A Third World Celebration of APA Heritage Month

Sure, it's great to have a national commemorative month of one's own.  But one APA writer finds it satisfying to think of May as more than just "Me Month".

By Sam Cacas, AAV Contributing Editor

Out of all the months of the year, May would seem to be the perfect month to celebrate Asian Pacific American (APA) heritage. Historically, it is the month in which the first Asian arrived on American soil, and in which Chinese-American railroad workers in the West finished building the railroads. But May is also the month in which the African-American visionary Malcolm X was born, the time of the Latino celebration known as Cinco de Mayo, and the birthday of the Latin American leader Sandino. As such, it is time that APAs should celebrate not only their own distinct heritages, histories, and contributions, but also their legacy of unity with other people of color.

So what does Malcolm X have to do with APA history? some might ask.

The answer might be found in the words of his close friend and devout follower, Yuri Kochiyama, a Japanese-American community activist and resident of Harlem, and member of the Organization of Afro-American Unity who was at his side when he was gunned down in 1965.  At a speech delivered at San Francisco State University for the African/Asian Round Table, on October 1, 1997, Kochiyama recalled: "In June, 1964, Malcolm met with Japanese atom-bomb victims who came to New York for plastic surgery and toured the U.S. speaking out against nuclear proliferation. They were deeply impressed by Malcolm's graciousness and openness. Malcolm also spoke of his admiration for Mao Tse-Tung and his support for Vietnam's struggle, which he saw as the struggle of the whole Third World."

Her memories of Malcolm X's connection to Asian community concerns are just a few among countless historical examples of APAs and other people of color speaking up for each other that we should also commemorate during APA Heritage month. Some other examples:

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was the first civil rights group to strongly oppose the incarceration of Japanese Americans in the West Coast during World War II.  Native Americans in Arizona who empathized with the plight of Japanese Americans in the concentration camps taught the inmates farming methods and survival techniques for the duration of their incarceration.

Beginning in January 1969, college campuses from New York to California were rocked by a movement later known as the Third World Strike in which APA, African American, Latino American and Native American students and teachers successfully demanded that institutions of higher learning create and develop ethnic studies courses.

APA activists have supported the Wounded Knee struggle of Native Americans, Dr. Martin Luther King's infamous "March on Washington" demonstration in 1963, and Puerto Rican independistas in the U.S. during the 1950s and 1960s.

Latino and Latino American contract workers in the Alaskan canneries united with APA coworkers against oppressive labor conditions during the 1910s.

In the 1950s, the charismatic and widely acclaimed African American leader Paul Robeson declared at a New York City rally against the Korean War: "It would be foolish for African Americans to fight against their Asian brothers." He urged African Americans to resist being drafted and said that "the place for the Negro people to fight for their freedom is home."

During the 1968 urban riots nationwide, Mao Tse-Tung, leader of the then-emerging People's Republic of China, stated: "I hereby express resolute support for the just struggle of the Black people in the United States." It was during that same period that Mao sent thousands of Chinese workers to help construct railroads between Zambia and Tanzania in East Africa.

These and other examples of racial solidarity prove that the history and struggles of people of color are inextricably linked together. These significant instances of unity prove that no racial group--including APAs, who still make up far less than 10% of the U.S. population--can expect to make any gains in addressing their concerns without the support of people of other races.  And during the month in which America celebrates APA culture and history, such examples should be especially remembered and recognized as history lessons for future application by us all.