American Schools Students Are Taught Almost Nothing About the Asian American History

 

Imagine being in school, taking a history or social studies lesson and the teacher suddenly says that you and your ancestors are just “permanent foreigners” in the country where you lived your whole life.

Even though you and your family had been living there for decades, and you consider this country your home. That is literally the state of the American Asian people who are taught close to nothing about their inheritance.

There are approximately 23 million people in the United States with Asian origins. Most of the Asian American people do not feel as they are equal to the other citizens, primarily because of racism against them and the fact and the hate towards them.

What Do They Teach Kids in Schools

Primary school kids are wondering why there are not people who look like them in their school books? Why they are not taught about the Asian American history? And why the others’ history is more important than their own?

Experts say that this gap has a huge impact on the Asian students who feel excluded from the American history, and it also impacts the other students who should be taught the importance of all people’s contributions in building the American society.

The only information Asian students find in their textbooks about their ancestors are the fact that Asian immigrants had come through Angel Island in San Francisco, unlike the European immigrants who came through Ellis Island.

The schools’ curriculum also mentions the Pearl Harbor attack, which is a surprise strike by the Japanese navy air force on an American navy base located in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Ubon this attack in December of 1941, The United States of America had declared war against the Empire of Japan and was forced to take part in the World War 2.

Asian students found it hard to look their classmates in the eye after talking about Asian history in lessons, because the Asian history would only be mentioned in a negative way or when something wrong is done by an Asian American person.

It is unlikely to be taught about the Asians’ contribution in building the United States of America, or how Asian Americans were treated in a bad way and discriminated from other citizens.

There is no mention of the fact that European Immigrants were only held for a couple of hours, whereas the Asian immigrants were being held for weeks. Furthermore, the Asian immigrants were subjected to insensitive and inappropriate interrogation. 

The Impact of This Gap

The absence of the Asian American history from the schools’ curriculum is causing confusion to the young kids because they cannot find any trace of their existance in the American history.

Even though the Asian people were a part of the American society since its early days, but there is little to nothing about them in American history. Kids are asking if their skin color is not black or white where can they identify themselves in the history.

This flaw does not only affect Asian students, but it also causes the others students to be racist against Asian citizens across the United States and to treat them in a bad and non-human way.

This theory had proven right after the Atlanta mass shooting in March of this year, which had left six Asian women dead just because of hate and racism towards Asian Americans.

Nowadays

After the unfortunate shooting in Atlanta, a number of teachers and professors had taken it upon themselves to introduce the students and the society to the actual Asian history.

Teachers are pushing for the Asian American history to be a mandatory subject in every public school across the United States.

This change would be a great opportunity for Asian students to know about their community and how they fit in the American history since its early days.

Moreover, it may be a way to reduce the racism against Asian Americans and lessen the hate crimes which might be a result of the stereotypical image implanted in students’ minds due to the current school curriculum.

Teachers are hoping to embed accurate topics about Asian history without it being extra effort on the teachers’ backs, also, they are hoping that other teachers would go deep on such topics in order to give the full story and never leave a chance for misunderstanding or eliminating important details.

School curriculum should be able to help build a strong and coherent society, but that’s not going to happen if the history of a part of the American society is eliminated.

Hate crimes will, probably, continue to rise if discrimination against Asian Americans is taught in schools for young kids which will reflect on their behavior as adults in the future if nothing is done to correct this situation.   

Written by- Leen Alrababah

Edited by – Adrija Saha