much progress, there is more to be done to continue to perfect our Union.
Consider this. When the 19th Amendment became law in 1920, just over 100 years ago, 26 million women were nominally eligible to vote.
But many women of color [counted] as a part of that number still could not vote, because the amendment prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex, but it did not address other kinds of discrimination that many American women faced.
For example, Asians born here already had U.S. citizenship in 1920, but first-generation Asian Americans did not. So, Asian American immigrant women were actually excluded from voting until the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952.
It took decades of consistent, hard work to make sure that women who look like me, and who look like many, many of you, could partake in our democracy. To make sure that our communities can also be a part of “We, the People.”
Hard work from people like Dr. Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, a lifelong women’s rights activist.
Philip Vera Cruz, the Filipino American labor organizer and farmworker.
Representatives Dalip Singh Saund and Patsy Mink, the first Asian Americans ever elected to serve in our U.S. Congress.
And, of course, the late, great, Secretary Norm Mineta, the first Asian American to serve in a President’s Cabinet.
Many of you here today are continuing this legacy.
Now, our Declaration is just an idea; only when the ideals are lived out through our people does it become our identity.
So, the story of our country is precisely that—people from all backgrounds, all colors, all creeds, coming together to live out a set of ideals—ideals of equality, freedom, and justice.
In a speech that not many people know about, in July of 1858, President Lincoln famously said that more and more Americans over time may not have any blood relation to the men who wrote our original Declaration.
And yet, each of us are linked to those immortal words by what he called an electric cord through the patriotism and devotion of each of us to our ideals.
Someone who embodies this spirit is Philadelphia’s own Nina Ahmad.
Almost 50 years ago, Nina witnessed genocide in her home country of Bangladesh. She came here for an education and earned her doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania.
Nina worked as a scientist, but she wanted to do more to change other people’s lives, so she got into politics to fight for AAPI and women’s rights.
She served as a Deputy Mayor during Mayor Jim Kenney’s first term, where she was the first Asian American cabinet member in a Philadelphia mayoral administration. She was also a member of the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders during the Obama administration.
And she made history as the first South Asian to hold a seat on the Philadelphia City Council as an At-Large member.
Nina’s story is our story—of how we can overcome adversity to bring real change, one step at a time, and to inspire others to do the same.
It is through leaders like Nina and others that we create opportunities for each other to participate in our democratic experiment. Because standing on the sidelines is not an option.
Our administration is doing the same, on the economic policy side—democratizing opportunity for more people across our society.
Trade policy has not always lived up to the “We, the People” idea as well.
In the pursuit of maximum efficiency and lower costs, people were forgotten. Trade became a game of numbers, a race to the bottom, where working families and communities were left behind.
It has been clear that “We, the People”—including workers, small business owners, women entrepreneurs—should be at the center of our trade and economic agenda.
And as the U.S. Trade Representative, it has been my priority to travel around our country to meet our people where we are. I have met with AA and NHPI workers, business owners, and community organizers and leaders all around—from Los Angeles to Atlanta—to hear directly from them.
And a common theme that I have heard is the need for more of us to get into the game.
That it is not good enough to only have a few superstars from our communities represent us. That each of us is capable of bringing lasting change, if we are brave and bold enough to act.
Our communities, because the AA and NHPI community is a community of communities, we have shown time and time again that we are stronger—we are strongest—when we are together.
The last few years have served us a lot of challenges.
During the height of the pandemic, reckless rhetoric from certain politicians and leaders have emboldened and enabled violence against our communities. We feared for our family members, our elders, our children—and ourselves.
We witnessed tragic shootings in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay in California, and have also the horrific fire on Maui.
People today are still suffering—and the pain is real.
I do not have to tell you that these hardships are not new for our communities.
We have scars, but we have never been defined by them. We choose to be defined instead by what is possible. By our stories of hope and resilience. By how we are collectively working to make tomorrow better than today.
This is not because we are all alike. Because—just take a look around us, at all of us in this room. We are all different. Different upbringings, different cultures.
But this is also our superpower. What we cannot do as individuals, we can more than accomplish as a collective.
The great Patsy Mink once said, “We have to build things that we want to see accomplished, in life and in our country, based on our own personal experiences to make sure that others do not have to suffer the same discrimination.”
Each of you has a story to tell. And together, our stories are woven into a greater work, one that is far wider, far warmer, and more durable.
Let me end with something appropriate for Philadelphia.
You are probably all familiar with the Liberty Bell, which is about a mile from here.
The bell has an inscription that says: "Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants thereof."
Now you also know that the bell has a huge crack, and that happened in the 1840s. Experts have tried to fix it, but to no avail, so, no one alive today has actually heard what it sounds like in real life.
If you visit the bell today, the only way to hear it is through a digital recreation of its sound.
As important as it is, the Liberty Bell is just a relic, a symbol, and one that does not even ring anymore.
But there are real, living symbols of democracy that can ring out further than any bell ever could. And that is us—we are those symbols of our democracy.
No cracks will hold us back. No scars will hold us back. Our voices and our stories will ring far and wide, not just today but for as long as it takes, until “We, the People” truly means each and every person in our society.
Let us not let things happen to us—let us use our voices to shape the world and the country we want to see. And let us not go at it alone. Bring others with you, so that we all remember that we all belong here, together.
This is the beauty of our country. That we all have rights that we can exercise, and obligations that we must fulfill.
Because our democracy it turns out, is not guaranteed—it must be cared for and built up by our own hands, from one generation to the next.
I want you to know this—that the Biden-Harris Administration sees you, we hear you. I see you, and hear you. And we will always have your back.
So, jump in, make a difference. Don’t worry about the crack in the bell. As Leonard Cohen famously sang, “the crack, that’s how the light gets in.”
Shine your light. Proclaim liberty throughout all the land.
Thank you very much for having me.
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