Pacific Grove City Council hears a resounding message to end Feast of Lanterns.

The message from over 30 speakers who called into a Pacific Grove City Council meeting on Feb. 16 was clear: It's time to end the Feast of Lanterns, the once annual festival that featured a faux-Chinese themed pageant that is now decried by members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, and many others, as racist.

The speakers showed up because the Feast was originally on the evening's agenda as part of a discussion about special events. The nonprofit Feast of Lanterns organization had applied to hold its traditional summer events in July 2022 as a city-sponsored event.

At a Recreation Board meeting on Jan. 31, board members voted 4-0 to pass on a staff recommendation to Council to deny the permit this year. That recommendation included direction to the Feast board to meet with community stakeholders, the city's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force and city staff before returning in 2023.

On Sunday, Feb. 13, just three days before the Council meeting, the board posted on its website and on social media an apology that people in the AAPI community called a "non-apology apology" and a ploy to gain approval of its event application. Two days later, the board withdrew its application for 2022.

That didn't stop members of the AAPI community, as well as non-Asian residents and former residents, CSU Monterey Bay students and elected officials from other jurisdictions to call in the night of the 16th to call for the city to drop all support of the Feast into the future. The speakers were almost 100 percent in favor of ending it.

"To be clear, the offensiveness of this event applies to all Asians, and others who understand systematic racism, and not just Pacific Grove," said George Powell, a board member of the group Asian Communities of Marina. "This is why Asians everywhere feel the obligation to stand up in opposition to the Feast of Lanterns.

"If we do not speak up, P.G. will continue to see this event as a nice, fun event and be blind to how Asian Americans experience this. Please end this event permanently and not just for one year, and do not use public funds to support this," Powell said.

Another member of ACOM (and also a member of the Marina City Council), Kathy Biala, asked the council to "not memorialize the sad story of racism against Asians." 

It wasn't only Asian people who spoke out, a number of white citizens spoke up to say they enjoyed the Feast in the past but now realize how much harm it has brought and no longer want to support it. Pacific Grove High School alum and Monterey County Board of Supervisor Wendy Root Askew was one who spoke.

"I’ll be honest, I was unaware of the harm [this] was actively causing the Asian American community, my neighbors who I love and care deeply for," Root Askew said. "I'm listening and I think we all need to be listening. It's time to listen to the voices that are telling us how harmful and hurtful this event was and is." She urged the council to listen, apologize and end the event forever. 

Caroline Haskell, a P.G. resident and a founder of the group Whites for Racial Equity, called the Feast board's apology an important start, adding, “We can take this as an opportunity to do better as we know better.” She said her group could not support continuing the Feast, however.

"We see no way to ensure this event is respectful inclusive and free or racism or cultural appropriation, given its long legacy, the history of this town of the persecution and mistreatment of Chinese immigrants and Chinese Americans," Haskell said.

Another elected official, Marina Mayor Bruce Delgado, said he was uncomfortable "sacking" another city council but he felt compelled to speak in solidarity with the AAPI community speakers. 

He said he had learned in Marina that the group that gets angry "is small compared to the majority who see the rightness" in ending the Feast. 

Delgado urged the P.G. Council to set a deadline to take action soon to bring the matter back to permanently cancel the Feast so that members of the AAPI community didn't live in fear of having to protest year after year.

The Council voted 6-0 to direct the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force to come back with amendments to the city's event policy on an expedited schedule. The amendments would require that city sponsored events or those held in the city are inclusive and welcoming to all people. The task force must return with a report on their progress within three months.