TPUSA President Takumi Sugawara joins Paula Sibulo to discuss his vision for a nonpartisan space on campus
Intro
Paula: 00:00 – 00:10
This is Paula Sibulo with GGX News and I’m here with SFSU’s Turning Point USA President Takumi Sugawara. Thank you so much for being here.
Interview
Takumi: 00:11 – 00:12
Thanks for having me Paula.
Paula: 00:12 – 00:19
Yeah. So the last time Turning Point USA was on campus was… was it the spring semester of 2023, correct?
Takumi: 00:19 – 00:20
Yes. Correct.
Paula: 00:20 – 00:44
Yes. So their last event was the Riley Gaines event. You know, the female swimmer, who felt it was unfair that she was competing against Lia Thomas, the trans swimmer. You know, and you told me before that you don’t see the club as kind of like pushing a certain agenda. It’s more just to spark civil discourse.
Paula: 00:44 – 01:03
But I feel like in that event before you were president, I think it was titled “Help Riley Gaines in the fight to save women’s sports.” So I want to know, like, how do you respond to that type of event? Do you agree with how they’ve handled those types of events where they seem like they’re kind of pushing a certain agenda?
Takumi: 01:04- 01:56
So, it’s really hard to reconcile the fact that we have this genuine idea of promoting civil discourse, while at the same time, we’re also touching one of the sensitive topics on — on our lives. So, yeah, it is really hard to navigate that path. And I get what people say about how we kind of responded or how we handled that situation where we had so-called controversial speakers, and we had her on our campus, and she talked about her experience.
Takumi: 01:56 – 02:26
On a campus where a lot of the people are… I mean, I’m not — I’m kind of speculating but a lot of people are left-leaning, right? And SF State has been a liberal campus since its creation. So, I really get what other people are saying that we are pushing for this radical agenda from their perspective, although I kind of disagree.
Takumi: 02:26 – 02:53
But also at the same time, I really, genuinely think that we need to start having these kinds of conversations because it’s up there. You know, a lot of people are talking about it and a lot of people are to some degree, disaffected or — affected by this agenda.
Takumi: 02:53 – 03:35
So I think, yeah, I’ll definitely take criticisms of how we can handle that. And I think we can acknowledge the improvements of how we can handle it better when we host another event, but also at the same time, I really can put an emphasis on having civil discourse and having this hard discussion about, let’s say, transgenderism, racism and all the hot buzz topics —so that’s how I’ll kind of respond to it. I see both sides.
Paula: 03:35 – 03:40
So would you say the club is kind of like nonpartisan not really pushing—
Takumi: 03:40 – 04:21
Yes. So, the premise of the club is that we are nonpartisan. We don’t endorse certain candidates or we don’t endorse certain legislatures or like bills and whatnot. So, that’s the premise of it. So anyone’s welcome even though we disagree on a lot of the stuff. I have — we had a lot of liberal friends who came to our —one of the meetings and then we really disagreed with it. But after having a discussion, we were like, we’re still friends. So that’s — that’s what I’m getting towards having that civil discourse.
Paula: 04:21 – 04:36
Yeah. And I hear you when you say it is a nonpartisan space and maybe it is for SF State, in particular. But I know that, for the national organization, their website kind of pushes their agenda a little bit more than they do here at SF State. Would you say SF State is different from the national organization?
Takumi: 04:36 – 05:17
I mean, we can really talk about certain agendas. And I personally believe a lot of the agenda that was pushed Democratic Party and left-leaning institutions are really — I really disagree with some of the stuff that they advocate for but also at the same time, we kind of take different approaches to… I mean, all the chapters are different.
Takumi: 05:17 – 05:40
You know, I have friends at Berkeley. They’re doing different kinds of stuff. You know, I have friends at San Jose State and Sonoma State. We recently had — so Turning Point USA, they have a chapter in Santa Clara and also, like, a lot of different colleges around the Bay, and they’re doing different stuff.
Takumi: 05:40 – 06:05
So, I mean, I so what I’m trying to do is acknowledge this unique situation that we’re in, the fact that we’re on a liberal college campus, and the fact that you know, when we hosted last events with Riley Gaines, we got a lot of backlash, and then police investigated all that — events and all that.
Takumi: 06:05 – 07:01
So we acknowledge the fact that we’re in a very left-leaning institution, but we also want to promote or we also want to engage in political discourse. So that’s what I’m kind of trying to go — so I wouldn’t say it’s different. I mean, in the sense that we also have agendas that we want to promote, but also the way we approach different people who have different perspectives, I think we can kind of really change that part. So it’s — we approach it differently than maybe, like you know, let’s say a chapter in Oklahoma.
Paula: 07:01 – 07:16
I would say this chapter, coming from your perspective, is pretty different from other chapters. So why do you think it’s important to you to have this nonpartisan kind of civil discourse space for SF State students?
Takumi: 07:16 – 07:32
Okay. So part of the reason why I became the president of this chapter. Okay, so full background story. I was born and raised in Japan, I graduated school — high school in Japan.
Takumi: 07:32 – 07:55
And then I then moved here for college. And then at the time I was, I thought I was liberal — my family was fairly like, I think socially conservative. But on a personal level, they’re kind of liberal in the sense that they supported me when I said that I wanted to go to the [United] States for higher education.
Takumi: 07:55 – 08:22
They’re like just do whatever you want, just have a passion, have a dream. Just go for it. But also at the same time, I loved Saturday Night Live. I loved all the comedy stuff. I used to watch a lot of late-night TV shows on YouTube because we don’t have that there on the Japanese network television.
Takumi:08:22 – 09:21
And then when I came here and I encountered a lot of the political discussions about certain topics — transgenderism is one of them. And then I started to question a lot of this stuff started being talked about. And then the response that I got from that was very, I don’t know, negative, but it’s not only negative — I really had a hard time coping with that dilemma where I wanted to speak up or I wanted to at least have a conversation about certain topics. I also tend to want to say that out loud and people will go like “What? Hey, no no no, no, that’s not appropriate,” or “I don’t think you can say that.”
Takumi: 09:21 – 09:52
So I was really struggling with it. And then I found Turning Point USA — I started to feel like I belong there. And then they started having those events with Riley Gaines, and you know, we hosted Jon Root after Riley Gaines and I felt the urgency of people —
Takumi: 09:52 – 10:37
I really felt this urgency that we need to create a space, a space where people can express their political views without getting backlash or whatnot. Because that’s what I experienced before I joined Turning Point and I thought it was pretty… I didn’t really like the hostility that I felt. And I had a lot of friends who unfollowed me on Instagram like, as soon as I started spewing out my political views, I mean, I don’t blame them now.
Takumi: 10:37 – 10:58
I mean, it’s just like, that’s the world that we live in. I really understand that part, but it was kind of sad to me that people hate each other because of their political views. And we’re like more than that. I mean, I have a different side of me because I’m from Japan, I love America.
Takumi: 10:58 – 11:26
I love the diversity of San Francisco. I love different foods. I love different cultures. You know, there’s a part of me that’s not like conservative, in a sense. So yeah, that’s where it came from. That’s why we need to have that — politics is one very small, but I mean, I would say it’s pretty big but very small aspects of our lives.
Takumi: 11:26:05 – 11:46
So it’s not like when you say you’re Republican or when you say you’re conservative, that’s not the end of the world. We want people to acknowledge that you know, that’s also part of our lives. But also at the same time we want to like each other.
Takumi: 11:46 – 12:02
We want to have conversations with each other. We want to be friends with each other. So that’s where I come from. That’s where I feel a deep sense of motivation — that kind of gravitate towards it.
Paula: 12:02 -12:31
Yeah, and I can see that experience kind of coming into how you want to run this club, taking both sides because of your experience in Japan. You said it was a little bit one-sided and then you came back to America and you loved having both sides to make decisions about politics. How do you engage with students on campus who might have controversial feelings about you guys or feeling alienated like, “Oh, I don’t belong with this group.” How do you approach them?
Takumi: 12:31 – 13:28
Okay. Yeah, sure, sure. So whenever we table on campus, although we only have 3 three or four times, I really — the first thing I need to do, whenever I talk to people is to make a personal connection. Because, I mean, we do disagree, on a political level, but at the end of the day, we’re just students at SF State and we really have common ground in a lot of the stuff that we face on a daily basis. So I always say “Hi, how’s it going?” “We’re Turning Point USA,” and as I — finish talking about what our club is, I always ask, “How’s your day going?”
Takumi: 13:28 – 14:10
You know, “How many classes are you taking,” “How are your classes,” to make a personal connection and showing that we’re not, like, “conservatives,” that people seem to have — like that kind of perceptions of kind of angry, like violent or masculine conservative. So I tried to come off softer. So that’s kind of how I approach people because I don’t like to hate any of the people on campus.
Takumi: 14:10 – 14:46
I mean, they have their own lives. And at the end of the day, I don’t really care what they believe in because as long as I can express my viewpoints, without getting attacked verbally or physically, for that matter. I’m pretty chill. So that’s what I really — I do respect people who express their political views, and I really care what they think.
Takumi: 14:46 – 15:26
To have a personal connection first and to have that approachable environment is what I really try to create whenever I talk to people. So it’s that, I mean — although I have some disagreements with, like, let’s say transgenderism, I don’t hate people who identify as trans really you know, some of my friends, they’re like trans people and I’m very good friends with them.
Takumi: 15:26 – 15:45
So it’s, I guess I don’t really care whether they’re trans, or gay, straight or Black, white and Hispanic or not. So that’s how I kind of approach them. You know, it’s just we’re more than political creatures and yes, social creatures. So yeah. It was a long answer, but…
Paula:15:45 – 15:48
No, yeah, yeah. Well, that’s all the questions I have for you Takumi. Thanks for being here. I appreciate it.
Takumi: 15:48 – 15:52
Cool. Thanks so much. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
Outro
Paula: 15:52- 16:09
And for the viewers who want to be a part of these political conversations, tune in to @tpusa.sfsu on Instagram for their next event. Thanks for joining me in San Francisco, Paula Sibulo, GGX News.
