Angelie Chong recalls walking across the street in a neighborhood with her children when a woman slowed down her car to shout something and made "slanted eyes" with her fingers. "It took me a few seconds to process what just happened and I don't think my children quite processed it at the time," Angelie remembers. This was during the pandemic when there was a significant rise in anti-Asian violence, racism, and microaggressions. Around the same time, Angelie heard that New Jersey passed a bill requiring Asian American history in K-12 schools and it became very clear to her that education was the solution. She reached out to the NJ chapter of Make Us Visible, who was responsible for the bill, and the Washington chapter was born. Angelie volunteers her time as Director of the Washington chapter, while working full-time as an attorney.
The mission of Make Us Visible (MUV), Angelie explains, is to recognize that,
"Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander (AA&NH/PI) history is American history...we want to ensure that this content is integrated in the existing frameworks of U.S. history classes, Washington state history classes...so that that's part of the education."
MUV emphasizes the importance of integrating this with history that is already being taught, rather than creating a whole new curriculum since there are lots of resources, including lesson plans, already available. In addition to legislation, MUV also provides education on these resources, including professional development opportunities for teachers in partnership with the Asian American Education Project (with Clock Hours).
"Many teachers, even if they're not AA&NH/PI, especially if they're not, want access to resources...They want to feel supported and they do want policy because they want to teach this where we live, in an area that's very diverse."
Make Us Visible has been a grass roots, community driven effort, with broad support and involvement from the community and students especially, who help with organizing and creating visibility.
Currently, MUV Washington legislative effort through SB5574 is scheduled for a hearing in front of the Early Learning & K-12 Committee on Tuesday, February 18th. The bill is sponsored by Washington state Senators T'wina Nobles (lead) and Yasmin Trudeau (second), along with a dozen other Senators. Succeeding this year feels especially important since last year's effort with SB 6314 stalled, and because of the current political state of the country. With all of the attacks on DEI at the federal level, Angelie explains, local action is more important than ever. She talks about why T'wina Nobles is sponsoring the bill,
"She listened and responded to community concerns. She knows the big picture of what's going in this country, with all the attacks on diversity and inclusion. I think our local leaders need to step up. We need this in law now. We need this to protect our communities and ensure that we have this included in K-12."
Angelie is asking all of us to take urgent action as soon as possible to support SB 5574. MUV provides a legislative toolkit with action steps to take, which you can view here.
Testify at the Senate Education Committee hearing on Tuesday, 2/18 at 8:00am PT in person or virtually. They provide a template and samples.
If testifying is not feasible, you can show your support by spending 1-minute signing in PRO at the Committee Sign-in Legislative record.
If your organization would like to support the effort, you can do so by signing on to the letter to support SB 5574 to the WA legislature here. Thank you for joining Cultures Connecting in this important advocacy work.