Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
May marks Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, a month dedicated to celebrating the contributions and achievements of Asian and Pacific Islanders in the United States. Asian Pacific is a rather broad term which encompasses all of the Asian continent and the Pacific islands of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.
The History of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
The idea of an Asian and Pacific American Heritage month was proposed by the former congressional staffer Jeanie Jew. She first approached Rep. Frank Horton with the idea of dedicating a month to recognise Asian Pacific Americans, following the United States’ bicentennial celebration in 1976. Then, in June 1977, Horton and Rep. Norman Y. Mineta, put forward a resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives to recognise the first 10 days of May as Asian Pacific Heritage Week. In July 1977, former U.S. Senators Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga introduced a similar bill in the Senate.
This led to the signing of a joint resolution for the celebration by President Jimmy Carter on the 5th October 1978. The then-Asian American Heritage Week was extended to a month in 1990 as George H.W. Bush signed a bill passed by Congress, and by 1992, May had officially been proclaimed as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.
You may be wondering why the month of May was chosen for the celebration. There were two primary reasons. First, May commemorates the migration of the first immigrants from Japan to the United States which dates back to the 7th May 1843. Secondly, May marked the completion of the transcontinental railroad which was built by over 20,0000 Asian immigrants. However, it is important to note that the first Asian immigrants arrived in the U.S. in 1587 with Filipinos first beginning to migrate to California.
According to the 2020 Census, there are 24 million people in the United States who fall under the umbrella of AAPI, and the Pew Research Center has found that Asian Americans are the fastest-growing ethnic group in America.
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI)
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) are a prominent part of American communities and culture. According to the 2020 Census, 24 million people identified as Asian whilst 1.6 million identified as Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, either as their only identity or in combination with another identity. AAPI communities consist of around 50 different ethnic groups speaking over 100 languages.
The AAPI population has faced and continues to face a number of troubles surrounding ethnic and communal identity. Having a sense of communal identity and belonging is essential when settling down in a foreign country which comes with its own difficulties. A key issue that AAPI immigrants face is racial discrimination and despite efforts to raise awareness and eliminate it, it is still a challenge that the AAPI population must face. Another trouble that is often more greatly felt by second-generation AAPI is on a more personal level regarding their personal and cultural identity. Being born and raised in a country which contrasts greatly with the country of their family roots, they struggle to balance their cultural values with those of mainstream American society and realise their own identity. An example of this may be as simple as people assuming that an Asian American whose grandparents immigrated to the US from China speaks Mandarin as their first language when in fact, they were born and raised in the US, under the US education system and have had no exposure to Mandarin all their life.
Why do these problems arise? Although this may seem paradoxical, I believe that one of the causes for these issues is the term AAPI itself. By employing the term AAPI, we are categorising what is in fact an extremely diverse community. As I initially mentioned at the beginning of this blog, AAPI covers all of the Asian continent and the Pacific islands of Melanesia (New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands), Micronesia (Marianas, Guam, Wake Island, Palau, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia) and Polynesia (New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Rotuma, Midway Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Easter Island). They will each have their own history, culture, values and language. Despite this diversity, the term treats them as one population and makes others blind to this diversity. This leads to issues such as the model minority myth where Asian American communities are burdened with the stereotype that AAPIs are uniformly well-adjusted and attain more socioeconomic success than other minority groups through academic success and strong work ethic, when in truth the socioeconomic and educational levels and challenges vary greatly.
In order to prevent this, we must take charge and be aware of the diversity within the AAPI population. Asian Pacific American Heritage Month is the perfect opportunity to find out more about the different communities in the AAPI population and celebrate their achievements and contributions to the US.
