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Inobal’s mission is to give people access to knowledge by finding experts in diverse fields and telling their story to enlighten and empower. Sara Ting was one of the experts they identified who has dedicated her life to advancing equality for all people through the Sun Poem as a catalyst for change.

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Sara Ting was one of the experts they identified who has dedicated her life to advancing equality

Early Beginnings

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At a very young age, Sara first became rooted in my humanity. She didn't understand prejudice until she was about 17 or 18. She says, "I didn't think people would reject me because of my eyes. I didn't know that existed. My parents didn't sit down with me and say, we're living in America where there are few Asians, so you're going to be discriminated. I learned about prejudice just through life. I would have been alone all the time if I only wanted to play with Chinese children. When I interacted with children, I based it on what kind of person they were, not on their race, because 99% of the children I saw were the same color - white. So I'm thinking is this a kind child I want to play with? Is this person mean? I didn't want to be with a mean child. Or is this person honest? We need to feel comfortable mingling with all different kinds of people."

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Glorious Breakthrough

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Sara recalls the first time she saw her poem being the centerpiece of a citywide multimedia public service campaign in Boston in 1985. The poem was published on billboards and produced into a public service announcement. It aired on all three network TV stations. It also was displayed in the MBTA mass transit. The campaign was so successful that it was duplicated in New York City the following year. Billboards, the network, and CBS and NBC network TV aired the PSA across the country, and it was also shown and displayed on the subways. That began to open her eyes to the power of the poem. It began at a pivotal moment when a young lady told her a dramatic story in her TEDx talk. Sara says, "So there's a graphic poster of the poem, a foot-by-eight-foot poster hanging in the lobby of the YWCA Boston. She can't ignore it; it's hanging in front of her. She said when she first saw it, she hated the poem because it opened the wounds. It brought back the memories of being discriminated against.

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