Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
During May we recognize Asian American and pacific islanders month. We recognize the culture and the injustice Asian and pacific islanders get.
Lately, Asian hate crimes have been increasing especially due to COVID-19 which started in Asian countries. Therefore the discrimination has increased these past 2 years according to NBC news the hate crimes have gotten to 339 percent.
The amount of representation this certain racial group gets is very little. Most Americans didn’t grow up with very much Asian or Pacific Islander representation. Mai, a Filipino student from Woodbridge senior high school said that they don’t get any representation “ Since I’m Filipino and considered a darker Filipino, rarely any dark-skinned Filipinos are cast for main roles and we are often joked about in the Philippines and Asian countries.”
According to World Meters, Asians alone take up 59 percent of the world population. Yet still, in our very own country, people discriminate against them. A Korean student from Woodbridge said “I’ve definitely been targeted for racial comments, I’ve had people come up to me saying things like “Ching Chong” and even to this day people pull their eyes back to mock me or my mother.” Many of these types of mockery happen daily in this country,
Asian Culture is often overlooked. According to Reveille, people misinterpret the culture and make it into an aesthetic. One student says“ I feel like when it comes to Asian culture people look over the fact that people culturally act inappropriately and use our looks and physical features as a “trend”. Asian American isn’t just a race but they also have a deep culture.
The Asian and Pacific Islander ethnicity is so broad therefore it’s difficult to fully summarize the race as a whole. Nevertheless, we take this month to represent these countries such as Korea, Vietnam, The Philippines, and Singapore. Looking at a Map can show us how many more of these countries there are. In total there are over 20,000 countries in Asia.
This culture brings home about 18 million people in the United States alone. Three students said that their favorite part of their culture is “The food” foods such as Pho, Adobo, and Kimchi but many more foods bring home to these families.
As this month comes to an end we look forward to honoring and treating each other equally to create a more open environment for AAPI living in America and learning information and getting facts from people of the culture to fully understand the injustice and culture of these groups.
