- The first time that he hugged me, I knew that it was family.

They were gonna take care of us.

(gentle music) When I was eight years old, our family got sponsored from a refugee camp in Thailand because of the Vietnam War, I was born in Vientiane in Laos.

And because of the war, my family had to escape to Thailand to get ready to be sponsored.

And we lived there for a year.

Then we got sponsored in Dallas, Texas, was really strange because our sponsor was in a Black community.

We never saw a Black person before.

And so when we arrive in the airport, a sponsor, which is a husband and wife from a church that went and welcomed us, I was really, I didn't know how to react.

But the first time that he hugged me, I knew that it was family.

They were gonna take care of us.

And I can't imagine my parents having four children coming here with no language, no anything.

But to be welcome to a community which is Black community from housing, from everything, for me and my family, I think we had very positive because we were taken care of.

But I know that a lot of family that comes because of the war was not that fortunate.

I think the reason why I'm telling that story is that once I'd grown up, it was like this division that we hear about white and Black.

And so I didn't know what they were talking about in the media about chaotic stuff that's going on versus what I'm living where here's a community that's taking care of us, you know?

And so that was really strange, back then, you know, I had to translated for my parents.

Also, they had a choice to learn the language, but they have to feed four kids, so they have to go to work.

Public assistant is not forever, you know, we took this public assistant, but we have to be off.

So we're working at factories and minimal jobs just for them to have their kids to fit in.

That last four year, then we migrated to New York to be united with my relatives.

And then long story short, you asked me about coming to Detroit.

I graduated from the university, Binghamton University, and I got married in the winter of 1995, and that's when I moved to Michigan.

(gentle music)