How To Teach Asian Pacific American Heritage Month This May To Combat Hatred

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_{Celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month by exploring the histories and cultures of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.}

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month is an annual celebration in May that highlights the histories, heritages, and contributions of Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities.

Today, over 20 million people of Asian and Pacific Islander descent live in the United States totaling about 6 percent of the U.S. population. The breadth of diversity of cultures and experiences of Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders is impossible to cover in one month. Nonetheless, our students deserve a chance of learning about the world from different perspectives and understanding how history impacts their communities today.

When, What, and Why?

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month – a month in which we honor the cultures and contributions of Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders. Celebrating all of the cultures, histories, and traditions of people from Asia and the Pacific Islands is an impossible task in one month. That’s where this article comes in to support your efforts, breaking down this month-long celebration, so that you can maximize its impact.

The Significance of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

Asia is the largest and most populated continent. The diaspora from Asia to North America began in 1587, 33 years before the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock. In the 435 years since then, immigration from Asia has forever impacted the United States. The immigration journeys of Asian-Americans were at times painful and at times hopeful. In these histories, students can learn how to acknowledge and celebrate the richness and complexity of cultures that make up this community. Learning about the relationship between the United States and Asia, as well as the relationship between the U.S. government and Asian immigrants, is important in deeply understanding the experiences of Asian-Americans today.

The Pacific Islands are home to over 20,000 islands and thousands of languages and cultures. In fact, it holds the most language-dense area of the world called Melanesia. Some of the islands and territories in the Pacific Ocean have been claimed as part of the United States of America. Pacific Islanders were native to their land long before the United States formed. Most Pacific Islanders are connected to the United States through colonization, rather than immigration. This dichotomy of experiences is what makes Asian Pacific American Heritage Month a great task to undertake.

How to Teach Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

1. Reframe History

You know what I didn’t learn in school?

I didn’t learn that Filipinos or Luzon Indians arrived in the United States 33 years before the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock.

I didn’t learn about the long-living relationship between Japanese immigrants and Hawaii.

I didn’t learn about the Hawaiian kingdom and their overwhelming support for independence.

Delving into the histories of Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders means reframing history. Much of this history contradicts what is in the mainstream curriculum in the United States. Students will shift and deepen their understanding of history beyond one framework.

2. Build Cultural Awareness

During Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, I review terms and discuss accurate language to use when discussing the identities of Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders. Asia and the Pacific Islands are large regions with significant cultural and language density. These identities overgeneralize people from these regions of the world despite the breadth and depth of cultures there.

Students may relate differently to the topics depending on their cultural identities. Typically, overgeneralizing groups of people come from a lack of knowledge. Providing your students with more knowledge of these regions is core to cultural awareness.

3. Create Socially Responsible Citizens

For too many years, the stories of Asian-American immigrants were untold. But they are an important part of our history.

From exclusionary laws to quotas and interment to outright hostility and hatred, the immigrant journeys of Asian-Americans were rarely easy.

Even 57 years after Congress did away with the National Origins quota system altogether in the Immigration Act of 1965, Asian-Americans face discrimination, suspicion, and violence.

Creating socially responsible citizens means examining historical events from new angles and learning how to use our understanding of history to advocate for a better future.

During Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, I spend a week teaching about the immigration journeys of different Asian-American populations including Korean-Americans, Japanese-Americans, Chinese-Americans, Vietnamese-Americans, Indian-Americans, and Filipino-Americans.

4. Nurture Critical Thinking

It is important for students to begin to research independently and filter through sources and information using their skills. We don’t want students settling for learning about a topic and never rethinking again whether that information is still valid. It is for these reasons that I assign independent research projects during the month of May. Depending on your grade level, the topics could be as simple as a country research project to something high-level like understanding the immigrant or colonization experience of a certain culture. Rethinking what we know is just as important as learning something new, and independent research gives students a chance to rethink their worldview.

_{Free Lesson on Asian Pacific American Heritage Month}

Addressing Social Injustices

We can’t talk about Asian Pacific American Heritage Month without addressing the historical violence committed against Asian-American immigrants in the last century. Discrimination against Asian communities and the overthrow of Hawaii and other territories are not new. Schools have reinforced the erasure of this history.

If you are an educator, ask yourself these questions:

Do you teach about early Asian-American history?
Do you teach about the Chinese Exclusion Act and quotas that discriminated against Asian people until 1965?
Do you talk about how Chinatowns were created as safe havens against hate crimes and discrimination that many Chinese people faced?
Do you teach about internment camps not from the perspective of the United States at war, but of Japanese-Americans who were interned without trial or jury because of war hysteria?
Do you teach about cultural differences between different countries in Asia and the differences within regions of those countries?
Do you share the perspectives of island natives on their colonization by the United States?
Do you give students the language to engage in nuanced discussions of current issues?

Having taught students from over 50 countries, I discovered that most social studies and history materials are problematic. They view history from the Western perspective. They lack nuance. They exoticize Eastern history, while European history is seen as the cradle of culture. They lump together regions of the world into a monolith. Educators have a role to play in undoing this single-perspective education.

We created a unit to combat the monolithic view of Asian cultures and Pacific history. Our unit is divided into four weeks. In the first week, students learn about Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. In week 2, students study the subregions of the Pacific Islands and explore the history of Hawaii and other territories. In the third week, you will learn about the immigration journeys of the largest Asian-American populations. In the final week, students will carry out a research project building essential 21st-century skills.

Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month is a time to celebrate, but it is also a time to be truthful. Students learn what they observe, so we cannot avoid difficult conversations for our own comfort. Educators have a role to play in ending prejudice and raising culturally aware citizens.