Meng introduces bill to ensure students learn about Asian American history
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U.S. Rep. Grace Meng introduced new legislation to include Asian and Pacific American history in school curriculums. Photo via Meng/Facebook
By Rachel Vick
A Queens congresswoman has introduced legislation to ensure that students across the United States learn about the influence and contributions of Asian and Pacific Americans.
U.S. Rep. Grace Meng announced the Teaching Asian Pacific American History Act on Monday, more than 40 years after President Jimmy Carter first established of Asian Pacific American Heritage Week in 1978. President George H.W. Bush later extended the heritage week into a month-long observance.
Despite their incredible contributions to American culture, and the hardships that they have had to endure over the past two centuries, Asian and Pacific Americans have been “misrepresented or excluded” from history textbooks, Meng said.
“Our children are graduating from high school without learning of the important contributions the Asian Pacific American community has made throughout our nation’s history,” Meng said. “They are also graduating without learning of the disenfranchisement and discrimination Asian Pacific Americans have faced at the hands of the United States government.”
The Teaching Asian Pacific American History Act would compel federally funded teacher training academies to include Asian Pacific American history as part of their American history and civics programs while connecting educators with the tools to develop in-depth curricula. The legislation would also encourage national and state tests to include Asian Pacific American history.
“I firmly believe we cannot fully empower our students to be strong and empathetic leaders without teaching them all of America’s history — both the good and the bad,” Meng said.
The “good” includes the 1962 election and 50-year tenure of Sen. Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii, the first Japanese American person elected to Congress; the construction of a transnational rail line by Chinese immigrants and the role Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak played in transforming the lives of people around the world through personal computing.
The curricula would also highlight dark times in U.S. history, including th Chinese Exclusion Act of 1884, Japanese internment during World War II and the post-9/11 profiling of South Asian communities.
The new legislation is co-sponsored by fellow Queens Reps. Nydia Velázquez, Gregory Meeks, Thomas Suozzi, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Carolyn Maloney, and endorsed by dozens of interest groups like the Asian American Federation.
“We hope that Asian American history is seen as a national asset that links the contemporary experience of our students to that of earlier generations to enhance our understanding and love of our diverse nation,” said AAF Executive Director Jo-Ann Yoo.
