Asian American K-12 statewide policies have been sweeping states since 2020 as one of the primary responses to the rise of anti-Asian discrimination and racism. According to the Stop AAPI Report Card in 2022, the rise of anti-Asian hate reports was in the tens of thousands. Illinois led the contemporary Asian American K-12 movement with the passage of the Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History Act (TEAACH) in 2022, which stated:  “Beginning with the 2022-23 school year, every public elementary school and high school shall include in its curriculum a unit of instruction studyi ..read more

In November 2023, I was driving to a book talk when I received an email inviting me to attend the annual Filipino American History Month celebration at the White House. I immediately texted my wife a screenshot of the email which read: Good afternoon Tony,  On behalf of the White House, we hope this email finds you well. As a part of the Filipino American History Month Celebration in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, we look forward to celebrating with you on Tuesday, November 28. She immediately called me and said, “You manifested this! But what are you going to do?” Her voice we ..read more

When sitting down with Filipinas Marlene Knox and Joseline Thomas to talk story, I got an answer to a question that I never thought to ask: In 1970s Seattle, where were the Asians when desegregation and busing began?    The answer: They were bused with Black students. Given that public education frequently erases Asian American and Pacific Islander voices, this piece of little-known history is revelatory. Busing is strongly associated with the Civil Rights movement and Black communities. The common narrative in public education is that busing primarily affected Black students. T ..read more

Language, usage, and culture are always changing. Personally, I have evolved from identifying as Chinese-American in my childhood (because it was too hard to explain that Taiwan and Thailand were not the same to a bunch of white Midwesterners in the 90s) to now identifying as Taiwanese American. With the changes in language over the years, you may be wondering, “Is Asian American hyphenated?” As of 2021, The New York Times, Associated Press, Chicago Manual of Style, and other style guides no longer hyphenate Asian American or any of its derivatives, such as Chinese American, Japanese American ..read more

The Black Allyship @ Mochi (BA@M) column is an ongoing project that urges an awareness of racial injustice in the United States, particularly the oppression of Black people in America. The articles, resources, and opinions we share are a call to action, an open discussion, and a place to take a stance against anti-Black racism. “You cannot change any society unless you take responsibility for it, unless you see yourself as belonging to it and responsible for changing it.” — Grace Lee Boggs In memory of Grace Lee Boggs’ work with Black communities, we are seeking essays from BIPOC writers that ..read more

The author’s content and opinions have not been pre-reviewed, approved, or endorsed by Discover. Nobel Peace Prize winner and Rappler CEO Maria Ressa nearly faced over a century in prison for speaking the truth. She was criminally charged with 10 cases by the Filipino government, and in fact, some said it was imminent that she would be imprisoned. She’s been harassed and bullied, receiving up to 90 hate messages and death threats per an hour at one point. And yet, she still bravely perseveres, striving for truth.  “In order to keep doing my job, I had to be OK with going to jail for over ..read more

What happens to a dream deferred?       Does it dry up       like a raisin in the sun?       Or fester like a sore—       And then run?       Does it stink like rotten meat?       Or crust and sugar over—       like a syrupy sweet?       Maybe it just sags       like a heavy load.       Or does ..read more

Nobel Peace Prize winner and Rappler CEO Maria Ressa nearly faced over a century in prison for speaking the truth. She was criminally charged with 10 cases by the Filipino government, and in fact, some said it was imminent that she would be imprisoned. She’s been harassed and bullied, receiving up to 90 hate messages and death threats per an hour at one point. And yet, she still bravely perseveres, striving for truth.  “In order to keep doing my job, I had to be OK with going to jail for over 100 years,” the journalist told the audience at the Sunrise House at the 2024 Sundance Festival ..read more

A few months ago, I came across a Reddit discussion on the subreddit r/asianamerican by the user DesignerPear3846, titled “‘Bing Chilling’ is starting to feel like the new ‘Ching Chong,’” addressing the viral meme of John Cena saying ice cream in Chinese. Although the meme originated in 2021, it has since been used in a variety of contexts as DesignerPear3846 noted, “Some Asian schoolchildren? ‘bing chilling.’ Asian products? ‘bing chilling.’ Asian celebrity? ‘bing chilling.’ An Asian-looking guy making a video? ‘bing chilling.’” “Bing chilling” is not the only instance where the punchline of ..read more

[CW: hate crimes, racism, anti-Blackness, police violence, assault, mass shootings]  As violence against Asian Americans continued to convulse our cities and reverberate worldwide in early 2021, our mainstream media stopped briefly to note one newsworthy moment that then quickly fell off our collective radar. Swept aside by the Atlanta spa shootings just over a month later, the incident was largely forgotten and rarely resurfaces today. But it has kept me up at night ever since.  On Jan. 31, 2021, a 91-year-old East Asian American man was brutally attacked in Oakland’s Chinatown. It ..read more