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My Turnby Marie Lo |
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From The Asian Reporter, V19, #18 (May 5, 2009), page 6.
Honoring our heritage
When Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, the media pundits pondered whether Black History Month was necessary anymore. For many, Obama’s election meant racism was on the wane and it was no longer an obstacle for success and self-actualization. They suggested that having a distinct month to celebrate African-American achievements and contributions only reinforced African-American exclusion from general U.S. history.
As I listened to these conversations, I could not help but think about this topic in relation to Asian Pacific American (APA) Heritage Month. Does having a special month designated for Asian Pacific Americans really affirm our place within the landscape of U.S. history and culture? Or does it only highlight our marginality that we need a separate month? Is it simply a reminder every month is not Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, that our history has not been integrated into U.S. history?
The argument for preserving APA Heritage Month cannot just be about responding to racism. Otherwise, we will be continually defined in terms of our oppression. And cultural events such as those celebrated during heritage month are not enough to address fundamental inequalities. No amount of Chinese folk dancing, Indian food, Thai arts and crafts, or other cultural sampling is going to change the current dynamics of power or lower the high rates of poverty, incarceration, and disenfranchisement among people of color. This lack of historical context leads to compartmentalizing culture and does not take into account the evolution and hybridization of cultures embodied by the term Asian Pacific American.
That said, I believe culture is an important site of political struggle, and APA Heritage Month is something we cannot do without.
The celebration of APA heritage came about when Jeanie Jew, a Capital Hill staffer and board member of the Organization of Chinese Americans, noticed that the U.S. bicentennial celebrations of 1976 did not include the contributions of Asian Pacific Americans. Jew — whose grandfather was one of thousands of Chinese men who helped build the Transcontinental Railroad — enlisted the help of Ruby Moy, an administrative assistant to congressman Frank Horton (New York). Horton and congressman Norman Mineta (California) co-sponsored a bill proclaiming the week of May 4, 1979 to be a celebration of APA history. May was chosen because May 7, 1843 was the recorded date of the first Japanese immigrants to arrive in the United States and May 10, 1869 was the completion date of the Transcontinental Railroad. A few weeks after the bill was passed in congress, a similar bill, sponsored by senators Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga, was passed in the senate. In 1992, under President George H.W. Bush, it officially became an annual monthlong celebration.
For Jew, establishing a heritage month was a way of paying tribute to her grandfather. After he finished working on the railroads, he became a successful businessman and community leader. He spoke out in defense of the Chinese community at a time when anti-Chinese hostility was rampant, and for that he was murdered.
Heritage month is a powerful occasion for community building as Asian Pacific Americans. Because APA is a category of identity founded on a pan-ethnic coalition, it is not something we can take as a given. Rather, May is a civic moment of enacting what it means to be APA, where we acknowledge how our different histories converge and demonstrate the strength that comes from our unity.
APA Heritage Month is also a powerful ritual of commemoration. It is because of the courage and struggles of early generations of Asian Pacific Americans that we are able to enjoy the rights and freedoms we have today. APA Heritage Month is certainly a time for joy and coming together. But without adequate historical context and without paying tribute to our elders, it becomes an empty exercise in consumption.