Countywide : First Vietnamese on Human Rights Panel

Bonnie Lam is a trailblazer.

The Fountain Valley woman, who has long worked to bring ethnic groups together, this week became the first Vietnamese American member of the county’s Human Relations Commission.

Lam and county officials hope her appointment will bring about greater communication between Orange County’s 150,000-member Vietnamese community and the rest of the county, as well as focus more attention on issues facing Vietnamese Americans.

Rusty Kennedy, executive director of the Human Relations Commission, said that Lam gives the commission “a better set of eyes and ears in the community and a better understanding of the community.”

Lam, a 38-year-old housing specialist for the city of Santa Ana, said that improving relations between Vietnamese Americans and the rest of the county requires efforts from both sides. The Vietnamese community needs to become more assertive and look beyond its neighborhoods while other groups must set aside their racial stereotypes and prejudices, she said.

“They have to get out and talk,” said Lam of some Vietnamese Americans. “I think it can be a very closed community that stays together and doesn’t reach out.”

Both Lam and Kennedy said that Vietnamese Americans are often the targets of vilification. But Lam is a firm believer that such prejudices can be overcome if people come together to discuss their differences.

“As long as we can sit down and talk, we can prevent problems,” she said.

Lam--who is not related to Westminster City Councilman Tony Lam--lived in Vietnam for more than 20 years before immigrating to Florida in 1975.