Asian Fortune Your source for all things Asian American
By Jennie L. Ilustre
Asian American lawmakers, as well as advocacy leaders, have expressed hope the law mandating Asian American studies in public schools this year would help address prevailing anti-Asian racism and hate crimes.
“Our Asian American and Pacific Islander community is currently battling two pandemics – COVID 19 and Hate,” said Brendan G. Flores, National Chair and President of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA).
“We believe that education is the best antidote to hate,” he stressed in his email. ”We hope that this law will educate our friends of all backgrounds and help curb discrimination that leads to problems like bullying and youth suicides.”
New Jersey now requires Asian American and Pacific Islander history as part of its public school curriculum, according to an NBC News report by Tat Bellamy-Walker. It is the second state in the country to do so, following Illinois.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed the law recently, mandating school districts to teach the history and heritage of AAPIs to students in grades K-12, starting in the 2022-2023 school year, the report added.
Assemblyman Raj Mukherji said the law could help combat hateful rhetoric and violence targeting Asian Americans. Mukherji, along with State Senator Vin Gopal, who is also a South Asian American, sponsored the bill.
A CNN article pointed out fighting stereotypes is crucial. Sohyun An, a professor of elementary and early childhood education at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, underscored this point.
“When the history that is taught in the classroom is representative of all American populations, it teaches students that the US belongs to the many groups – not just the European immigrants represented in most of their textbooks,” she told CNN. “Understanding other cultures and seeing their importance encourages compassion and fights the stereotype of immigrants as dangerous.”
Asian Americans’ Role
In enacting the law, New Jersey Governor Murphy was quoted by NBC News as saying that the members of the AAPI community “have contributed so much to our state and nation.”
He added that teaching students about the history and heritage of the AAPI community would ensure that the state’s diversity “is reflected in our curriculum and create a more tolerant and knowledgeable future for New Jersey.”
NaFFAA National Chair and President Flores echoed this fact. “Throughout U.S. History, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have made tremendous contributions to the growth and development of the United States,” he said. “We trust that this law will help ensure our Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are represented in our great American history.”
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are highly visible in the nation’s health care and education system, for instance. They are doctors, nurses, teachers, and civil rights advocates.
At this critical point in the nation’s history, it is notable that they continue to be on the frontlines of the response to the pandemic. The New American Economy, a research group advocating immigration policies boosting the economy, pointed out that there are 1.4 million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders healthcare workers.
Pace-setter
The Illinois State legislature passed the Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History Act (TEAACH), according to a Politico report by Shia Kapos last year, “amid growing national concerns about anti-Asian hate and discrimination.”
Illinois state Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz and State Sen. Ram Villivalam, both Asian Americans, sponsored the legislation.
Civil rights activist Stewart Kwoh was quoted in the report as saying Illinois set the stage, “but it’s a national movement,” and there’s a big push around the country for ethnic studies, sparked by violence against Asians and the George Floyd murder. Last year, Kwoh and his wife Patricia formed The Asian American Education Project.
He said California, Colorado, Connecticut, New York, Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., Georgia, and Washington State have all recently considered some form of ethnic studies.
Education and Legislation
Axios news said “Anti-Asian rhetoric and hate crimes have been on the rise since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.” With the pandemic still raging, the pattern continues. At the start of this year, an Asian woman was fatally pushed at a Times Square subway station in New York.
On January 21, Mike D’Onofrio reported in Axios that pressure was building on the University of Pennsylvania to take disciplinary action against law professor Amy Wax for saying the U.S. is “better off with fewer Asians and less Asian immigration.”
“One issue we’ve witnessed at Stop AAPI Hate is that Asian Americans are still perceived as foreigners and outsiders,” Co-founder and Prof. Russell Jeung, chair of the Asian American studies department at San Francisco State University, said in an email.
U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY), co-sponsor with U.S. Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), of The Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act, which is now part of the law of the land, noted that education and legislation would help address anti-racism.
Congresswoman Meng said she was pushing additional efforts “to break down stereotypes and negative perceptions of Asian Americans, including an initiative to promote the teaching of Asian Pacific American history in schools across the United States.”
