Becoming an Activist
Advocating for mental health awareness, pluralistic curriculum, environmental protection and support for all.
I agree with Helen Zia who said “racism begins with the idea that some people are less human than others.” It is so important to intervene as early as possible to teach kids how to see the full humanness of those who are “other,” to have knowledge of and comfort in their own identity, and to know our full history as a nation.
It is my hope that as we create a more inclusive curriculum, children will be more prepared for the diverse society in which we live, that children will see and value one another more and appreciate one another despite our differences of race, religion, caste, class and sexual orientation, and understand how we all built this country together. Education is the most effective tool we have against hate.
All children deserve to feel safe. All children deserve to feel that they belong. Our kids are kids only once. We want to protect them as best we can.
As Former NJ Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said, “In school, students take note of whose stories and histories are taught and valued in the curriculum and whose are not. That's why it's so critical that we educate all kids about AAPI stories and history alongside the stories and history of other communities that have all too often been overlooked, marginalized, or even worse have been subjected to mistreatment and injustice during the course of our collective history as a nation.”
We want our kids to know we are valued, we do contribute, and we do belong. And not only our kids–we want their classmates to know that because as AAPIs we're often seen as perpetual foreigners.
In 2020, I joined the Central NJ Asian American Reading Group, which was founded by 3 Princeton University graduate students, Sonya Chen, Alexander Jin and Darren Yau. We read Asian American literature and history and it enriched my sense of identity and belonging. Sharing our personal histories in response to the pieces helped evoke memories and perspective shifts. There was much resonance in our varied experiences. We also learned about other Asian American communities in the artistic, literary, and political worlds.
I wondered who I would have been had I learned this earlier in my life instead of in my 40’s. What new possibilities and sense of being would have been awakened in me? My fellow book group members felt similarly as you can see from their testimonials below:
Annah Kuriakose, M.D. shared, “As a brown kid growing up in New Jersey, I rarely encountered anything in public school history class that reflected my own ancestry. Only much later did I realize that in omitting the history of Asians and Asian Americans in this country, my own education sent me the message that I, too, was not considered a part of America's story. As an adult, I have intentionally sought out spaces and voices that more closely reflected my own experiences with both accuracy and nuance… It had ultimately taken me over three decades to encounter a group that centered the voices of people who looked like me and had stories like mine -- and I wished it could've happened sooner. All students deserve to learn about the diversity of the stories that surround them. And all students deserve to be reflected in the histories that our schools teach.”
Theresa Liu wrote “During a fraught time, when we face so many existential issues—political, racial, and socioeconomic—I am grateful to the Central New Jersey Asian American Reading Group for offering a nourishing, respectful, and safe space for reflection and discussion. I think because of its unique mission, our conversations were honest, frank, and startling, but also kind and understanding, in ways that I haven’t found in most other reading groups. This is surprising when I consider that a majority of us found each other by word of mouth and had never met previously. Through a democratically selected range of readings and visual materials, we had a chance to dive into such topics as community, culture, family, gender, identity, language, nationhood, religion, race, and race relations. I’m certain what I’ve learned will reverberate beyond this gathering to influence other aspects of my life for the better.”
Emily Sun, Ph.D. shared “STEM-focused research relies on an understanding of the humanities for direction, depth, and ethical guidance. Understanding our shared histories and the context of our experiences is important to determine how science and engineering can help address our current societal issues. While working towards my doctorate in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University, I joined the Central New Jersey Asian American Reading Group and learned so much that had not been a part of my K-12 curriculum. The often unknown stories highlighted in Asian American Studies filled gaps in my historical knowledge and added nuance to my perspective of social inequities. Learning Asian American Studies helped me consider how the needs of different communities are intertwined, and what role I could play in using STEM to pursue climate and environmental justice. Asian American Studies has been invaluable to my development as a STEM researcher and as a person.”
When AAPI hate was escalating in March 2021, I saw a video by Rise CEO Amanda Nguyen about how education and prevention are key to addressing these hate crimes. I have been doing racial justice activism since 2016. Through that activism, I learned about a bill in New Jersey called the Amistad Commission Bill, which required the teaching of African American history. I knew there wasn't any such bill for Asian American students and I wrote to the members of the Central NJ Asian American Reading Group to see if anyone wanted to work together to get a bill like that for Asian American and Pacific Islander history and five people responded (Sonya Chen, Dr. Annah Kuriakose, Emily Sun, Dr. Jasmine Ueng-McHale and Nathalie Levine).
Later, NYU Professor Ying Lu, Co-Chair of the Asian American Alumni Association of Princeton University (A4P) Nancy Lin, NJ Educator Sima Kumar, NJ Education Administrator Rajneet Pimmi Kaur Goomer, Amman Seehra, Esq of SALDEF and One Foundation, and student activists Christina Huang, Swaraj Randhava, Ameya Ilangovan-Arya, Sasha Chawla, Gabriel Chao, Sanyi Liu, Soorya Baliga, Ayushi Kriplani also joined us and brought their talents to our group. Christina Huang developed our website and was our youth spokesperson at both the Senate and Assembly Education Committee meetings and in the media. Ayushi Kriplani and Soorya Baliga worked on a student-led campaign to encourage school boards to adopt AAPI curriculum.
I wrote to the different Senators and Assemblymembers to see if anyone would introduce the bill, and Senator Gopal’s staff responded that he was interested and we set up a meeting with him.
Nathalie told us about a group called Make Us Visible Connecticut, who was having a town hall. I went to that town hall and met Professor Jason Oliver Chang. I asked him for a meeting and he told us about his group. Our visions were aligned and we asked him if we could create Make Us Visible NJ. He asked a member of his team to create a similar logo for us and shared the letter he wrote to Connecticut legislators.
We wrote letters to the legislators and to our community. We reached out to AAPI legislators, then we researched who were the legislators who frequently cosponsored bills like this or were in areas with a high AAPI community. You can find out which districts have a high AAPI population at ballotopedia by looking up each legislative district for Senate or Assembly in your own state.
I didn't know anything about how legislation gets passed. I learned so much about how the legislative process worked through this advocacy. I learned that once a bill is introduced, it first has to pass the Office of Legislative Services (OLS) review. Next, it has to get on the agenda and pass the committee it was assigned to, in this case the Education Committee, and next it has to get on the agenda and pass the Senate and Assembly and finally it has to get signed by the Governor.
We developed relationships with legislators through emails, phone calls, zoom meetings, in person meetings, rallies, press conferences and political events.
Sonya Chen, Emily Sun, Dr. Christina Jenq, Dr. Annah Kuriakose, Dr. Jasmine Ueng McHale and I co-wrote an open letter that received 1600 signatures. Emily Sun conducted legislative research of educational bills that passed and stalled in NJ prior to our conversations with Sen. Gopal's and Sen. Ruiz's office. We modeled the AAPI Curriculum bill after the recently passed LGBTQ bill. Sonya Chen created our very first newsletter. I reached out to our contacts from the open letter for a legislative advocacy campaign for S4021/A6100 and S3764/A3369 and we connected to a network of AAPI organizers across NJ.
We proposed a very general bill because we saw that the bills that were very specific didn't pass, because schools in New Jersey like to be in control over what's taught in the curriculum. If you say you have to teach about George Floyd, that bill doesn't pass. But if you keep it vague, e.g., teach the history and contributions of Asian Americans, then they accept that bill, you know, because they can teach it however they want. Our advocacy involved letter writing, phone calls, testimonies, and meetings with legislators. We had a goal of getting at least 50% of the votes we needed to pass the bills as co-sponsors. We exceeded that goal. We obtained 44 Senate and Assembly cosponsors for the AAPI Curriculum bill and 37 cosponsors for the Commission on Asian American Heritage in the DOE bill. Every legislator that chose to cosponsor the AAPI curriculum bill and chose to run again was re-elected. They were legislators who were responsive to the needs of the community.
Many people told us that we couldn't do it, and that we'd have to hire a professional lobbyist or that we would have to wait until the next legislative session for the bill to pass. But we didn't have the money for a professional lobbyist, and we thought we could do it ourselves, and it'll be more meaningful to do it ourselves. And we did it, and we didn't have a lot of money. We only spent $125 in the course of our advocacy and that was for our logo and everything else was done as a labor of love and through free tools provided by the internet (gmail, google docs, google forms, canva, mailchimp, instagram, facebook, twitter, zoom and wix). Through our loving labor and these free tools, we were able to create this movement.
We did not want to wait until the next legislative session because kids were getting bullied now and the momentum and support was now. We did not want to risk our coalition getting demoralized if we made all these efforts and the bills did not pass, so we persisted and insisted that the bill needed to pass in the current legislative session to protect kids now.
When the bill was not on the agenda of the Senate, we held a rally/press conference in Trenton and that same day, the bill passed the Senate. We are very grateful to Senator Vin Gopal for ushering the bill through the Senate. We are very grateful to his Legislative Policy Director, Aislinn Brennan, who advised us to try to get 50% of the cosponsors needed to pass the legislation.
We are very grateful Jash Gill, Chief of Staff to Assemblymember (now Senator) Raj Mukherji, who was the primary sponsor of the AAPI curriculum bill along with Senator Gopal. Jash helped us reserve the room for the rally. Our Trenton rally/press conference that I organized with my fellow board member Professor Ying Lu was a great success. We are very grateful to Assemblymember Raj Mukherji, Jash Gill, Asm. Tully, Councilman Lavarro, Isaac Smith, Rajpal Bath, Prof Yifeng Hu of TCNJ, Jessica Cho Kim from University of Pennsylvania, SP2, Ommer Khaw of SOMA-Cross Cultural Works, Jielin and Doris Ma of Princeton Chinese Community, TCNJ student Gabriella Son, Dr. Somasundaram Ilangovan and many others for speaking at and attending our press conference and rally. Here are photos from the Trenton rally.
There was something magical about this process and serendipity led us to the right connections at the right time. At the Trenton Statehouse meeting, I met Jessica Cho Kim and Jersey City Councilman Rolando Lavarro, each of whom had specific connections to Cherry Hill, the hometown of the chair of the Assembly Education Committee. I let them know how we were unable to get the AAPI curriculum bill on the agenda of the Assembly Education Committee despite our multiple phone calls and letters.
Jessica and Rolando testified at the Trenton Statehouse rally and press conference and Jessica’s three children skipped school to learn first hand about AAPI civic participation. I asked Jessica to host a rally in Cherry Hill. She co-organized the Cherry Hill rally hosted at her own church Grace Ministry, which galvanized voices of brave youth, faith leaders, parents, and elected officials.
Rolando was able to leverage his connections to get us a phone meeting with Assemblymember Pam Lampitt, the Assembly Education chair the day before the rally, and she agreed to get the bill on the agenda of the Assembly Education Committee and came to speak at the rally to voice her support.
Jessica Cho Kim, Dan Park, Grace Ministry, Amber Reed and Jeff Chang from AAPI Montclair, NYU Professor Ying Lu from Make Us Visible NJ, Assembly Education Chair Pam Lampitt, Mayor Susan Shin Angulo, Rajpal Bath, Aide to the Governor, Dr. Ni Gao of the Asian American Alliance of South Jersey, Cherry Hill Councilwoman Sangeeta Doshi, SUNY Professor Xiaoyun Yuan of Huaxia Chinese School Cherry Hill branch and Mr. Hong Wang of Huaxia Chinese School Cherry Hill branch and District Superintendent Dr. Joe Meloche all supported the Cherry Hill rally. Here is a video of the rally.
After meeting with Professor Jason Chang, we met with Princeton professors Beth Lew-Williams and Anne Cheng and Rutgers professors Andy Urban, Dake Zhang, Rick Lee, Allan Isaac and Kathy Lopez. Dr. Annah Kuriakose also organized meetings with local teachers to understand their needs and gain insights into the barriers to teaching AAPI studies. Dr. Jasmine Ueng-McHale introduced us to Dr. Rosetta Treece from Hopewell Valley Regional School District, who invited us to present at the Mercer County Curriculum Consortium. We also met with other school districts (Princeton, West Windsor-Plainsboro and Robbinsville) in Mercer County, as well as the Cumberland County Curriculum Consortium. Dr. Treece also invited us to speak at her school district. Our event made the case for why AAPI studies are important and featured Attorney General Grewal, Senator Gopal, Princeton Prof. Beth Lew Williams, Rutgers Prof. Dake Zhang, Fairleigh Dickinson Prof. Khyati Joshi, Mike Keo, and Amman Seehra, Esq. With the help of Dr. Rosetta Treece, Dr. Annah Kuriakose did a Teachers Needs Assessment for AAPI Curriculum in NJ. Dr. Jasmine Ueng-McHale continued working with Dr. Treece and Hopewell Valley Regional School district and they adopted a resolution to Acknowledge and Celebrate the Contributions of Asian American Pacific Islanders (AAPI) with the Inclusion of AAPI Curricula in HVRSD Schools, which was based on the resolution of the Jersey City Board of Education passed through the efforts of Jersey City AAPI Coalition advocates Pam Andes, Evelyn Chan and Jennie Jonson.
We learned about the amazing programs and professional development opportunities offered by Immigrant History Initiative, Wing Luke, Yuri Education Project, the Amistad Commission, the Center for Pedagogy,CHOOSE, the Institute for Teaching Diversity and Social Justice and SAADA (South Asian American Digital Archive). We learned about the Asian American Alumni Association of Princeton’s local history project documenting the history of Asians and Asian Americans at Princeton University. Dr. Khyati Joshi and Jun Choi of Jersey Promise arranged a group meeting with the Department of Education’s Dr. Lisa Gleason, Diana Pasculli, and Tonya Breland. We also teamed up again with Jersey Promise to promote Dr. Joshi and Jun Choi’s excellent presentation on how to advocate for AAPI curriculum in your local schools. Rajneet Pimmi Kaur Goomer and Sima Kumar of Make Us Visible NJ and Kathy Lu and Julia Wang of the Immigrant History Initiative met with Gabriel Tanglao at the NJEA and are collaborating to create a five part AAPI studies webinar series for teachers. Sima Kumar published an article in NJEA Review called Asian American in America’s Literary Heritage that explored the origins of the invisibility of Asian and Asian American literature and history in the K-12 curricula and provided a pedagogical approach to creating more inclusive curricula to meet the needs of the increasingly multiracial and multiethnic demography of students in the public school classroom. Sima testified at Assembly and Senate Education Committee meetings.
Our target audience/stakeholders were parents, youth, legislators, teachers, school administrators. Parents advocated for the bills with their legislators. Local AAPI organizations organized parents to advocate for the bills with their legislators and did grassroots organizing. AAPI elected officials/staff introduced bills and advocated for the bills with their colleagues and in the media. Students advocated for the bills with their legislators, media, op-eds, video testimonies, talked to their teachers, school boards, organized their fellow students, testified at the State House. Media helped give us the attention and support we needed to get the bills passed.
We sought the support of academics like Professor Ying Lu from NYU, Professor Andy Urban from Rutgers, and Professor Beth Lew Williams and Professor Anne Cheng from Princeton to respond to the issues with the NJ DOE Commission on Asian Heritage bill. Professor Andy Urban organized a letter writing campaign from Rutgers faculty in support of the bill. Professor Anne Cheng suggested that we campaign for the inclusion of AAPI history in the AP US History course so that teachers across the nation would be required to teach it. (We followed her advice and it was successful). NYU Professor Ying Lu of Make Us Visible NJ (now The E Pluribus Unum Project) mobilized the Chinese American community and the first generation immigrant community through WeChat groups, her position as one of the leaders of the Princeton Chinese Community and her connections within the Huaxia Chinese school network both in the tri-state area and nationally, United Chinese Americans, the Parent Child Education Club and the broader Chinese community. She expanded the inclusivity of our campaign by translating the open letter into Chinese (both traditional and simplified Chinese) and facilitating the translation of the open letter into Korean. She also translated our newsletters into Chinese and is sharing news about the bill to the wider Chinese community. Prof. Ying Lu also connected us to a broader community such as the Garden State Coalition of Schools, New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association, New Jersey Association of School Administrators, NJEA and other important advocates. She spearheaded the letter requesting important revisions on the S3764/A3369 bill. Reflecting on her work, she said, “I am very touched by how many ordinary people have joined forces with us, regardless of age, country of origin and heritage, on this incredible journey of advocacy for the AAPI curriculum inclusion. This is truly a people’s bill.”
Dr. Christina Jenq, Sima Kumar, NYU Professor Ying Lu and I gave presentations at multiple school districts, multiple DOE curriculum consortiums (Mercer, Bergen and Cumberland Counties) and at ETS about the need for AAPI curriculum and existing resources. Rutgers Professor of Education Dake Zhang and I coordinated and hosted “Adding AAPI Curriculum to Your School District” events to highlight AAPI curriculum organizations and resources to educators, parents, students, community members and legislators.
The bills passed because we persisted! We organized and mobilized our communities creating cultural events, rallies and opportunities for collective action. Together we called, wrote and met with our legislators to communicate the urgency of these bills. Senator Vin Gopal, Assemblymember (now Senator) Raj Mukherji and Senator Gordon Johnson were committed and savvy advocates for these bills. We all were willing to do whatever it took to pass these bills.
We were advised not to ask for funding for our bill, because it would make it harder for the bill to pass, and we just wanted to get our foot in the door, and so it passed without funding. It is difficult that we don't have funding, but we're still managing. There are a lot of free resources still available that we can use and share. Our work is now funded by TAAF (The Asian American Foundation) and Asian Americans Advancing Justice
I wrote the initial letter to the legislators, and then after we met Professor Jason Oliver Chang, he sent us his letter. Then we used parts of his letter to send to legislators. Then the original six collaborators and Dr. Christina Jenq used a shared Google Doc to compose the open letter which 1600 people signed. We also wrote an organizational sign on open letter which 60+ organizations signed.
Later, we created more customized letters, because New Jersey is a different state with different demographics and mentioning incidents that occurred in NJ. In addition, we got in touch with more collaborators. Amber Reed at AAPI Montclair reached out to us after we posted the open letter. She, Linda Kow and Tessie Thomas had heard about what we were doing, and they wanted to get involved. Kiran Reddy of Livingston Multicultural Parents Association organized a group zoom meeting of AAPI organizers in NJ. Through this meeting, we were able to connect with other AAPI organizations in Jersey City, South Orange/Maplewood, Montclair, Springfield, West Orange, etc and coordinate to collectively mobilize for AAPI curriculum advocacy.
Amber Reed and Jeff Chang from AAPI Montclair (now AAPI NJ) collaborated with us on the letter writing, writing phone call scripts, testimony editing, mobilizing community members, meeting with legislators, press releases, and Cherry Hill rally planning. It was a team effort to get this bill passed.
Some of the letters included descriptions of hate incidents that happened in New Jersey, crime statistics in New Jersey, e.g, the frequency and escalation of anti-Asian hate incidents in New Jersey. We also used Stop AAPI Hate statistics which were very important, especially this particular statistic: “One in 3 Asian American parents report that their child experienced a hate incident over the past year.” This research conveyed the urgency of the problem and why legislators needed to act now.
I shared my experience treating young patients who had experienced racial bullying. We tailored our letters towards preventing school bullying and anti Asian violence versus Make Us Visible Connecticut's original letter which was more about diverse representation of students.
We used language like “We believe this bill is urgently needed to protect Asian American children and families in NJ by fighting anti-Asian racism and violence through education.
In NJ, Anti-Asian hate crimes reported to police rose 75% during the pandemic and continues to climb. According to Stop AAPI Hate, 1 in 3 AAPI parents report that their children have faced a hate incident in school. Our kids are kids only once. We want to protect them as best we can.
All children in our great state deserve to know they belong.”
We felt that a violence prevention message would reach people's hearts more, and we were very lucky that we had a lot of students who were willing to testify and share their stories. The meetings with legislators had a palpably different quality and energy when a student advocate was present.
Christina Huang, Russell Fan, Eshaan Mahajan, Hannah Kim, Hannah Mattam, Eric Dalangin, Bryan Zhao and LAYA (Livingston AAPI Youth Alliance) were our student advocates and they spoke very eloquently to legislators, media, teachers, school boards and community members about their experiences of racial bullying and why they want AAPI history be taught. LAYA made videos which we shared with legislators and the community. The students testified in person and via zoom at the Senate and Assembly education committee meetings. These students were really engaged, and I'm very proud of them. Their voices were very important for getting this bill passed. They talked to their teachers, school boards, organized their students, did video testimonies, wrote op-eds, called and wrote to legislators and testified at the State House.
The parent testimonies were also very important and conveyed parents’ passion and investment in this cause. Lynn Lin of Livingston Multicultural Parents Association was our parent liaison with LAYA and testified at our Senate and Assembly Education Committee meetings. She was a wonderful mentor to the LAYA students and a staunch ally in this curriculum advocacy.
The press releases and press attention were important in that they showed legislators that the public cares about this AAPI curriculum bill and that the nation was interested and watching.
The thousands of phone calls and letters sent, sometimes including school photos of the children writing them, were also very important. It also helped that we recognized our legislative co-sponsors on social media and with a slideshow. It helped that we shared our statistics with legislators, how many people are viewing our social media, attending our events, reading our newsletters, etc.
Our multiracial, multigenerational coalition successfully advocated for the passage of the AAPI Curriculum Bill in NJ. Together, thousands of students, parents, teachers and community members in NJ and and a coalition of 60+ organizations advocated for the AAPI curriculum bill and the bill was signed into law in January 2022. We are very grateful to Governor Murphy and the NJ Legislature for passing this bill. You can read more about the many people and organizations involved in this advocacy here.
After the AAPI curriculum bill passed, we have the much more difficult job of implementation. As Laura Zhang Choi, TEPUP board member, educator, mother and former NJ school board member stated "NJ is a home rule state. Each district is its own kingdom. NJ has some of the most progressive educational policies in America, yet the state doesn't actually have an accountability mechanism to hold the districts accountable. There are nearly 600 school districts in NJ, not counting charter and private schools, so nearly 600 school boards have to decide how to implement these standards. Many districts will have these mandates in their policies, but if no one is demanding it, they only have to do the bare minimum, an annual worksheet. It's really up to us to keep the administration accountable. We need to continue our advocacy to see the AAPI curriculum mandate implemented in a meaningful way."
Angelica Qin, a youth advocate said “When I was in college I took a few Asian American studies classes and looking back on my education I think that this lack of education [on Asian American history] has done me a disservice even in a school district as diverse as ours with as many Asian Americans as ours. I faced a lot of racist jokes. I felt the power of Asian stereotypes about our docility and our perpetual perpetual foreignness every single year, but I couldn't even like put these feelings into words, much less advocate for myself in any meaningful way until I started learning about these things on my own in college because I did not learn about a single Asian American activist or civil rights leader in school. I didn't know that Asian Americans had a rich legacy of anti-racist activism and honestly I didn't know that we could be activists. Learning these things by myself has empowered me, made me more confident and helped me advocate for myself and my community in the face of anti-Asian racism. Our district is about 70 percent Asian-American right now and I think we do all of these students a disservice by offering inadequate inadequate AAPI education because for example the model minority myth has historically been used as a racist tool against other communities of color and also because I think we all must be educated about all communities of color to be adequately anti-racist.”
I am deeply grateful to the schools who are offering Asian American studies classes and other schools who are following the New Jersey curriculum mandate to include AAPI history and contributions. The school districts who have Asian American studies courses have dedicated parent and student advocates. As Dr. Noreen Naseem Rodriguez shares "family and community advocacy is the only thing that has EVER made schools/legislators make the curriculum more expansive. We gotta work/stick together!"
After the AAPI curriculum bill passed, we changed our name to The E Pluribus Unum Project (TEPUP) in January 2023. Why did we at TEPUP choose to advocate for pluralistic curriculum vs solely AAPI curriculum? We want all children to be represented in school curricula.
I am grateful to be working with amazing, talented, intelligent, and dedicated women, Dr. Ying Lu, Sima Kumar, Dr. Rosetta Treece, Dr. Kim Pinckney, and Laura Zhang-Choi at The E Pluribus Unum Project and Dr. Ying Lu, Sima Kumar, Jessica Cho-Kim, Dr. Christina Jenq, Nancy Lin and Christina Huang at Make Us Visible NJ. Make Us Visible NJ changed its name to The E Pluribus Unum Project in January 2023. Collectively, we accomplished more than each of us could do alone. Any idea/project each of us had was made better and richer by the collective efforts of the group. We are now working for the implementation of the bill and other inclusive education bills in New Jersey. You can see some of the wonderful work we do at The E Pluribus Unum Project at tepup.org
Why did we choose to have Black Asian American solidarity conferences vs Asian American conferences? We do not exist in isolation. Our histories are intertwined. My parents came to the US in the ’70s, they are both doctors and were able to immigrate here because of the Civil Rights movement. We are grateful to the Black community and all the freedom fighters who fought for the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which outlawed segregation in business and employment, and 1965 Immigration Act, which abolished national origin quotas allowing us to immigrate here. We have a tremendous debt to Black Americans for their struggles for civil rights, which eased our path in terms of immigration, education, housing, jobs, etc.
I feel a lot of Asian Americans don't know that. I wasn’t taught that. I feel it's really important to make an active effort to be anti-racist and an active effort to be in solidarity with other people of color. I wanted to make a point of that. And also I wanted to make a point that we're not in competition with each other for our histories being taught in schools. I want both Black and AAPI histories to be taught, and that's why I think it's really important to have this solidarity, especially since we face so many similar challenges. We face civil rights challenges, housing challenges, women's suffrage, labor rights, school segregation challenges, and we worked in solidarity for a lot of those things. I think it's really important for us to know that and our kids to know that, and to plant the seeds for solidarity.
Because of my racial justice advocacy in my hometown and in conjunction with Not In Our Town Princeton, I got to know a lot of Black racial justice advocates. Dr. Ruha Benjamin is an inspiring mentor for me. I was so inspired by her 2016 Racial Literacy series that it inspired me to create adult racial literacy workshops at my library at West Windsor Library. And then in the summer I did racial literacy workshops for youth in both West Windsor and Princeton, and invited speakers to come and speak at those, and several of those speakers came and spoke at our Black Asian American solidarity professional development conference. Dr. Ruha Benjamin delivered the keynote at our 2023 conference. I reached out to Tennille Haynes at Princeton University, who spoke at one of our West Windsor library events, and she offered to host the conference for free at the Carl Fields Center, which was very helpful because at that time we didn’t have any funding. Princeton University Carl Fields Center has hosted us for 2 years in a row. We built these trusting relationships and solidarity because we were working for racial justice together for years.
Dr. Rosetta Treece delivered the keynote at our 2024 conference. She was introduced to us by Dr. Jasmine Ueng-McHale, who is a local psychologist. Dr. Treece hosted our first AAPI curriculum advocacy event at her school, helped us conduct a teacher needs assessment and she also invited us to the New Jersey Department of Education Mercer County Curriculum Consortium meeting. She has been a wonderful ally from the beginning and in 2024, she became a board member of our organization The E Pluribus Unum Project. She is amazing. She has been doing this anti racist work in her school district for years, and she has a really great model that she involves the community. She involves the parents. It's not just teaching the kids. It's teaching the community.
Dr. Kim Pinckney, our TEPUP board member, is also Associate Director of NJEA Consortium. She co-emceed the virtual portion of our 2024 Black Asian American Solidarity Professional Development Conference along with Dr. Emily Sun. We are grateful for her insights on how to expand our educational network.
I wanted to share the steps we took to get an AAPI curriculum bill passed in NJ in case it would be helpful to other states. Fortunately, we have a good record of our advocacy through the newsletters we sent out throughout the campaign.
Research education bills that passed in your state
Model a draft bill based on a previous bill that has passed
Find a primary sponsor to introduce and draft the bill
Reach out to legislators who are in legislative districts with a large AAPI population.
You can find out which districts have a high AAPI population at ballotopedia by looking up each legislative district for Senate or Assembly in your own state.
Find more co-sponsors to support the bill (we aimed to get 50% of the legislators needed to pass the bill)
Recognize the co-sponsors on social media and with a slideshow at our events
Invite legislators to our curriculum events and let them know about the slideshow
Here is a sampling of letters to legislators
When votes for your bill take place, post online which legislators voted in favor and which voted against
Share your statistics with legislators, how many people are viewing your social media, your events, your newsletters, etc
Write an open letter and get as many signatures as you can in support of the legislation
Connect to as many communities you can, the broader your coalition, the more support, power and reach you have
Write to/Meet with organizations to see if they will ally with you in getting support for the bill (AAPI groups, civil rights groups, antiracist groups, educator groups, curriculum advocacy groups, school boards, school boards association, school principals association, school superintendent associations, lobbyists in education legislation)
Create a newsletter and send it to the individuals and organizations who signed your open letter
Meet with important legislators and government agencies, the heads of your Senate and Assembly Education committees or their aides, the Governor's office, the Dept of Education, the Civil Rights Division of your state, your state's teacher union, etc and try to get their support.
Pay attention to the legislative calendar, mark out important dates (and plan accordingly)
Find the key legislators that are responsible to move the bill forward (Chairs of Senate and Assembly Education Committee, Senate President, Speaker of the Assembly, Governor)
Write/call the legislators to move our bills forward
Write/call the chief of staff/legislative director of the legislators
Testify when the bills are discussed in the subcommittee (education committee)
If the bill is getting stalled, hold a rally/press conference and issue a press release about the rally
Before each meeting and voting session, write/call legislators to tell them how important this bill is for you and your child,
Ask students to call/write to the legislators as well
Show legislators that there is free curriculum and professional development available. They don’t have to reinvent the wheel and don’t have to spend a lot of money
Amplify teachers’ and academics’ voices. Find teachers who are willing to speak/write/testify on behalf of AAPI curriculum
Find teachers who are willing to provide class examples showing how implementation can be done and how much students appreciate it
Find school administrators to testify on feasibility.
Share the abundance of curriculum resources Asian American Education Project, SAALT, SAADA, etc.
Engage the media with press releases when needed
Share press coverage on social media to keep the coalition engaged and excited and to show legislators that these bills are meaningful to our state and our nation.
Here are our newsletters
Here are our testimonies
Here are our press releases
Here is our press
Here are our events
Here is our advocacy toolkit
Here is a research article about our advocacy by Dr. Russell Jeung et. al in Sociological Inquiry: “Urgently Needed to Protect Asian American Children and Families”: The Social Movement for Asian American Studies at K-12 Grades.
There were so many balls in the air while doing this advocacy. Every night before I would go to sleep, I'd say to myself, “I let go of everything. I surrender everything.” That surrender gave me the energy to keep going. I would let go and then getting filled up each day by what we were doing and our connections. I learned a lot about life in this process.
We are very grateful to Governor Murphy for being a wonderful advocate for the AAPI Community.
We are very grateful to Sen. Vin Gopal, Asm. Raj Mukherji and Asm./Sen. Gordon Johnson for introducing and advocating for these bills. We are very grateful to Speaker Coughlin and Senate President Sweeney for putting these bills on the agenda for Assembly and Senate and to Sen. Teresa Ruiz and Asw. Pam Lampitt for putting the bills on the agenda for the Education Committee.
We created this slideshow to honor all our amazing cosponsors. Thank you to our 44 cosponsors for A6100/S4021 Assembly members Jasey, Timberlake, Giblin, Murphy, Vainieri-Huttle, McKnight, Benson, Chiaravalloti, Zwicker, McKeon, Stanfield, Stanley, Johnson, Verrelli, Rooney, DePhillips, Reynolds-Jackson, Karabinchak, Moriarty, Carter, Conaway, Space, Spearman, Lampitt, Quijano, Kean, Speight, Simonsen, Calabrese, Swain and Caputo and Senators Ruiz, Corrado, Turner, Gill, Schepisi, Cryan, Codey, Weinberg, Thompson, Diegnan, Kean, Lagana and Cunningham, and our 37 cosponsors for A3369/S3764 Senators Weinberg, Diegnan, Greenstein, Kean, Codey, Ruiz, Schepisi, Gill, Thompson, Turner and Singleton and Assembly Members Stanley, Karabinchak, Vainieri-Huttle, Benson, Jimenez, Zwicker, Mukherji, Jasey, Giblin, Reynolds-Jackson, Stanfield, McKnight, Murphy, Timberlake, Munoz, Calabrese, Lopez, Tucker, Spearman, Freiman, Downey, Lampitt, DiMaso, Tucker, Speight and Quijano.
We are also very grateful to NJ Legislature staff members Aislinn Brennan, Dyese Davis, Krishna Martes, Jash Gill, Brooke Lockwood, Ian McDaniel, Scott Devlin, Kevin Drennan, Mark Magyar, Dan Harris, Liz Mahn, Jade Bechelli, Zixuan Wang, Shadaya Bennett, Hira Shaikh. We applaud the NJ Senate and NJ Assembly for the overwhelming bipartisan votes to pass S4021/A6100 and S3764/A3369! We are very proud of our legislature for being a national leader on this important issue of diversity and inclusion!
We would like to recognize K-12 educators who have been wonderful allies. We owe special thanks to Gabriel Tanglao for connecting us with the NJEA and coordinating an April 2022 NJEA webinar series for teachers on AAPI curriculum. We also owe special thanks to Sima Kumar and Rajneet Pimmi Kaur Goomer of Make Us Visible NJ and Kathy Lu and Julia Wang of Immigrant History Initiative for teaching this webinar series. In addition, we are very grateful to Sima Kumar for writing this excellent feature article calling for the inclusion of AAPI literature in the high school American literature curriculum in NJEA Review. We are also very grateful to Immigrant History Initiative for providing these awesome AAPI lesson plans.
We also want to highlight our student advocates, especially Christina Huang, Russell Fan, Eshaan Mahajan, Hannah Kim, Hannah Mattam, Serena Lee, Ngan Le, Soorya Baliga, Jennifer Lee, Gabe Chao, Bryan Zhao, Gabriella Son. As Russell Fan of Livingston AAPI Youth Alliance said, “With both bills having overwhelmingly passed the general votes in the state Senate and Assembly, they now await Governor Murphy to officially sign them into law. However, this accomplishment does not warrant a state of complacency as they can’t be regarded as a one-time event. The bills will now have to be implemented and enforced properly throughout all New Jersey public schools, which necessitates active input and guidance from students. This way, the newly-passed legislation can effectively be carried out to fulfill the purpose of protecting the AAPI community’s safety through reducing prejudices, clarifying stereotypes, and minimizing ignorance. In order for this to occur, more individuals of the younger generations need to continue participating in this advocacy for AAPI visibility, such as reaching out to members of their own communities to make their voices heard.”
Thank you to Asian Americans Advancing Justice- Chicago for showing us what is possible!
We are also very grateful to Professor Jason Chang and Mike Keo of Make Us Visible CT who gave us the inspiration and guidance to start this journey!
We owe special thanks to Jersey City Councilmember Rolando Lavarro, Cherry Hill Mayor Susan Shin Angulo and Michael Angulo, Assemblymember Sadaf Jaffer, Cherry Hill Councilmember Sangeeta Doshi.
We are very thankful to:
Commissioner Angelica Allen-McMillan, Assistant Commissioner Lisa Gleason, Julie Bunt, Diana Pasculli, Tonya Breland, Marianne Cappello, and Devan Blackwell at the Department of Education
Gabriel Tanglao at the NJEA
Dr. Stephanie James-Harris at the Amistad Commission
Rajpal Bath, Aide to the Governor and Kinn Badger, Senior Advisor, AAPI and Faith Based Outreach.
Former Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, Danielle Thorne, Rohit Tallapragada, Patricia Williamson, Dr. Denalerie Johnson-Faniel, Elissa Zylbershlag and Ashley Riker of the NJ Department of Civil Rights
Dr. Rosetta Treece, Superintendent of Hopewell Valley Regional School District, who has been our steadfast ally throughout this process
We owe special thanks to NYU Professor Ying Lu, Rutgers Professors Andy Urban, Karishma Desai and Dake Zhang, Princeton University Professors Beth Lew-Williams and Anne Cheng, Fairleigh Dickinson University Professor Khyati Joshi, TCNJ Professor Yifeng Hu, Montclair State University Professor Jennifer Robinson, UConn Professor Jason Chang and USF Professor Monisha Bajaj for sharing their expertise and guidance.
We owe special thanks to Christian Fuscarino and Lauren Albrecht of Garden State Equality for their excellent advice regarding legislative advocacy. The AAPI Curriculum bill is modeled after the LGBTQ Curriculum bill. We look forward to continuing to collaborate with Garden State Equality to diversify education in NJ.
Garden State Equality lifts up the diverse voices of LGBTQ+ communities through education and advocacy to advance the movement for equality in New Jersey and nationally. We work tirelessly to ensure the communities we serve experience lived equality.
Garden State Equality is the largest LGBTQ+ advocacy organization in New Jersey, with over 150,000 members. Established in 2004, we are now one of the most successful statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights organizations in the nation. Our services include advocacy, policy work, and trainings. We work to address safe environments for youth, improvement of health services that meet LGBTQ+ community needs, and respectful treatment of seniors. Beyond that, Garden State Equality supports New Jersey’s activist community by bringing an LGBTQ+ lens to the shared struggle for justice. All our current work is informed by racial, economic, and disability justice concerns. We envision a vibrant and diverse Garden State with full equality in the law and LGBTQ+ residents of all backgrounds experiencing equality in their lives. Garden State Equality is also a member of the Equality Federation.
We are so proud of Jennifer Lee and our allies at AADI for creating the Asian Americans with Disabilities Resource Guide. They would like to share the accessible, downloadable link here: https://www.aadinitiative.org/resources. This resource is completely free of charge. Please feel free to distribute it within your team and community as you see fit! They also have a post on their Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/p/CYjw83upcXL/?utm_medium=copy_link), and it would be great to share it with your community via your socials as well.
We are so proud of and grateful to be allies with Mina Fedor at AAPI Youth Rising. AAPI Youth Rising is an organization composed primarily of middle-schoolers. Our mission is to take small actions to make positive change in our communities. In March 2021, AAPI Youth Rising organized a 1,200+ person rally to bring awareness to the increase in xenophobia against Asians in America. AYR launched the ONE/180 pledge asking our schools and teachers to teach at least one day of Asian American history and culture during the school year. We have spoken with Asia Society, Boys & Girls Club, and at numerous rallies and panels to spread awareness about the issues affecting AAPI youth.
We owe special thanks to Amber Reed and Jeffrey Chang, Esq. of AAPI Montclair, Lynn Lin of Livingston Multicultural Parents Association, Russell Fan and Livingston AAPI Youth Alliance for working tirelessly alongside Prof. Ying Lu, Christina Huang, Jessica Kim and Dr. Kani Ilangovan of Make Us Visible NJ for these bills.
The Cherry Hill rally was a great success! Thank you so much to the amazing Jessica Cho Kim, Dan Park, Grace Ministry, Amber Reed and Jeff Chang from AAPI Montclair, NYU Professor Ying Lu from Make Us Visible NJ, Assembly Education Chair Pam Lampitt, Mayor Susan Shin Angulo, Rajpal Bath, Aide to the Governor, Dr. Ni Gao of the Asian American Alliance of South Jersey, Cherry Hill Councilwoman Sangeeta Doshi, SUNY Professor Xiaoyun Yuan of Huaxia Chinese School Cherry Hill branch and Mr. Hong Wang of Huaxia Chinese School Cherry Hill branch and District Superintendent Dr. Joe Meloche! We honor the strong voices of parents like Yvonne Lee, faith leaders like Reverend Joe Kim and Patrick Lee, the courage of our youth including Hailey & Joy Kam, Emalynn Sol, Stella Kim, Ally Yim, and Samantha Lee, and the beautiful dance performance of the Korean School of Southern New Jersey! We are very grateful to Grace Ministry for hosting the rally! We appreciate your collective heart and your support for this cause! Here is a video of the rally.
Our Trenton rally/press conference that was organized by Dr. Kani Ilangovan and Professor Ying Lu of Make Us Visible NJ was a great success. Thank you to Asm. Mukherji, Jash Gill, Asm. Tully, Councilman Lavarro, Isaac Smith, Rajpal Bath, Prof Yifeng Hu of TCNJ, Jessica Kim from University of Pennsylvania, SP2, Ommer Khaw of SOMA-Cross Cultural Works, Jielin and Doris Ma of Princeton Chinese Community, TCNJ student Gabriella Son, Dr. Somasundaram Ilangovan and Dr. Kani Ilangovan of Make Us Visible NJ and many others for speaking at and attending our press conference and rally. Here are photos from the Trenton rally.
We owe special thanks to all who testified at the Senate and Assembly Education Committees: Prof. Ying Lu, Christina Huang, Sima Kumar, Dr. Kani Ilangovan of Make Us Visible NJ, Amber Reed and Linda Kow of AAPI Montclair, Cherry Hill Mayor Susan Shin Angulo, Assemblywoman Sadaf Jaffer, TCNJ Professor Yifeng Hu, TCNJ student Gabriella Son, and 7th grade advocate Bryan Zhao. You can read their testimonies and some of the rally speeches here. We are very grateful to Jeff Chang from AAPI Montclair for coordinating the Senate and Assembly testimonies.
They all are wonderful advocates for the AAPI Community and we are forever grateful to them. Thank you everyone for all your efforts! We are very grateful for everyone's teamwork.
We are very grateful to Prof. Andy Urban for obtaining the support of the New Brunswick Chapter of the Rutgers AAUP-AFT union. The Executive Council of a 6,000-member union voted unanimously to endorse the AAPI Curriculum Bill. We are also grateful to Prof. Andy Urban for hosting a fantastic panel on Teaching Asian American Studies and the Digital Humanities, and for authoring an op-ed letter in support of this legislation with his Rutgers colleagues and for presenting about Seabrook Educational and Cultural Center to the Cumberland County Curriculum Consortium.
We are very grateful to the Jersey City Board of Education and Hopewell Valley Regional School District Board of Education and Dr. Rosetta Treece, HVRSD Superintendent for passing a Resolution to Acknowledge and Celebrate the Contributions of Asian American Pacific Islanders (AAPI) with the Inclusion of AAPI Curricula.
We are very grateful to Councilman Rolando Lavarro, who spoke at the Trenton rally and advocated for the bill to pass to legislators at the Statehouse. He also passed a resolution in support of the AAPI Curriculum Bill. Councilman Lavarro also recruited Mayor Arvin Amatorio of Bergenfield who plans to introduce a similar resolution in his town. We are grateful to Jersey City AAPI Coalition for all their advocacy in Jersey City and introducing us to Councilman Lavarro. Here are 2 articles about the passing of the resolution.
We are so grateful for the alliances we have with 60+ amazing AAPI and social justice organizers across the state, local teachers, local schools, Rutgers University, Princeton University, Fairleigh Dickinson University, the NJEA, the DOE, and the NJ Department of Civil Rights.
Here is some of the press coverage our coalition has received. We are very grateful to Julie Daurio, Melissa Cooper and Layal Aboukaf at PBS NJ Spotlight News, Mary Chao from Bergen Record, Tat Bellamy-Walker of NBC Asian America, Melanie Burney from Philadelphia Inquirer, Michael Symons who is. State House bureau chief for New Jersey, Brittany Valentine from Al Dia, Emily Liu from The Sun, Chinese Global Times, John Heinis from Hudson County View, Aaron Morrill from Jersey City Times, Tennyson Donyea from WHYY, Dana DiFilippo and Sophie Nieto Munoz from NJ Monitor, and Glenn Cook from School Leader.
We would like to share more about some of the amazing NJ organizations in our coalition who worked tirelessly to make this happen (listed in alphabetical order):
AAPI Montclair is a grassroots organization of over 500 Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the Montclair, New Jersey area. Our mission is to create a more inclusive Montclair by uplifting the varied experiences of our AAPI communities, promoting awareness and education around AAPI culture and history, and advocating for AAPI representation and rights.
Since being founded by a small group of concerned mothers in late March 2021, AAPI Montclair has become one of the most active grassroots AAPI nonprofits in New Jersey. Together we have advocated for our public schools to do more to recognize and respond to anti-Asian racism; launched a Stop Asian Hate sticker campaign to encourage businesses to identify themselves as safe spaces; partnered with the New Jersey Division of Civil Rights to present a workshop on bias incidents and civil rights for the AAPI community; and raised funds for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Equality Lab, and our town’s Juneteenth celebrations.
Our advocacy is supported by events that build solidarity, raise the visibility of AAPI issues, and help involve and educate our wider community. Past events have included the Lantern Festival for Justice and Remembrance, which saw over 1,000 people gather to memorialize victims of racial violence, and most recently, Montclair's first ever large-scale Diwali celebration, a partnership with the Montclair Art Museum that drew 1,300+ attendees to celebrate the joy, strength, and diversity of our South Asian community. We look forward to gathering for our first Lunar New Year celebration later this month.
AAPI Montclair has been proud to ally with Make Us Visible in support of legislation that would fight anti-Asian racism at its roots by requiring Asian American history and contributions to be taught in all NJ public schools. It’s been a joy and honor to meet dedicated organizers from across New Jersey and in other states.
#StopAsianHate Workshop virtual Know Your Rights Workshop was a great success! It was highly informative and will be translated into multiple languages. Thank you, Amber Reed and Jeff Chang of AAPI Montclair, Patricia Williamson and the Civil Rights Unit for your awesome advocacy!
To listen to the recording, please click here.
Additional resources are located on this website (www.NJCivilRights.gov) and at this link
AAPI Reads is a volunteer group of Asian American educators, librarians, and parents who believe in the power of good readings and civic engagement in transforming the society. We aspire to make AAPI Reads a central hub for advocating and supporting AAPI books and writers in literature, arts, humanities and social science. We also envision AAPI Reads as a central hub for civic engagement education and community actions for Asian American and Pacific Islanders. Working with library staff members, teachers, and school administrators, AAPI Reads provides practical, targeted and strategic suggestions for parents and students who want to engage in AAPI books and advocacy in their local public libraries and schools.
Asian Youth Act seeks to promote the political and civic engagement of Asian youth through informative, research-centered projects and personal narratives. AYA is a non-partisan organization constructed to be an open-minded space where youth seek empathy, understanding, and collaboration. The team empowers Asian students globally to not only be proactive and informed citizens, but to inspire change in all-generations of the Asian community by providing conversation-starting resources. Additionally, the team hopes to spark important conversations regarding these issues within friends, family, community, and oneself.
Fort Lee Chinese Association was established in 2020 by a group of Fort Lee residents, parents, and professionals committed to sharing the kindness, friendship and opportunities they have experienced as community members.
Our goals are to:
Support and strengthen the local Chinese American community
Promote Chinese culture & cultural exchanges
Enhance community relations
Assist new immigrants and residents to participate in community activities, and
Further engage Chinese Americans to participate and contribute to the greater Fort Lee community
Jersey City AAPI Coalition and Jersey City Councilman Rolando Lavarro have been doing wonderful advocacy in the past year. They held a rally. They advocated for JCPS Resolution Recognizing Asian Pacific Islander American Heritage month and Inclusion of AAPI History into the Curricula. They advocated for Jersey City Resolution Condemning and Combating Racism, Xenophobia, and Intolerance Against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. They advocated for Jersey City Resolution Recognizing May 2021 as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month We are very grateful to Councilman Rolando Lavarro, who introduced a resolution in support of the AAPI Curriculum Bill, and are grateful to the Jersey City council for unanimously passing the bill.
The Livingston AAPI Youth Alliance is honored to have worked with Make Us Visible New Jersey (MUVNJ) in advocating for the NJ legislative bills S4021 and A6100 since May 2021. We are proud to have contributed, under the guidance of MUVNJ’s leadership team, to the passing of both of these bills. This has included delivering speeches at various webinars hosted by MUVNJ, reaching out to NJ state legislators to solicit support for the aforementioned AAPI education bills, and creating/presenting written and video testimonies to NJ State Senate and Assembly Education Committees in support of the bills S4021 and A6100.
With both bills having overwhelmingly passed the general votes in the state Senate and Assembly, they now await Governor Murphy to officially sign them into law. However, this accomplishment does not warrant a state of complacency as they can’t be regarded as a one-time event. The bills will now have to be implemented and enforced properly throughout all New Jersey public schools, which necessitates active input and guidance from students. This way, the newly-passed legislation can effectively be carried out to fulfill the purpose of protecting the AAPI community’s safety through reducing prejudices, clarifying stereotypes, and minimizing ignorance. In order for this to occur, more individuals of the younger generations need to continue participating in this advocacy for AAPI visibility, such as reaching out to members of their own communities to make their voices heard. This is not an easy task, to say the least, which we ourselves have experienced in our own hometown. Nonetheless, it is clear that more student involvement is critical for the AAPI movement. In light of this challenge, we cannot give up trying to inspire more adolescents to join this movement. The future of the AAPI community and the direction of the bills’ implementation for New Jersey public schools depend on students realizing their responsibility for this and contributing to this advocacy.
Livingston Multicultural Parents Association was founded this past March after the Atlanta mass shootings, with the goal of addressing anti-AAPI hate within Livingston. We work to do this by advocating for AAPI studies in our school district, while also undertaking projects to build better connections and understanding between the different groups and cultures that make up the Livingston community.
As part of our advocacy efforts, we have met with our district’s assistant superintendent in charge of curriculum to share why AAPI studies are needed in our school district, and organized Livingston High School students to give a presentation on AAPI history to the social studies curriculum department. We were also featured in a front page article in Livingston’s newspaper in which we shared why AAPI studies are strongly needed in our schools.
Beyond our advocacy work, we have also donated AAPI-inclusive books to the libraries of each elementary school in our district, as well as to our town library, to provide children and adults in our community with the opportunity to see AAPI people and stories in the books they read. We have also held cultural events, including a Chinese watercolor class for kids, to build cross-cultural understanding within our community.
Parents and Children Education (PCE) Club is a NJ-based national volunteer-run 501c(3) nonprofit non-religious organization that has now reached its 18th year mark! We have hosted 200+ monthly seminars and 18 annual conferences featuring celebrated educators and psychologists. PCE provides a learning and sharing platform for Chinese-speaking parents to develop the social and emotional intelligence that is crucial to effective intergenerational communication. PCE's programs improve the inclusion, belonging and overall wellbeing for our families and our community. In early 2021, in response to the wide spread Anti-Asian hate and sentiments, we organized parenting seminars on racial identity and cultural confidence that successfully increased awareness and civic engagement in our community. PCE applauds the leadership of MUVNJ in the historical wins in NJ to include AAPI history in K-12 curriculum.
PCE（Parents and Children Education) 俱乐部是 2003 年由一群在新泽西的父母自发成立的一个非盈利非宗教的教育学习型机构, 为华人家庭提供一个学习 “情商育儿” 的共同成长平台。18 年来，PCE 已经成功主办了 200多场教育研讨会和18次大型年会，聘请了许多知名专家作者现场和网上演讲。我们推广的教育理念是以人为本，父母信任尊重孩子，与孩子有良好的关系，与孩子共同成长，有深度联结,了解和参与孩子成长的美国社会，是孩子成长路上最好的支持。 除了每月的研讨会，PCE 还有多种形式的学习交流平台，包括改善家庭关系的“亲密之旅” 网上小组，李崇建老师的对话课程，父母自我成长读书群，线下聚会等等。在特殊的疫情年代里，PCE从新泽西走向网上，用 Zoom把 PCE 的教育理念传播给北美各地的华人家庭，我们的微信群也达到了3000 多人。PCE网站是 https://www.pceclub.org/， 欢迎您加入我们一起学习成长!
PCC - Empowering the Community
Founded in 2020, Princeton Chinese Community is a grassroots and volunteer-based organization that strives to empower all members of the Asian American community.
PCC focuses on community service, promotes civil rights, encourages the civic engagement of Asian Americans, and raises awareness of the equity and equality issues of minorities more broadly. It has led successful campaigns that produced meaningful changes, both in Princeton and across the nation. Through the dedication of our members, we work to hold local leaders and decision-makers accountable for their actions that impact the community, moving them to rethink what is possible and focus on what matters. Among the recent activities of the organization:
PCC mobilized the Asian community in Princeton at the beginning of the pandemic to provide Covid relief — raising a large amount of cash, PPE gear and other emergency supplies (over $75,000) and donating it all to hospitals, health care professionals, first responders, senior homes, local schools and communities. It also helped organize a massive food drive at the beginning of the Covid crisis to help alleviate food shortages in lower-income communities that arose from the pandemic.
PCC organized the #StopAsianHate rally on March 27, 2021 in downtown Princeton partnering with over 20 other community organizations that signed on as co-sponsors. The rally attracted several thousand supporters across NJ to stand in solidarity, dismantle racism and stop the hate crimes recently rising in this country.
PCC has led outreach of the Asian American community to local school districts, advocating for more attention to teach Asian American history (which is often completely overlooked) in local K-12 classrooms, and has frequently sponsored Asian American candidates to run for Board of Education and other local public positions as well as more generally inspiring the next generation of Asian Americans to become more active as leaders in all facets of the life of the broader community and to help weave the Asia American Community into the diverse fabric of America.
PCC is led by Cecilia Xie Birge, former mayor of Montgomery Township, New Jersey, as well as other community activists from Princeton and volunteers in the surrounding area.
Ridgewood Ambassadors for Global Citizenship (RAG) is a non-partisan group that formed organically after George Floyd's tragic death. RAG successfully advocated for parent DEI committees in each of the schools within our district; hosted a DEI Discussion Panel with experts in the field – here is the link if you haven’t seen it! Collaborated / engaged with community partners (Ridgewood Public Schools, Ridgewood Public Library, Community Read (Ridgewood, Fair Lawn and Glen Rock), Mack’s Wednesday Night Zooms, Race Together, Ridgewood YMCA and Bergen County social justice groups) Please be on the lookout for information regarding RAG hosting a second DEI panel discussion in the spring. We will be co-sponsoring this upcoming event with the NJ Division on Civil Rights.
We are especially grateful to the community partners who continue to do so much to help educate us and our community as a whole. Leaders are: Lynn Benson, Grace Kang, Miyuki Tsukada and Anne Burton Walsh
Founded in 1996, SALDEF is a national Sikh American media, policy and education organization. Our mission is to build dialogue, deepen understanding, promote civic and political participation, and uphold social justice and religious freedom for all Americans. We are grounded in our values of optimism (chardi kala), humility (nimrata), and service (seva) inspired by the community (sangat) for the benefit of all (sarbat da bhalla).
SOMA Action is a grassroots organization in South Orange and Maplewood whose mission is to drive progressive change. SOMA Cross Cultural Works, a community non-profit based in Maplewood, NJ, was behind the inaugural Diwali Fest NJ, the festival of lights that is one of the most widely celebrated South Asian holidays; Lunar Fest NJ, the beginning of the year according to the lunar calendar and one of the most widely celebrated holidays in Asia; and Hola Fest, the area's first festival celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. The organization supports and celebrates the rich cultural diversity of our community. Founded in 2016, SOMA Justice is a group of local volunteers working to promote racial justice and safe spaces for people of color (POC) in South Orange, Maplewood and surrounding communities in New Jersey. We focus on community activism and advocacy, education, and fellowship. We have more than 1,000 members who are active both through social media and in-person advocacy and engagement.
Formed in 2021, United Asian Voices of West Orange brings together WO’s AAPI community to lift up and strengthen our voices in civic, educational, and legislative affairs. By fostering unity, engagement, and leadership, UAV hopes to embolden and empower our community. UAV has been working with local groups and officials to address curriculum and diversity issues so that AAPIs can be better seen, heard, and represented.
Make Us Visible NJ is a coalition of students, parents, educators, legislators, professionals, and New Jersey community members advocating for thoughtful and comprehensive inclusion of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) studies into K-12 curriculum for New Jersey public schools. Our goals include:
Supporting the development of accurate, community-centered, engaging, and inclusive curricula, which reflects the histories and contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to the United States
Passing statewide legislation mandating such curricula across subject areas;
Building coalitions to support open access to resources for educators seeking to implement such curricula within their classrooms
Here is Make Us Visible NJ's history and origins.
This is our concise AAPI Curriculum resource guide and this is a more comprehensive AAPI Curriculum resource guide
We are so grateful for the alliances we have with more than 60 AAPI and social justice organizers across the state, local teachers, local schools, Rutgers University, Princeton University, Fairleigh Dickinson University, the NJEA, the DOE, and the NJ Department of Civil Rights.We are so grateful for the alliances we have with 60+ amazing AAPI and social justice organizers across the state, local teachers, local schools, Rutgers University, Princeton University, Fairleigh Dickinson University, the NJEA, the DOE, and the NJ Department of Civil Rights. We are very grateful to our organizational allies:
AAPI Montclair- especially Amber Reed, Jeffrey Chang, Esq., Linda Kow and Serena Lee
AAPI Montgomery County - especially Denise Hellenbrand, Jim Lee, Tom Hasani, Serena Nguyen and Beth Lee
AAPI Reads - especially Ming Kuang, Laura Liu and Prof. Ying Lu
AAPI Youth Rising - especially Mina Fedor
Act to Change - especially Saad Qureshi and Richard Leong
ADL NY/NJ - especially Alana Burman
American Humanist Association - especially Roy Speckhardt
Antiracist Teaching and Learning Collective - especially Jason Lee and Isabella Zou
Asian American Alliance in South Jersey- especially Professor Ni Gao
Asian American Alumni Association of Princeton University (A4P) - especially Nancy Lin and Dr. Jasmine Ueng-McHale
Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago - especially Grace Pai and Laura Houcque Prabhakar
Asian Youth Act - especially Ngan Le
Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice - especially Robt Seda-Schreiber
Central NJ Presbytery/Justice Team - especially Laura Choi and John Fong
Central NJ Asian American Reading Group - especially Sonya Chen, Alexander Jin and Darren Yau
CHOOSE - especially Winona Guo and Priya Vulchi
Diversify Our Narrative Campaign - especially Katelin Zhou
Faith in New Jersey - especially Charlene Walker
The Filipino School of New York and New Jersey - especially Arianne Maliwanag and Venessa Manzano
Fort Lee Chinese American Community Association - especially Amy Ko-Tang
Garden State Equality - especially Christian Fuscarino and Lauren Albrecht
Glen Ridge Pan Asian American Association - especially Linella Gavin
Grace Ministry Church - especially Jessica Kim and Dan Park
Historical Records of Chinese Americans - especially Qian Huang
Hopewell Valley Together
Hunterdon County Anti-Racism Coalition - especially Karen Gaffney
Huaxia Chinese School Cherry Hill branch - especially SUNY Professor Xiaoyun Yuan and Mr. Hong Wang
Huaxia Edison Chinese School - especially Yi Li
Immigrant History Initiative - especially Kathy Lu and Julia Wang
#IAMNOTAVIRUS Campaign - especially Mike Keo and Vinh Dang
Indivisible: Garden State Values - especially Laura Lu Choi
Jersey City AAPI Coalition - especially Pam Andes, Evelyn Chan and Jennie Jonson
Jersey Promise - especially Jun Choi, Dr. Khyati Joshi and Ron Chen, Esq.
Livingston AAPI Youth Alliance - especially Russell Fan, Hannah Mattam, Eshaan Mahajan and Hannah Kim
Livingston Multicultural Parents Association - especially Lynn Lin, Kiran Reddy and Susan Park
Lyra Music - especially Rachel Odo
Make It Better for Youth - especially Kate Okeson
Make Noise Today - especially Michael Vitug
Make Us Visible CT - especially Prof Jason Chang and Mike Keo
McCarter Theatre - especially Paula Alekson and Andrea Cuevas
New Jersey Association of Colleges for Teacher Education - especially Dr. Stacey Leftwich
New Jersey Chinese Festival - especially Margeret Lam
New Jersey Safe Schools Coalition - especially Shannon Cuttle
Not In Our Town- Princeton - especially Linda Oppenheim and Miki Mendelsohn
ONE Project - especially Amman Seehra and Stacey Kierman
Parents and Children Education Club - especially Laura Liu and Jianping “Ping” Xu
Pop the Bubble - especially Serena Nguyen
Princeton Chinese American Parents Association - especially Lori Liu
Princeton Chinese Community (PCC) - especially Xiaobing Li, Xu Cheng, Cecilia Birge, Ying Lu and Wei Wu
Princeton Diversity Discussions - especially Jenny Korn
Princeton Mutual Aid - especially Sonya Chen and Alexander Jin
Princeton Public Library - especially Kim Dorman, Janie Hermann and Madeleine Rosenberg
Princeton University Asian American Students Association - especially Jennifer Lee
Ridgewood Ambassadors for Global Citizenship - especially Grace Kang
Rutgers AAUP-AFT Executive Council - especially Prof. Andy Urban
Safe Schools Action Network - especially Shannon Cuttle
SAMBHAV - especially Professor Rupa Khetarpal
Sikh American Legal Defense and Action Fund (SALDEF) - especially Kiran Gill, Navdeep Singh, Jyot Singh and Amman Seehra
SOMA Cross Cultural Works - especially Ommer Khaw
Springfield Unity Project - especially Jayani Alles
TOGETHER: Building Inclusive and Just Community; a project of Coalition for Peace Action- especially Sharon Copeland
The American Studies Department, Rutgers University, New Brunswick - especially Prof. Andy Urban
The Asian American Education Project - especially Stewart and Patricia Kwoh
The Center for Pedagogy - especially Dr. Jennifer Robinson
The Championing Political Change Organization - especially Jai Jhaveri
The Desi Project - especially Rishabh Sharma, Shreya, Nysa and Dev
The Institute for Anti-Racist Education, Inc. - especially Ashley Lipscomb
The South Orange/Maplewood Community Coalition on Race - especially Kim Chan and Devyani Guha
The We See Color Project - especially Sathya Sundar
Trinity Church (Episcopal) - especially Rev. Paul Jeanes
United Asian Voices of West Orange - especially Fannie Chan Jarvis
United Chinese American Association of NJ - especially Margaret Lam
United Chinese Americans - especially Laura Liu and Haipei Shue
United Chinese Americans New Jersey - especially Dr. Yingchao Zhang
Women Together, Inc. - especially Jenny Lee
YURI Education Project - especially Dr. Karishma Desai, Dr. Cathlin Gould and Freda Lin
Here is some of the press we have received for our advocacy for the AAPI Curriculum Bill. We are grateful to Dr. Jeung and the press for highlighting our work. We originally did curriculum advocacy under the name Make Us Visible NJ. In 2023, we changed our name and now do advocacy through The E Pluribus Unum Project.
PBS NJ Spotlight News 12-27-21
Philadelphia Inquirer 12-24-21
Global Chinese Times 12-23 page 1 page 2
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