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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Back in 1990, the first President Bush declared May Asian American Heritage Month. Two years later, the name got expanded to Asian and Pacific American Heritage Month. Today, we use the initials AAPI for Asian American and Pacific Islander. Today, in the midst of the massive spike in anti-Asian American hate crimes in New York and elsewhere, some AAPI New Yorkers are trying to address the problem with systemic change that includes more and better education about those heritages.

Now, last week, a bill was introduced in the New York State Legislature that would require public elementary and high schools to provide instruction in Asian-American history and civic impact. It's one of the few bills circulating throughout the country that would do similar things and also comes at the same time that more Republicans are pushing back on this idea of race and racism, being taught more explicitly in school period.

With me now is the lead sponsor of the New York bill, John Liu, New York State Senator from Northeast Queens. He is Chair of the New York City Education Committee in the State Senate. As many of you will remember, he is the former New York City Comptroller. Hi, Senator Liu. Welcome back to WNYC.

Senator John Liu: Good to be on, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: AAPI listeners, we want to invite you to have a little history shout-out as part of this segment. You're invited right now to call in and tell us briefly about anything from your background's heritage that isn't routinely taught in elementary school or even in high school history classes, but that you think should be, pick any one, 646-435-7280. 646-435-7280.

Again, AAPI listeners, we want to invite you to have a little history shout-out as part of this segment. You're invited right now to call in and tell us briefly about anything from your background's heritage that isn't routinely taught in K through 12, but that you think should be. 646-435-7280. 646-435-7280. Senator Liu, as some calls are coming in, as someone who grew up in the city, what was your experience learning about Asian-American history in elementary through high school?

Senator John Liu: It was very quick. Your invitation to callers to call in with their own experiences that were not taught or learned in New York City public schools, it's pretty much everything, because there was so little Asian-American history, which is part of American history, that has been taught in our schools. That was true when I was in public school a long time ago at this point, and unfortunately, it's still largely true today, where, at most, you might have within a 2-inch-thick American textbook, you might have one paragraph about the building of the transcontinental railroad. That's pretty much it. That's Asian-American history for you.

Brian Lehrer: Do you want to come out and play in the way that I'm inviting the callers and give us one thing in particular that you might want to see included in future education?

Senator John Liu: I think education in general, particularly pre-university years, needs to have a more holistic view of history, and not history always through a Western lens or a white lens, to be frank, but to really include different racial and cultural experiences. The onslaught of hate that we have seen against Asian Americans this past year coincidental to the COVID-19 crisis, this hate has been routed, as all hate is, in ignorance and fear, fear of seeing so many people dying from COVID, people losing jobs, economic turmoil, health pandemic, and people needing some kind of rationale or explanation, this fear and ignorance of the unknown will result in hate.

It is an absolute lack of understanding of the Asian-American experience that has clearly contributed to the ignorance and ultimately the hate that Asian Americans have faced. In order to really fix this in the long term, we need to raise the level of awareness and education about what the Asian-American experience has been so that we can overcome this perpetual foreigner syndrome, where, even in 2021, it's still so hard for some people to believe that Asians can be actual real Americans and not foreigners, and that we're not this model minority myth that sometimes the media and government institutions often put us out to be.

Brian Lehrer: It's a great point that you don't have to teach hate explicitly for hate to develop, sometimes by omission comes the void through which whatever stereotypes people want to manifest on others has room to develop. Any one story you want to put in there? What do you want to say in the curriculum?

Senator John Liu: There are so many things I would like to put in the curriculum.

I think the most important one that's more modern, apart from the transcontinental railroad, the various exclusion acts against immigrants from Asian nations to the internment of Japanese Americans in prison camps during World War II, where Japanese Americans were seen as, I guess, the only enemies of the state, when, in fact, there were other nations involved, the other nations that America was fighting against, but more modern times, which actually is decades ago at this point, is the case of Vincent Chin, Vincent Chin, a Chinese American auto worker in Detroit, who was clubbed to death with baseball bats by two men who had been recently laid off from an auto factory.

Those two men blamed Vincent Chin, a Chinese American for the rising success of Japan, which, ultimately, they said led to their firings from their US auto factory. Vincent Chin was scapegoated for these two men losing their jobs, and they sought fit to club him to death with baseball bats.

That was atrocious enough, but I would say what's even more horrific was the government response to that brutal killing, that didn't assign any prison time to these killers and, in fact, fined them $3,000, $3,000 for violently beating a man to death. How is that even acceptable? That was really a rallying cry in modern Asian-American history, where Asian Americans got together and said, "Look, this is a problem. This is a problem that we're not even viewed as being part of the civil rights movement or even accorded any kind of civil rights, which is what that case evoked." The killing of Vincent Chin clearly has to be part of American history.

Even more recently, we have the scapegoating of Asian Americans, specifically, South Asians in the aftermath of 9/11. Many other instances of American history that students growing up in our public schools should at least have exposure to.

Brian Lehrer: John in Manhattan, you're on WNYC with State Senator John Liu. Hi, John.

John: Hi, Senator. Good to be on the air, Brian. I just want to say, one of the things that I would like to talk about and that is, I never learned that the United States colonized the Philippines. I'm Filipino, and I never learned about that history, I never really understood what that relationship was like, even though my family experienced, obviously, the effects of colonialism and how it's shaped our country and shaped our relationship with the Philippines. I think, in large part also, I think about this in COVID, during COVID, because Filipino nurses on the brunt of deaths in the US, and they've been affected for an outsize amount.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, from COVID.

John: Yes, from COVID, and I think that it's contingent upon the Americans to understand why Filipino nurses represent such a leading edge of the workforce, and a large part of that is because of the criminal histories between the Philippines and the US.

Brian Lehrer: John, thank you so much. What we have--

Senator John Liu: I might add-

Brian Lehrer: Go ahead, John.

Senator John Liu: -Filipino nurses, when they first started coming to the United States and in significant numbers, in large part because of what John mentioned, they also faced a tremendous amount of discrimination, including at hospitals and health institutions right here in New York.

Brian Lehrer: Justice in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hello, Justice.

Justice: Oh, hi, Brian, and Senator Liu. Thank you for talking about this. It's really, I think, imperative to include the tax cuts through a memorandum in history class, and I think it would be great also to talk about Grace Lee Boggs. She's a civil rights activist. Those two, just off the bat.

Brian Lehrer: You want to go another step on each, who was she?

Justice: Oh, briefly, Boggs, our civil rights activists.

Senator John Liu: Someone who really, really bridged the gap between the Asian-American and African-American communities.

Brian Lehrer: The Taft–Katsura Act, what was that, Justice?

Justice: Memorandum?

Brian Lehrer: Memorandum. Sorry, I'm unfamiliar with it, I admit.

Senator John Liu: That's because Brian grew up in New York City Public Schools.

Brian Lehrer: It's true, I did. In your district.

Justice: She's really important to include because it had a great impact on the course of history and people's lives. I just want to see that and think is really important, so that everyone actually looks it up, and actually there is a site where it actually exists online. You can actually see the original document.

Brian Lehrer: Justice, thank you so much. Senator, anything to add to her?

Senator John Liu: No, I think Justice is absolutely right. The memorandum that she speaks about, I don't know about it either. I'm going to have to look it up, and that's the problem. I never liked you, Brian. I never got any of this when I was growing up K through 12 in New York City Public Schools. It was only after I became involved in the community and started running for office that I started learning much, much more about Asian-American history, but it shouldn't be like that.

Brian Lehrer: From Wikipedia, from our crack producer staff, who's on it, from Wikipedia, "The Taft–Katsura Memorandum was in 1905 discussion between senior leaders of Japan and the United States regarding the positions of the two nations in greater East Asian affairs, especially regarding the status of Korea and the Philippines in the aftermath of Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese war. The memorandum was not classified as a secret, but no scholar noticed it in the archives until 1924." At least that's the Wikipedia version, which means it might even be true. Here is another Filipino American calling in, and this time from Des Moines, Betty, you're on WNYC. Hi, there?

Betty: Yes, Betty. This is Betty. I want to continue very important is during World War II, we were a US territory. We fought side by side with the Americans. We had the death March and the death March there were American soldiers that were more than 10,000, and the Filipino soldiers were more than 60,000.

These were prisoners of war, and then during the World War II President Roosevelt declared that the armed forces of the Philippines, the Army-Navy Scouts, they will be called the USAFFE, United States Armed Forces, in the Far East, but when we won the war, when [unintelligible 00:13:20] Pearl Harbor and 1946 independence, they quietly rescinded the order of Roosevelt that because in the USAFFE the order was, all the USAFFE members, the Filipino, will be granted the same as United States veterans' benefits.

That was never done because it was rescinded quietly by Congress. There is a Congress journal act. I forgot the number of that. This is why the Filipino Americans who became immigrants and citizens here were always lobbying, and little by little, they were recognized, but this was not really completely.

Then also when the war was over, the Japanese used the comfort women for the Japanese during the war. That was also denied. The other thing is, the prisoners of war, there were American prisoners of war. Also if you see all these movies, you will see that Filipinos and Americans during World War II were doing a good job, the same as the Navajo Code Talkers, that they used, et cetera. A lot of movies are like that. There is a Bataan Memorial Day on April 9, which is officially recognized, and if you go to Santa Fe and in Albuquerque, there is always a Bataan Memorial celebration, and mostly the Filipinos are there cooking and giving food.

Brian Lehrer: Betty, thank you so, so much. Since you mentioned it, it just so happens that Don from Albuquerque is calling in, they listened to this little New York radio show from all over the place we're learning this hour. Don, we're almost at a time in the segment. Thank you so much for calling in from Albuquerque today. What can you tell us in about 30 seconds?

Don: As the previous caller, Betty, just said, we have a strong ally in Asia, in the Philippine country, and with the South China Sea issue with the country of China, trying to impose itself over a large portion of South China Sea, we need to strengthen our relations with the Philippines. We need to help provide them with vaccination. I have many friends who are physicians in the Philippines, I'm a physician in the United States. I go on medical missions every year to the Philippines. My colleagues and my countrymen there are suffering greatly, and we really need to help provide vaccination in the Philippines.

Brian Lehrer: Don, thank you very much. We've gotten calls this hour on the shelf from Nepal, South Africa, Des Moines, and Albuquerque, oh, and Brooklyn in Queens.

Senator John Liu: Brian, may I just say quickly that the last couple of callers illustrate the fact that foreign policy in this country affects Asian Americans very deeply.

Brian Lehrer: Yes.

Senator John Liu: You look at what the former president continued to call the China virus or the kung flu that clearly had an impact on Asian Americans right here, whether or not they were from China.

Brian Lehrer: In our last couple of minutes, your bill to include Asian American Pacific Islander, as well history in elementary and high school in New York State comes at the same time as some conservatives are up in arms about the idea of teaching the 1619 Project, for example, a critical race theory, in schools, critical race theory, the academic framework that examines how policies and the law perpetuates systemic racism. The opponents argue that teaching students to see history and politics through a racial lens will make them too aware of race, which is antithetical to progress, if we're working toward a really equal system, that's their argument. Have you received any push-back on your bill along those lines?

Senator John Liu: There is always push-back against any kind of significant bill. The point here is that much of the history that our kids are taught are viewed through a racial lens. They claim that there's not been a racial lens itself is proof that there has been a racial lens, and that's been a singular lens, primarily through a Caucasian lens. You look at the authors of the books that our kids read. It's very one-sided.

What we're trying to do is to have our kids see history through multiple lenses so that they can get a complete picture as opposed to a myopic view of history. Only then can we start to chip away at, what you call, the systemic racism, which I agree with, and the continuation of the ignorance, which ultimately leads to fear and discrimination bias and hate. To get at those evils, we need to erase the underlying ignorance. That is true education.

Brian Lehrer: State Senator John Liu of Queens, Chair of the State Senate New York City Education Committee, we always appreciate you coming on. Keep it up.

Senator John Liu: Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC.

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