Celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
Written by Kaylee Morgan
The month of May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. If you are wondering what exactly classifies an Asian Pacific American, please take the time to familiarize yourself by reading this article where we go into detail on who all makes up this beautiful community.
To better understand the context of why we take the time to honor the AAPI community each year, we must look back at the history of the AAPI community in America. Anti-Asian hate is not just a recent event, this has been happening for hundreds of years in the United States. On May 7, 1843, the first group of Japanese Immigrants set foot in the United States. Hence the celebration of AAPI Heritage Month takes place in the month of May. Since their entry into the United States, they have experienced bias, violence, xenophobia, racism, and abuse. This has been a long-lasting issue towards the AAPI community. For example, in 1854 during the People v. Hall case, the court ruled that anyone of Asian descent could not testify against a white individual in a court of law. Fast forward 23 years and we see anti-Asian abuse again during the San Francisco riot of 1877.
I don’t have enough space in this article to get into every account of anti-Asian racism that happened in the United States of America, but I highly recommend that this month you look into it yourself. It’s because of this grueling history and the recent spike in anti-Asian racism and violence that organizations like AAPI Equity Alliance, Chinese for Affirmative Action, and Asian American Studies Department of San Fransico State University launched the Stop AAPI Hate coalition with the mission to advance equity, justice, and power by dismantling systemic racism and building a multiracial movement to end anti-Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) hate.
This month, the best way to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month is to educate yourself on the history of the AAPI community.
Here are a few different ways you can learn more:
- Visit a local museum and find specifically AAPI pieces and/or exhibits.
- Check out the book Invisible where you will find that author, Grace Ji-Sun Kim examines encounters with racism, sexism, and xenophobia as she works toward ending Asian American women’s invisibility.
- Start your researching journey by Googling “Golden Spike Day”
- Learn your own local history and see where the AAPI community was present or not–and learn why.
- If you’re a part of the Christian community, take the time to learn from some AAPI theologians.
- Love to read? Check out this booklist.
Remember in order to advocate for others, we must stay educated and be constant learners.
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