Celebrating AAPI Heritage Month in the Classroom

By Lara Santos

The past year has seen a sharp uptick in hate crimes against members of the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. Stop AAPI Hate’s national report documented 3,795 racially motivated attacks on AAPI people between March 2020 and February 2021. Of course, racism towards the AAPI community is hardly new—witness the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, zoo-like displays of Filipinos in 1904, the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II—but COVID-19 has brought anti-AAPI sentiment to the surface.

What can educators do to stem the tide of anti-AAPI racism? To mark AAPI Heritage Month, we asked AAPI Milken Educators to share their insights and experiences. Non-AAPI Milken Educators also told us how they’re incorporating the AAPI community into anti-racism efforts in their schools and districts. Click “Next” below for a wealth of actionable ideas.