A Cultural Change in America... and OC!

President-elect Barack Obama's historic win last night has begun a cultural change in America... Blacks, whites, Asians, Middle Easterners and many others gathered together all over the country to embrace the vision of CHANGE within our country's government.

And even locally we are starting to see the multicultural community coming out and making their voices heard in a major way in local government.


In Irvine, former Mayor Pro Tem Sukhee Kang has officially won the race to becoming the first Korean-American mayor of a major U.S. city. Former Mayor Beth Krom has always supported a diverse and integrated community and government, and has been fully in support of Kang throughout this year's controversial campaign. In an interview with OC LIFE in September 2008, Kang said, "Before the 2004 election, we didn't have much representation from immigrant comunities. Now look at all the commissions - we have Persian-Americans, Chinese-Americans - different communities coming together and working together. So I think that's a very positive change made in just the past 4 years."

Kang has strong ties to the community (he is known for knocking on doors in Irvine and personally meeting citizens) and a tight cultural connection to his Korean roots. A few weeks ago, the Korean Cultural Center of Orange County awarded him the prestigious Dosan Ahn Changho award for his leadership within the community.

Another Korean-American who has been re-elected to Irvine's City Council is Dr. Steven Choi. Choi was first elected to City Council in 2004. Choi says he values Irvine's cultural and ethnic diversity and harmony and in an interview with OC LIFE he said, "Irvine is truly blessed with ethnic and cultural diversity among our residents... we know how to live in harmony and respect each other."

Indeed, Irvine's ethnic population has grown immensely in the past 37 years - from 18% to 49%. And these growing numbers are apparent in Orange County and the entire country for that matter.

In the end, we're all American and we're all proud to be a part of a country that is moving towards CHANGE.

~ Sepi Danosian
sdanosian@oclifemagazine.com