This May, in addition to Affordable Housing Month, East Bay Housing Organizations honors Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage and History.
We proudly acknowledge and embrace the diversity within our membership and the larger AANHPI community. As we celebrate the brilliant contributions of AANHPI individuals and community activism, rooted and cultivated in the Bay Area, we name the resilience carried through generations, woven into the complex fabrics of immigration, assimilation, and belonging today.
In the wake of heightened trauma and violence toward the AANHPI community over the past few years, we center our activism around belonging, solidarity, healing, and joy. Below you will find a list of resources to help educate and uplift.
We hope you will join us to close out both AANHPI Heritage Month and Affordable Housing Month by listening to, and uplifting ourselves, one another, and our communities in this work towards a more just society.
In community,
— Megan Nguyen, Policy Associate and Kate Young, Membership & Communications Associate
Who is AANHPI?
“Are You “AAPI” or “Asian American”? It’s Complicated” – community members explore identity labels.
The label of AANHPI is a broad and ambitious term, accounting for a population of over 24 million people in the U.S. alone, and consisting of over 50 distinct racial and ethnic groups. Variations of the acronym have been proposed by activists and academics to be more inclusive of often overlooked groups such as South Asians, Southeast Americans, and Native Hawaiians, while others express concern over erasure and prefer not to be grouped into such broad terms altogether. Nonetheless, AANHPI and other labels were created to promote solidarity and have been used as means to unite communities.
Our work towards housing and racial justice demands that we confront the homogenous narrative surrounding the AANHPI community, and stresses the importance for policymakers and advocates to disaggregate data in the fight towards housing justice, to meet each group’s specific needs within the larger AANHPI community.
The truth is that our lives have also been characterized by interdependence, mutuality and community. But those stories have been forgotten, or hidden. Solidarity defined Asian Pacific America before its beginning, and solidarity, too, is our future.
– Jeff Chang, Kana Hammon, Renee Tajima-Peña, The May 18th Project (2022)
Resources and Recommendations
📚📖 – To Read
- “The Path to Housing Inequality” – section from EBHO’s Study Room, documenting the origins of racial inequality and housing discrimination in the Bay Area. Including the story of how Chinese Railroad Workers Staged the Era’s Largest Labor Strike.
- “Crisis to Impact: Reflecting on a Decade of Housing Counseling Services in Asian American Communities”, National Coalition of Asian Pacific American Community Development (National CAPACD) and UCLA.
- The story behind Asian Pacific American Heritage, and why it’s celebrated in May.
🎥🍿 – To Watch
- Poem: When We Dream a New America – since the Chinese Exclusion Act made Chinese laborers “America’s first undocumented”, Asian Americans have helped to dream a new America.
- Are You “AAPI” or “Asian American”? It’s Complicated – hear from South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Pacific Islander voices exploring identity labels, culture, and ethnic studies.
🌸✊ – Culture, Community & Care
- May 19th Project – named after the shared birthday of activist and Nisei incarceree Yuri Kochiyama and civil rights activist Malcolm X. The May 19th Project celebrates resilience, power and solidarity within AANHPI communities and beyond.
- Digital Healing & Wellness Hub – resources to educate and heal, curated by AAPI Women Lead.