By Sara Li, for Teen Vogue
May marks the official start of Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, an annual celebration that recognizes the contributions of these minority groups to American culture. 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.
While AAPI Heritage Month is an opportunity to celebrate the extraordinary cultural variety and vibrancy of the AAPI diaspora, it’s also an opportunity to raise awareness about the unique challenges members of these communities face. Following the outbreak of COVID-19 and the subsequent pandemic, there’s been a massive surge in hate crimes and xenophobia toward Asian Americans, as Stop AAPI Hate, a coalition advocating on behalf of the AAPI community, has documented. Attacks against Asian Americans have increased by 150% in 2020, with women and elderly folks bearing the brunt of the violence. Last spring, three spas in Atlanta were the target of a seemingly racially motivated gun massacre that took the lives of six Asian women who worked there.
What is the history of AAPI Heritage Month?
The history of AAPI Heritage Month can be traced back to the late 1970s, but it took over a decade to establish the month of May as a time to honor the AAPI community. “Between the Black Freedom movement and other civil rights movements, there was a major recognition that minority groups had rights in American society and the government ought to recognize those rights and protect the well-being of minority groups,” Ellen Wu, an Asian American history professor at Indiana University Bloomington, told Teen Vogue.
This follows the pattern of how other annual heritage celebrations were established. Hispanic Heritage Week began under President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968, while Black History Month originally started as “Negro History Week” in 1926, but was officially made an annual celebration in 1976. With other heritage months on the national calendar, there was growing interest in creating a similar celebration for Asian Americans.
In 1977, New York congressman Frank Horton and California congressman Frank Mineta introduced the idea of designating a week during the first 10 days of May as Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week. Hawaii senator Daniel Ionuye introduced a similar resolution, though neither passed that year. The following year, Horton pushed through House Joint Resolution 1007, which asked then-president Jimmy Carter to declare May 4-10 as Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week. President Carter signed it officially into law on October 5, 1978. Though this was a small victory, it’s also a testament to how long it took for the United States to recognize both minority groups.
“Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders had an uphill battle to prove to policymakers that they were a legitimate minority group that deserves attention from the government. [Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders] spent all of the 1970s trying to prove to local, state, and federal government policymakers that they had problems that deserved remedies,” said Wu.