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Milwaukee County’s Judge Yang shares experience as Asian-American during panel

Milwaukee County’s Judge Yang shares experience as Asian-American during panel

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Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Kashoua Kristy Yang told her family’s immigration story and spoke of her experience as an Asian-American during a virtual panel discussion on Thursday.

The Milwaukee Equal Rights Commission’s May “lunch and learn” program brought together community leaders to discuss what it means to be Asian-American, the racism faced by Asian-Americans in the U.S. and how allies can provide support.

Yang, who is Hmong, said her family left Laos for Thailand after the Vietnam War and stayed in a refugee camp. She was born there, and after years of living in the camp, the family immigrated to the U.S. They eventually moved to Sheboygan, where Yang lived until she attended UW Law School in Madison.

After law school, she began practicing law in Milwaukee, representing clients in cases involving family law, worker’s compensation and social security disability. She was elected as a circuit-court judge in 2017, becoming the first Asian-American judge to be elected in Wisconsin without appointment and the first elected judge without appointment of Hmong ethnicity in the U.S.

“My immigration story and the experiences of my parents have been so profound,” Yang said. “It’s led me down the path of the work that I do.”

Growing up in the conservative, blue-collar city of Sheboygan, Yang found that some Hmong teenage boys turned to gangs to survive and cope with the stress of living in that environment. She also saw the discrimination her parents encountered.

“It’s really shaped my perspective of the world and what I want to give back and how I want to change the narrative going forward,” Yang said.

She said the crimes against Asian-Americans, namely women, reported across the country have forced her to have conversations with her family and daughters about how to stay safe and protect themselves in possibly threatening situations. She and the other panelists stressed that taking time to learn about Asian-Americans is one of the best ways to provide support.

Ron Kuramoto, president of the Japanese American Citizen League’s Wisconsin chapter; Jilly Gokalgandhi, Milwaukee Public Schools Board Director for District 5; and Shary Tran, global DEI business partner for Global Delivery Services, also took part in the panel. A recording of the discussion is available on Facebook.

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