Growing up an enthusiastic student of American history, I was always captivated by the stories surrounding civil disobedience and social activism delivered to me in middle and high school. Learning how marginalized and oppressed groups fought for a place in our country's democracy appealed to my burgeoning teenage sense of justice, and as outraged as I was by our treatment of women, African Americans and indigenous peoples, I was equally inspired by individuals or groups who stood up to a corrupt system and refused to go down without a fight. I wondered if I could ever embody such courage if faced with the same struggles.
While attending an NEH Summer Seminar at Hunter College in 2015, I quickly realized that my education around our country's history of resistance and activism was vastly incomplete. It was there for the first time that I saw archival footage of the Asian American Movement that sprung up in the 1960s in tandem with the Black Power Movement that I'd always heard so much about. I wondered why it was that I'd never seen these images before. Why are some histories more visible in textbooks and school classrooms while others are left off the the page? To be sure, I learned about discriminatory episodes toward Asian Americans such as the Chinese Exclusion Act or the Japanese American internment during World War II, but their stories of resistance were never introduced. If I were to take my history lessons at face value, it was as if Asian Americans in our country accepted and moved past any bad hand that was dealt to them while other people of color fought for self-actualization.
Working in K-12 education as a school librarian, I see that nonfiction authors writing for young people are still inspired by the activists and movements that captured my attention as a young person. Quality literature about women, workers, African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans who resisted oppressive systems abound, but books and media about Asian Americans who stood up to injustice are still hard to come by. Is the myth of the model minority altering our collective memory?
There is a rich history of Asian American social activism in our country, a history that is woven together with every other individual and group that has had to stand up and demand justice. This archive is in no way an exhaustive list but rather a starting point to encourage students to question assumptions about history and look for intersections of struggle and triumph between groups who have been falsely delineated in the telling of our history.
Chris Young
Middle and Upper School Librarian
Metairie Park Country Day School
While attending an NEH Summer Seminar at Hunter College in 2015, I quickly realized that my education around our country's history of resistance and activism was vastly incomplete. It was there for the first time that I saw archival footage of the Asian American Movement that sprung up in the 1960s in tandem with the Black Power Movement that I'd always heard so much about. I wondered why it was that I'd never seen these images before. Why are some histories more visible in textbooks and school classrooms while others are left off the the page? To be sure, I learned about discriminatory episodes toward Asian Americans such as the Chinese Exclusion Act or the Japanese American internment during World War II, but their stories of resistance were never introduced. If I were to take my history lessons at face value, it was as if Asian Americans in our country accepted and moved past any bad hand that was dealt to them while other people of color fought for self-actualization.
Working in K-12 education as a school librarian, I see that nonfiction authors writing for young people are still inspired by the activists and movements that captured my attention as a young person. Quality literature about women, workers, African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans who resisted oppressive systems abound, but books and media about Asian Americans who stood up to injustice are still hard to come by. Is the myth of the model minority altering our collective memory?
There is a rich history of Asian American social activism in our country, a history that is woven together with every other individual and group that has had to stand up and demand justice. This archive is in no way an exhaustive list but rather a starting point to encourage students to question assumptions about history and look for intersections of struggle and triumph between groups who have been falsely delineated in the telling of our history.
Chris Young
Middle and Upper School Librarian
Metairie Park Country Day School