building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions, this is abc7 news. i'm kristen sze. welcome to our daily program "getting answers." to get answers for you in real time i will share a conversation with white house press secretary jen psaki. and we'll talk to the year woman whose effort to build peace in afghanistan is being recognized. first, today is stop asian ate and healing. there are rallies throughout the bay area that you'll see

later on abc7. one way to fight it is to uplift the stories of asian- americans. one person is john chu. thanks for coming on today. >> great to be here. >> you're usually behind behind camera. what's your message? >> you know, it's time to be aware and make everyone aware. i mean, we have felt this and stayed quiet about it and miled and moved on with our our whole lives. so it's really great we can have ament where we can join hands and say stop the jokes. i think that's the powerful message that everyone across the internet is saying

together. >> i know how you mean it's been bottled up for a long time. for you, how have you been feeling seeing the attacks, many of them on the elderly, whom we respect culturally or even in the bay area where it's never been so lonely and dangerous before. >> it breaks my heart. my parents have a restaurant in the bay area, chef chu's. when moments happen where people say things under their breath or say things outloud in your face, this isn't president community that's supporting you but people who say things, that's happened throughout the years and we were taught to don't let it get you down.

my dad always said, hey, we are ambassadors for our community. we were one of the first chinese restaurants in this area and we are a bridge to our community. so if someone leaves the restaurant with their bellies full and hearts full, the next time they see a chinese family, they will treat them right. that's the way we were taught. we need to do it to move forward now we're of age. now those lessons seem to be a little outdated. the moment to speak up is now and, you know what? maybe this is something that us kids of immigrant parents are meant to do. i'm in the story telling business, so we know that one of the most powerful ways to have a culture, another culture see you is through story and he is that we're human beings. we're not some foreign entity

here to take over your land in some way. we are part of american. we are -- asian-american history is american history. now it's time to learn that history of people on the ground, our ancestors and fulfill the promise of america. >> we were showing you, jon, video we shot a little over a year ago. seems like forever ago. the last time i saw you chu celebrated the 50th anniversary. making people happy, building bridges through food. it makes mow want to cry because i know in the restaurant environment, the waiters, the cooks, the bus boys, they put have heard hurtful things in this past year. are you able to share some of those? >> yeah. i mean, it's not just

either. everyone's sort of watching each other's back. it's become more pointed and feel like it's okay to not hide it at a certain point. however, i think working in a restaurant you get treated all sorts of ways and i was able to observe that over the years. so, yeah, i think it's, that the moment where you actually have to face it and the month you have to speak out about it people don't want to hear it. people want to think everything's been great. we live in a great community. don't get me wrong but there's learning to be had. i remember when i was going to school, i think it was first grade, i was still scared of bringing my dumplings that my mom would pack very lovingly to school. i'm sure a lot of asian- americans had this, it would

smell the room up. before you got to school, you would dump. it i didn't know other asian- americans did that. you use their grammar sometimes because that's the way you're learning to speak and you're made fun of relentlessly. then you look at your parents and through correct that. i think we've all had that experience where you try to correct your parents >> i was always with fermented tofu, but let's say how great it is. >> teaching my kids, it has been fun to tell them when they see chinese food, i want them to think of home. when they say an asian woman in chinatown, that looks like

their grandmother. not that my mother looks old. >> you're in trouble now. i can hear her calling right now. >> that they look like her relative. i knew i had that feeling. in first grade when my parents volunteered to show people what chinese knew year's was. i was so scared. yet, when they came, they brought food, lion dancers, got in the suits, told the stories. gave red envelope the with coins inside. after that my classmates loved it. they wanted to come over after that. i was the most popular kid in school. >> food pay as part movie "crazy rich asians." you felt you wanted it to be successful to represent the culture in a reresponsible way,

right? tell me about if you feel like there's an extra sense of pressure, responsibility now even just due to the recent climate. >> yeah. i think it's a wakeup call. i think it's hollywood is waking up to certain things and we're changing but it's not fast enough. there's urgency, lives at stake. test well year everyone's been screaming the things that have been happening from the top levels of politicians all the way down to school grounds, that the things are, that have been building, so i don't think it was a surprise that it ended up in a tragedy. so i think that's something that's sort of now come to a point where we

silent anymore. >> right. just to be clear in terms of the media, i think the media has a much bigger responsibility, specifically to asian women, that i think that we have done a huge disservice to the women in our lives, my mother, my grand mother, sisters, aunties and we present them in a very specific one way >> and that is -- what is that way and how has that contributed to some of the things we're seeing now. >> i think the drag drag drag d hypersexualized. that category of stereotyping our asian women who kept the families together, who kept the bises together, who kept the families together, i think is atrocious, actually. and i'm not clean of that either. i have not done enough. we have not done enough. the moment is to say the urgency is actually upon us or the awareness of the urgency is

now. >> absolutely. jon, your next move of course the one i can't out in heights. there's a line that touched me. little details tell the world we're not visible. whether you're know min can in new york city or chinese in san francisco, aren't we more similar than we are different? >> 100%. we all have our own struggles. the different communities have things that they're facing but i think the solution is very similar. it's just showing each other who we are and those details, i think we will find a lot of similarities and we'll find that, yes, we share inned into in family, in the pride of our community. i got to witness that in crazy rich asians. it felt like something i needed

to do. i didn't note outpouring of love and support we get from everybody throughout the world would happen. so witnessing that and feeling that pride and getting -- going on in the heights, i think i wanted to make room and give space for the latinx community to have that moment. what i know about that moment is oh, i need to listen. i need to take time to put in the details, that certain calendar that you find in your grandmother's kitchen. how people's hair, how it's lit. we need this pay attention to the details >> i'm getting so many questions about that on facebook live. crazy rich asians 2 update. when is that going to happen? >> look. we're working on the script right now. i have read the script. it's great but there's always work to be done. i will not gather us all.

i will not bring us all pack unless it's worthy. be patient and we'll get there soon. >> all right. we'll have to take a

typically the white house press secretary jen psaki fields questions from a pool of reporters, but we had a chance to talk to her earlier today. so i want to ask you one of the most exciting things we hear is it the vaccinations are going well and president biden is setting as a goal 200 million

doses in the first 100 days. on the same day expanded eligibility. as you know, jet is is one thing and getting the vaccine is another. >> supply will continue to increase every week. part of the issue is supply part of it is also about vaccinators, people who scan put the arms in people and part of it is vaccination sites. we're working to invest in mobile health centers, sites and making sure it's as easy as possible to get the vaccine. >> one of the federal fema sites, the goal is to ensure equity in giving out the dose else. as of two weeks ago,

to white else. 20% latinos and 4% to blacks. what can the sites do to ensure equity. >> well, eke quit is at the center of our strategy across all of the approaches but certainly across covid distribution. one of the reasons we're continuing to assess you had to get the vaccine out and how to best do it to communities, we want to do it equitably. we are making sure we're doing this in a way where we're reaching people. it's not easy for everybody to take a day off from work. we're trying to meet people in communities where they are. we track all of the data and we have concerns when the vaccines are not going to the communities they're intended >> i would like to talk about economic health. our state is hurting.

january alone, the loss of 70,000 jobs. we're also a big tourism state, convention state. >> first, the american rescue plan that the presidents had just signed into law has huge checks including$22 million for the state of california. it will help people get through this difficult period of time. there's funding for the child tax credit, maybe give them some flexibility to go back to work but this is just the beginning. next week, the president will be laying out his build back better agenda. so more help is coming. >> all right. that's good to hear. there is a recall effort in

california against governor gavin newsom. you said publicly of course that president biden opposes the recall. can you tell me what concrete efforts he might take or vice- president kamala harris might take. >> they both opposed recall. i don't have any steps to preview for you. sometimes that's organized through the political entities, not directly the white house but they support governor newsom. >> i do want to talk about stopping aapi hate. today is a day of action. 3,800 cases that were just tracked and there were more and the horrific shootings in atlanta at the three spas. i want to ask you even though president biden has strongly condemned racial hate and

specifically asian-americans. for example, cot justice department funding increased to track the data? >> yes. the short answer to your question is yes. action can be taken. what he did the first week in office was to sign an executive order to prioritize addressing the threats, the hate speak, the violence against asian- americans. he recognizes this as a huge challenge and an issue he elevated in his one and only prime-time address. he will follow those words or intend to with actions. right now the department of justice, the department of health and human services, they're conducting listening services to determine what the right steps are, what policy steps they're going to recommend. he's eager to hear from him and certainly this is an issue he remains eager to addressing. >> recent many leaders have

called on the administration to appointment asian-americans at the highest levels of this administration. of the 15 cabinet secretaries, none of them asian. that isn't to take away the two but what can the president do to ensure those voices are at the table? >> he wants to ensure that asian-american voices are at the table. there's representation but it needs to be at the highest level. one of the steps he committed to just this week is hiring a senior asian-american official who can have a seat at the table, play a role in policy making. we have not hired that person yet. he just announced it two days ago but something he's

committed to and hope to be doing soon. asian-american is such a broad umbrella. culturally, ethnic economy, there are distinct differences. a lot of asian-americans celebrate vice-president harris' southeastern heritage. many asian-americans have experienced hate due to the coronavirus. is the administration aware of those cultural differences and are in that reason more needs to be done that they, too, are americans. >> we absolutely are well aware of the additional threats that members of the asian-american community have faced as a result of frankly problematic hateful rhetoric, some from the last administration, some from people who just irresponsibly

stoked anger and hatred. we also want to ensure we're reaching out, engaging with with the community on how to address it in an effective way and not just designating the solutions. >> jen, i know you have to g that is our interview with jen

yesterday president biden said while he will not withdraw troops by may 1st, help couldn't see them being there next year but american intelligence officials are warning the president if the troops leave before a power deal is reached between the taliban and the afghan government the taliban could take control a

joining us is heidi cune from roots of peace. heidi, great to see you again. >> great to see you. roots of peace was just honored by the afghan government for the afghan peace award. tell us what roots of peace has been doing. >> i think it's most significant that was given to an american woman for the work that we have done with sport support from dod, european government and the asian development bank. the importance of this is as the interactive peace talks are continuing, it's the afghan women who really are at a cross roads. it's critically or that we uphold them in these

discussions so the presentation of this inaugural peace awards shows the sincerity to uphold the rights of women. >> now if there is a peace treaty signed, tell us what you would be able to do. i know you're ready to go to expand your efforts. >> roots of peace began its work in afghanistan in 2003. it was a generous gift gift gif diane disney mill per. afghanistan is the most heavily mind country in the world. so as we began our pilot program north of kabul through the eradication of the mines we then went in and trained the farmers to grow high value crops and in particular the grapes were restored on these former war torn lands.

we expanded to planting over 5 million fruit trees in 35 provinces. over time it took time for trees to bear fruit, apples, apricots, almonds. what we have done further is to right experts to india, due by and it's doubling and tripling the income to the poppies. so as the peace talks, the ink dries on the peace treaty, roots of peace is poised on the ground. >> so heidi, let's contin

thank you for joining us

today on this interactive tonight, the death toll rising after the deadly tornado outbreak in the south and millions still at risk. at least 23 reported tornadoes across three states. these people nearly driving right into the heart of a twister. one long-track tornado possibly cutting a 100-mile path of destruction roughly across the entire state of alabama. the new danger this weekend. 45 million in the storm zone from memphis to atlanta to d.c. rob marciano timing it out. the new warnings. an alarming rise in covid cases in the u.s. as more states ease restrictions. at least 18 states seeing cases increase by more than 10%. hospital admissions on the raise in at least eight states. michigan reporting a dramatic spike in the number of young patients. the cdc directoray