Billy Taing and the Rev. Diane Ujiiye of API Rise are guests of the Center for Asian American Christianity
It was Billy Taing’s candor that made for a memorable and moving webinar hosted last week by Princeton Theological Seminary’s Center for Asian American Christianity. Taing joined his fellow co-director with the organization API Rise, the Rev. Diane Ujiiye, for a discussion titled “Freedom? A Conversation About Incarceration and Being Asian in the U.S.” Dr. David Chao, director of the Center for Asian American Christianity, was the host. Listen to their conversation here.
Formerly incarcerated in the California state prison system for more than two decades for kidnapping and robbing people aboard a tour bus, Taing petitioned for and received a full and unconditional pardon. After leaving prison, he also left a union apprenticeship as an electrician to serve his siblings in the Asian American and Pacific Islander community in API Rise. Taing co-founded the Black and API Solidarity Group.
Taing was born in Cambodia in 1974, a year before the Khmer Rouge began one of the most brutal genocidal campaigns in human history. When he was about 18 months old, the Khmer Rouge “barged into our home, accused my father of speaking Chinese and beat him up in front of us. They dragged him away and we never saw him again,” Taing said.
He, his older brother and their mother were sent to a labor camp. By 1979, they’d made their way to the border with Thailand, where they were taken in by American soldiers. The next year the family made it to Atlanta, then San Diego and Monterey Park, California.
His brother joined a gang when he was 12. “I wanted to be embraced by people and naturally I gravitated there,” Taing said. “I started committing crimes and hanging out with people in that lifestyle. I felt a sense of belonging.”
At age 19, Taing laid plans to rob a tour bus going to Las Vegas. “My intention,” he said, “was not to harm anybody.” Police charged him with kidnapping and robbery, and Taing was incarcerated in the Los Angeles County Jail. Following his trial, the judge told Taing he was “showing mercy” by sentencing Taing to two life sentences.
Original source can be found here.
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