May is Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, and we celebrate the rich and diverse contributions of people of Asian and Pacific Islander heritage. May was chosen as AAPI Month because of two key dates:
- May 7, 1843 commemorates the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants to the US.
- May 10, 1869, or Golden Spike Day, recognizes the completion of the first transcontinental railroad, which had significant contributions from Chinese workers.
Unfortunately, hate crimes against the AAPI community have dramatically increased across the nation and in NYC. For example, there were 131 reported hate crimes in NYC in 2021, compared with 28 in 2020. Unfortunately, this oppression is not new. The US has a painful history of discrimination against the AAPI community. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, for the first time, restricted entry of an ethnic group on the premise that it endangered the good order. During World War II, Japanese Americans on the West Coast were incarcerated at the order of the US Government because they were deemed a public danger.
The theme for AAPI Heritage Month in 2023 is Advancing Leaders Through Opportunity. We champion the successes of leaders in our AAPPI community. Here are a couple of organizations leading the cause for equal civil rights:
- The Asian American Foundation is a leading organization raising the influence and well-being of the pan-Asian American community. They work in the mental health, immigration integration, economic empowerment, and civic engagement spaces.
- NAAAP-New York (National Association of Asian American Professionals) is a Pan-Asian American professional organization that promotes the career advancement and leadership development of Asian American professionals.
Learn More Through Literature!
Inclusion: How Hawai‘i Protected Japanese Americans from Mass Internment, Transformed Itself, and Changed America by Tom Coffman
Here to Stay: Uncovering South Asian American History by Geetika Rudra
Citizens, Immigrants, and the Stateless: A Japanese American Diaspora in the Pacific by Michael R. Jin
The Loneliest Americans by Jay Caspian Kang
Pedagogies of Woundedness: Illness, Memoir, and the Ends of the Model Minority by James Kyung-Jin Lee
Permission to Come Home: Reclaiming Mental Health as Asian Americans by Jenny Wang
We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story by Simu Liu
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee