May is known across the United States as Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage month, and students at Highland Park High School take this opportunity to celebrate their cultural roots. Starting last year, the Asian Culture Club hosts an annual AAPI celebration, featuring performances, presentations, crafts, and games. During a planning meeting, student Siya Verma expressed that many Asian American students feel like they seemingly don’t belong in their family’s country of origin or in the United States, adding that this event would create a space of belonging for people that feel this way. Michelle Li, another member of the club, added that she hoped for this event to feature more Asian stories in the United States. Sentiments of celebrating achievements and honoring progress have also been expressed, with member Amy Yang saying “[the month] celebrates and commemorates the accomplishments of Asian American figures and the stereotypes that they have broken.”
This year, Asian American representation and acknowledgement in media and pop culture grew, especially with the recent Everything Everywhere All at Once win at the Oscars. Ms. Yang, one of the advisors for the Asian Culture Club, expresses that she felt happy for the win, and that she felt like she could relate to the cultural nuances and to the characters in the film. She also brought up Ang Lee, a director of Taiwanese descent who won multiple awards, notable for being the first nonwhite director to win “Best Director” at the Academy Awards. Additionally, fans of Tollywood (the Indian film industry producing films in Telugu, a language spoken in the country’s southeast region) had mixed reactions when seeing the performance of “Naatu Naatu,” the first Indian song to win an Oscar. Siya, who is of Indian heritage, says that she feels “happy and proud” of the “big achievement,” especially because there aren’t many Indian Americans in Hollywood.
The community still faces challenges. Historically, the Asian American community has been under the “model minority” and “bamboo ceiling” stereotypes, which assume those in the demographic to be subservient, wealthy, and academically inclined (1). This stereotype harms by putting pressure on people identifying as Asian American to fulfill these expectations. Furthermore, it exacerbates how underlooked this community is, especially the diverse economic situations of Asian-origin groups—the median income is $127,000 for the highest-earning group, but $48,000 for the lowest (2). This stereotype erases this diversity. These stereotypes have also been used as a “racial wedge”—diminishing the role racism has in minority groups. Amy expressed her thoughts about other sidelined topics, specifically multiculturalism. “It doesn’t do all of the countries in Asia enough justice to shove them all in one month or in one category of people, and it doesn’t do anyone justice to be generalized in a group of people who look the same as they do and come from the same region or area racially.” Amidst this debate are many people who identify as Pacific Islanders, who criticize the term “AAPI” for overgeneralizing a vastly diverse group of people (3).
However, this recognition of identity is inspiring to some. Amy has also said “for marginalized groups who don’t have a lot of representation…[seeing] people who look like you in these leadership roles…breaking these stereotypes and opening up new doors” is incredibly empowering.
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