Celebrating Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month

In the month of May we celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage and the history of their contributions to this nation.

While I am a Black woman, I can celebrate as well. And for many reasons.

“While I am a Black woman, I can celebrate as well. ”

For starters, growing up in culturally diverse neighborhoods in Stockton, California, Asian people were just a regular part of my friendship circle. They were my classmates and friends as far back as I can remember.

They were my neighbors. We all lived in redlined neighborhoods. People of color weren’t allowed to live north of Harding Way.

In the 1960s my AAPI friends were Filipino, Chinese, or Japanese. By middle school, our community expanded to include Southeast Asians: Vietnamese, Lao, and Hmong.

My two best friends in kindergarten were Kathy Fuji and Stacy Almazan, and while Kathy and I grew apart when my family moved, Stacy and I remain friends to this day. I was immersed in the Filipino culture by being a constant fixture in her home over the years.

I learned vicariously, through that immersion, that Filipino families were no different from my own. Of course, I ate Filipino food and came to know some routine family customs.

We joked about whose skin got darker in the summer. It was hers, not mine. We tried to pass ourselves off as sisters, and while the noses were close enough, it was the hair that gave us away.

I came to understand Filipino accents and humor.

Humor, something that is so culture-specific that you don’t recognize it as such until you watch a Jo Koy or Ali Wong comedy special. I encourage you to do so. And if you laugh hysterically throughout because you “get it, been there, seen that, done that, have a real friend that…” then you’ve probably got some cultural awareness and connectedness. If you don’t, well…  

“As a high school teacher, I was the faculty sponsor for the Vietnamese club. There were no Vietnamese teachers, and very few teachers of color, but my Vietnamese students felt comfort in my classroom – and my home. They invited me in.”

Across the years and through college, I learned of various aspects of Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese history, language, and culture from close friends that I had the privilege of knowing because I went to public schools and a university that was culturally diverse.

As a high school teacher, I was the faculty sponsor for the Vietnamese club. There were no Vietnamese teachers, and very few teachers of color, but my Vietnamese students felt comfort in my classroom – and my home. They invited me in.

I learned more from them as their faculty sponsor than they probably ever learned in my American Government or U.S. History classroom.

And my immersion into Hawaiian culture, while much later in life, is one I truly cherish as I visited and worked with the Hawaii Department of Education, giving workshops and visiting schools and classrooms.

Nothing replaces these types of cultural immersion experiences.

In my workshops I teach that having cultural awareness and cultural connectedness means that you can navigate in and out of multiple cultures with understanding, empathy, comfort, without microaggressions or offending the peoples of that culture. And while you may feel discomfort from time to time, if you have true cultural connectedness, are open and welcoming, demonstrate empathy, and are not offensive, then the lack of comfort may be because the other person has distrust based on their own lived experience. Give them space.

And don’t go trying to join AAPI affinity groups at work.

People of color spend so much time being the only one of their ethnicities in the room that they need that space to bond, to connect or reconnect with people whose lived experiences mirror their own.

If you become one of them, they’ll let you know. They’ll invite you in.

I celebrate Asian American Pacific Islander heritage month in solidarity with my friends and colleagues, people I love and respect, because we are stronger together.

While how our ancestors came to be in this nation is dramatically different - by force, desperation, fear, starvation, or simply seeking a better life – our reception throughout this nation’s history has striking similarities. And until this nation can come to know, reckon with, and remedy the horrific treatment of all peoples of color, from its conception to this day, we will never be a post-racial nation.

Want to know more about AAPI heritage? Check out my May posts on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, #AAPIHeritage, for those historical tidbits throughout the month.

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