Updates on efforts advocating for the Asian American community around the nation and on Stanford campus

Rhode Island has become the fourth state to require AAPI history in its schools, starting in the 2023-24 school year. Elementary and secondary schools have been directed to teach about the “history and culture of Native Hawaiians, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.” (NBC News)

McKinsey released a new study on “Asian American workers: Diverse outcomes and hidden challenges.” Some key findings are that 8.8 million Asian American workers are split evenly across three main ethnic subgroups: East Asian, Southeast Asian, and South Asian. While there is high Asian American representation in “higher-wage technical fields such as software development and computer programming”,” they are also “overrepresented in low-paying occupations such as manicurists and skin care specialists, cooks, and sewing-machine operators.” Some subgroups reveal significant pockets of poverty. And despite filling many corporate jobs, Asian Americans’ presence drops off significantly at senior levels, particularly for Asian American women. (McKinsey, NBC News)

Congratulations to Save Cantonese on their recent campaign win!! Thanks to their advocacy work, 3 Cantonese classes will be offered at Stanford, including one which finally fulfills the language requirement, putting Cantonese on equal footing with other languages taught on campus. If you know any current Stanford Students, make sure they know to enroll in Cantonese classes and fill out this survey.

A number of alumni, including SAPAAC board member Jacob Wang ’72, Gloria Saito ’73, Lee Salisbury ’73 and Edwin Carlos ’20, shared about “Okada House and the Asian American Experience at Stanford” at a September 8 event organized with the Stanford Historical Society. Okada is the Asian American theme dorm at Stanford.

As we begin a new school year at Stanford, here is a summary of op-eds our Advocacy & Education committee has put out in each of the past four quarters:

“Stanford’s history is inextricably linked with Asian American history” (Stanford Daily) by Doug Chan ’76, Kevin Fan Hsu ’09, MS ’11, Katie Gee Salisbury ’07, Jacob Wang ’72 and Connie Young Yu.

“Beyond Good Intentions: Support Asian American Studies Now” (Stanford Daily) by Hope Nakamura ‘83

“Stanford should get serious about building Asian American Studies” (Stanford Daily) by Victoria Yee ’13 and Thuy-Van (Tina) Hang ‘12

What is Stanford’s responsibility in a time of racial reckoning? (Stanford Daily) by Judy Tzu-Chun Wu ’92 M.A. ’93 Ph.D. ’98

If you are interested in joining SAPAAC’s committee on Asian American Studies to communicate the ongoing need for this program and engage in storytelling, or if you have updates to suggest to our Advocacy & Education corner, please reach out to Kevin, Risa, Hope and Crystal.

khsu@, risa.shimoda@, hnakamura@ and zheng.crystal@ stanfordalumni.org