Panel Calls for Stronger Asian American Role in Schools

If Asian Americans are to be accepted as an integral part of U.S. society, their histories, cultures and languages need to be taught in the nation’s schools beginning in kindergarten, President Clinton’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders was told Monday in Los Angeles.

Though people of Asian ancestry have been attending American schools for more than a century, they are yet to be a part of a “comprehensive” social studies and language arts curriculum, said Michael Matsuda, an Anaheim Union High School District teacher.

Commissioners took their seats in the spring, and Monday’s public hearing was the first of four town hall meetings the group will hold across the country. “We’re making history today,” said Martha Choe of Seattle, chairwoman of the panel.

Choe said that although Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are the fastest-growing ethnic group in the nation, the community still lacks visibility and that level of participation that other minority groups enjoy.

The White House has come under criticism for not appointing a commissioner from Los Angeles, the home of the largest concentration of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the country.

Choe said the commission will make sure that the White House is aware of the concerns.

Warren Furutani, a trustee of the Los Angeles Community College District, suggested that now that commission Chairman Norman Mineta has been confirmed as U.S. secretary of Commerce, a spot on the panel could be given to an Asian American leader from Southern California.

The commission is charged with collecting data about Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and making recommendations to the president on improving their quality of life.

The 10-hour session, held in the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors hearing room and linked by video teleconference to 10 cities, drew dozens of witnesses. They spoke on a wide range of issues affecting Asians and Pacific Islanders, who number 12 million, about 4% of the nation’s population.

Throughout history, treatment of people of Asian ancestry has been based on attitudes and stereotypes that can be either reinforced or broken in the schools, Matsuda said. Inclusion of their experience in the elementary and secondary school curriculum will benefit both Asians and non-Asians, he said.

“I have Asian students who tell me that their parents won’t let them date ‘Americans,’ ” Matsuda said. “What they really mean is Caucasians. How can we expect the mainstream to accept us as Americans if we ourselves are confused about our ethnicity and race? Moreover, it is equally important for mainstream students to accept and acknowledge their [Asian American] peers as ‘American,’ because those same students will one day become voters and decision makers who will directly impact the treatment of Asian Americans.”

Choe said the Japanese American teacher’s comment touched all the commissioners.

“All of us identified personally with that,” said Choe, director of the Washington state Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development. She said it was part of the panel’s mission to make recommendations to the president and government agencies “so that we can make ourselves part of that curriculum.”

Commissioner Dennis Hayashi, director of the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing, said he would like to see federal and state agencies work with county boards of education to push for textbooks that are inclusive.

“You’ve got to integrate us into mainstream history,” he said. “We are not just Asian Americans who were interned. We are Asians who served in the military, who developed silicon chips. That’s got to be part of our history.”

In addition to education, the commissioners also heard testimony from more than 60 witnesses on health and human services, public and private partnerships, media and arts, employment and labor, civil rights and immigration, economic and community development and issues pertaining mainly to Pacific Islanders.

Monterey Park City Councilwoman Judy Chu said language barriers keep many Asian Americans from being full participants in society.

In Monterey Park, the only city on the U.S. mainland with an Asian American majority, an Asian American woman about to give birth called 911, she said. When the male paramedic approached to examine her, the woman locked herself in the bathroom because she was horrified.

“It was a very tense situation until they found a translator,” she said.

Chu urged the commission to support programs that help enhance literacy in English, noting that a third of the nation’s households with limited English capability are in California.

Furutani told the commission that because the Asian American community is 70% immigrant, the empowerment strategy has to start with citizenship.

“We need to make a commitment to this country, so we must become citizens as soon as possible,” he said. “If we hesitate or don’t, then we are scoffing at and taking for granted the historical reality that denied Asian immigrants the right to become naturalized citizens until the mid-1950s.”

In a videotaped message, Clinton told the gathering that Asian Americans have played a vital role in building the United States and that his hope for the nation is to make America’s diversity “the greatest strength in the 21st century.”

The next town hall meeting is scheduled for Sept. 18 in New York.