John Chiang, California’s State Treasurer and candidate for governors, joins the podcast to share his personal story growing up amidst racism, his record in public service, and his plan for California if elected governor. We also share our takes on Trump’s latest twitter spat with North Korea, how China is strategically taking advantage of Trump’s ignorance, and AAPI NFL owners taking a stand against social issues. Subscribe: Apple Podcast | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Play | TuneIn Below is the transcript of our interview with John Chiang (edited for clarity). KEVIN: Alright everybody, on this very first episode of 2018, we are honored and delighted to be joined by the Treasurer of California and also candidate for governor John Chiang on the Model Majority Podcast. Treasurer Chiang, thank you so much for joining us today. TREASURER CHIANG: Kevin, Happy 2018, what did you do on New Year’s Day? KEVIN: Oh my god. I was being an old person essentially with my wife that’s typically our New Year’s plan. No countdown. We passed out on like 10:30. TREASURER CHIANG: Very good. KEVIN: Yeah, very boring, very boring, but restful. So before we dive into some of our heavy duty topics, I love to get started with your personal story. So could you share with our audience kind of where did you grow up and how did you grow up?. TREASURER CHIANG: Sure, so it’s the good old American story. I am the oldest child of immigrant parents, who came to America in my parents’ case in the 1950s. Many before us, as did my family, struggled. My dad when he came to this country brought three shirts, two pairs of pants, and about a hundred dollars in his pocket. America has incredible opportunity because of the opportunity and access to education. So my dad eventually got a Ph.D. My mom made similar sacrifices, learned her English, went to a junior college. They eventually ended up in New York and I was their first child. When I was young, we moved to suburban Chicago after a short stint in New Jersey, and I grew up from age 6 to until I went off to college in suburban Chicago. KEVIN: Oh wow. Were there are a lot of Asian families back then in suburban Chicago? I’m curious. TREASURER CHIANG: In the 1960s, no. So we were, in our community, we were the first Asian American family and it was hard! It was truthfully a little tough. So we faced discrimination. There was a lot of ignorance. There was a lot of intolerance. There was a lot of meanness. We had ugly racial epithets painted on our garage to say “go home” or say “chink”, “jap”, “gook”. Sometimes it just makes you laugh in a perverse way about the ignorance that you had to deal with. We were excluded. People handle discrimination in different ways. Sometimes I would get into physical fights. People would pick on my baby brother or my sister, and I would stand up and fight. You wish you could resolve that peacefully, but when people are taunting and other things, and they’re going to push you around sometimes you know, back then and you draw the line that you would stand your ground. My mom is very Catholic and my mom believed you know, and I try to, to find the goodness in others. And the great thing is most of the people are really really good people. They identify when you identify they share common hopes and aspirations, that you are good people, then people come around.