Honoring AANHPI Heritage Month — And Everyone It Includes

May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month — and if you're wondering what all those words mean together, you're not alone.

The umbrella term AANHPI covers dozens of distinct ethnic groups, languages, histories, and lived experiences. And while building coalitions matters, there's something important we have to acknowledge: when groups are combined under a single label, communities with less institutional visibility can be pushed to the margins. Their stories get absorbed into the dominant group's image. Their specific needs become harder to name, harder to fund, and harder to address.

Screenshot from the Asian American and Pacific Islanders Commission's Pacific Islanders Toolkit

That's part of why it matters that it wasn't until 2021 that President Biden's official proclamation explicitly named Native Hawaiian in the month's title. For decades, the AAPI designation largely centered on Asian American experiences, and NHPI communities, which have their own distinct cultures, colonial histories, and present-day challenges, were grouped in without the same recognition.

This month is an invitation to go a little deeper than the umbrella.

What solidarity looks like:

• Read books by AANHPI authors. Seek out Pacific Islander poets, historians, and novelists. We've created tags on our StoryGraph account to get you started.

• Watch films and shows created by and centering these communities, not just about them.

• Amplify their stories in your own circles, online and off.

• Advocate for schools to expand AANHPI curriculum, not just include it as a footnote.

• Support organizations led by and for specific communities within the AANHPI umbrella.

Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash, Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash, Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash 

It is not the responsibility of any individual to educate us about their culture. That work is ours to do. Seek out resources created within these communities as those tend to reflect the most honest, grounded perspectives.

A few places to start:

• NYC’s “Wasian Wonderland” Shows How Mixed-Race Hype Still Centers Whiteness

• Start Wasian Hate?

• AANHPI Nonprofit Database

• Asian Pacific Americans Wiki

• Why the AANHPI acronym brings mixed feelings for some within the community

• What's happening at TAAF?

• How two Capitol Hill staffers convinced Congress to establish AAPI Heritage Month

• AANHPI Toolkit

• Empowering Pacific Islander Communities

• Pacific Islander Resources     

We don't have to fully understand every thread of this to show up with care. We just have to be willing to look closer.

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