Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1339678
52 C I N E M O N T A G E G R O U P I N T E R V I E W we've done something wrong. And I think that sometimes it's not for us to fix; it's just for us to name this and to be able to hold the folks accountable, that they need to do that work, right? Tricia Rodrigo: I wish I had a lot of money, so I could make my own content. If I had the where- withal to be making content for Asian Americans, or just people… using the level of sensitivity and understanding that I do have, then I would make it. Natasha Tony: Yeah, so who gets to tell the stories is another question that comes up very much around access to the funds, who gets to tell the stories? And when we talk about accessibility, those initia- tives can be something that we start to build in and promote and mentor others to do. Cathy Repola: I've made a commit- ment, and I think the board of directors has, too, to keep this going, which is why we signed a contract with Natasha and didn't just have her do a couple classes and then go about her life and let's go a b o u t o u r l i ve s. Th i s i s a l o n g- te r m commitment for us, and I've said to all of you, this is important to me, and I think it's important to the union. The time is way overdue for this, but the time is ripe for this. And we will have to keep doing 'I am very passionate about social justice issues, and sometimes that can be uncomfortable in the workplace.' this if we're going to make a change. The board financially supports contracting with somebody like Natasha to do this and taking training themselves. Considering it's only been a few months that we've engaged in all this, we've actually done quite a lot, and I don't want to lose sight of that. I know people want change really, really fast, but we are doing things, and not everybody always hears about everything that we do. We have a big commitment to this, and we have a long ways to go. I've talked to Natasha about some of our white male members who were feeling like this is threatening. How do we make them allies and make them part of the solution and not be pushing against it so that this is a longterm change? The racism that's systemic in this country is system- ic in this industry, too. So it's going to take a while for us to make a change, but I really believe in my heart and in my mind that we can do this. I think we can, and I think we have to. ■