Community efforts to mandate the teaching of Asian American and Pacific Island history in K-12 schools have had some legislative successes in recent years.

Earlier this month in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis, the current Republican presidential candidate,specifically referring to Japanese internment camps and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, and signed into law a requirement that AAPI history be taught in state K-12 schools.

This means passage of the 6th congressional bill This is to a national coalition chapter known as Make Us Visible, part of a broader national movement to better integrate AAPI history into the K-12 curriculum.

But proponents and researchers say it also raises big questions at the heart of the demand for more of AAPI’s history. How should schools teach the full picture of the domestic AAPI experience through more than a superficial lens? And what does this look like in the context of states such as Florida, where the law restricts the treatment of racial topics? LGBTQ+ issues can be taught in both K-12 and higher education institutions, but where is a course like AP African American History banned?

Mimi Chan, State Director of Make Us Visible, Florida, said: “We recognize the challenges facing our state, and we recognize that there will be challenges ahead, but we are making progress, one step at a time.” said.

Need for more AAPI history instructions

Chan said it took about two years for the new law in Florida to bring grassroots community organizing to fruition.

People like Jose Keich Fuentes, a senior government relations consultant at the law firm of Becker & Poliakov in Miami, know firsthand the importance of more Asian American stories being told. Therefore, I was involved in supporting the passage of the bill.

Fuentes’ grandparents, great-grandparents, uncle, and mother were interned in Gila River Camp in Arizona during World War II.

As a child, he did not know this part of his family history. Fuentes, who serves on the Miami-Dade County Asian-American Advisory Board, didn’t put together the information until after his grandfather’s death and the information was reviewed.

“It was such an important part of my family’s history that I thought I should have known,” he said. “They were very ashamed of it. But it’s important for us, as the next generation, to have that history and be careful not to make such mistakes or have our freedoms violated.”

Chan said he hopes more schools will highlight Asian-American contributions to Florida and cover topics such as how farmers farm. Lou Kim GonIt transformed the Florida citrus industry in the early 1900s by producing oranges that were more cold tolerant.

She estimates that it will take about three to five years to develop and implement the curriculum, and will work with the Florida Department of Education to set up a task force for this.

But some community leaders say the implementation task will be more complicated in states like Florida.

The political climate complicates a more comprehensive history

The new law mandating AAPI history comes in a restrictive political environment where some organizations and individuals are concerned about how exactly AAPI will be taught.

For example, the state of Florida also requires instruction in African-American history, but the new law adds a warning that the instruction or curriculum cannot indoctrinate students — a profession that includes textbook publishers. House points out:found to be vaguely defined. Earlier this year, DeSantis banned its offering in schools.A new Advanced African American Studies course for suspected violations of state law.

It’s hard to imagine this being a true effort at AAPI research being taught in schools when the historical experiences of other communities of color are similarly unenhanced, says the Asian Pacific American Coalition. Greg Orton, national director of the National Asian Pacific American Council, said: Multiple Civil Rights Organizations.

Orton and others do not believe that the Make Us Visible-led new bill on the history of AAPI is a real success, even though there are also laws in the state restricting sexual orientation guidance..

there is now Legal restrictions on university teaching and commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion Jason Oliver Chan, Associate Professor of History and Asian and Asian American Studies at the University of Connecticut, said much of the academic research that contributes to AAPI’s history curriculum is done here.

Chan said the effort to mandate AAPI history in the context of such legislation is a testament to government efforts to defend Asian Americans as a “model minority” at the expense of other minorities and ethnic groups. I’m afraid it reminds me of the initiative.

For example, what kind of political voice do Japanese Americans have after spending a lot of time in internment camps, especially when they are placed in opposition to the emerging civil rights movement within the African American community? Chan said he became wary of whether to have Many preferred the path of cultural assimilation and did not build cultural enclaves in their neighborhoods.

But the very concept of the Asian-American label arose during the civil rights movement of the 1960s, when black history and AAPI history were deeply intertwined over time, and it is explored in the AAPI history course. It should be, Mr. Chan added.

Chan is currently working on a statewide curriculum on the history of AAPI. Following the Make Us Visible-led bill passed in Connecticut last year. He is keenly aware of how easy it is to pass legislation.

And I wonder what the implementation will be like in a state like Florida, especially given the importance of teaching AAPI’s history through an important lens, as well as its contribution to historical and cultural festivals such as Lunar New Year. I am thinking. US interventions abroad have affected global immigration patterns. And how does teaching in Florida on the interconnected history of the AAPI and LGBTQ+ communities work?

“I feel like the pursuit of AAPI inclusion in Florida was a single-issue campaign that seemed insensitive to other immediate issues facing Asian Americans,” Chan said. said. “It’s very confusing and feels like it’s being manipulated.”

Chan of the Florida Make Us Visible chapter said she recognizes the value of teaching everyone’s history and hopes the new law will be a step in the right direction.

“There are ongoing conversations and discussions to make sure our history is accurately represented,” she said.