Amplifying Southeast Asian American Community Organizers and Organizations in the Asian American, Native American, and Pacific Islander–Serving Institution Narrative

• In Event: Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander–Serving Institutions: Honoring the Past, Examining the Present, and Imaging the Future

Abstract

Southeast Asian Americans (SEAAs) are often invoked in discussions about disparities within the Asian American population in higher education but research rarely centers on their experiences and voices (Kiang, 2004). One such topic is Asian American and Native American Pacific Islanders –Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs). In recent publications and declarations about AANAPISIs (see, Park & Chang, 2010; Teranishi & Kim, 2017; Yang, 2017), the crucial voice of SEAA community organizers and organizations are largely omitted. In her opening keynote remarks addressing the inaugural Southeast Asia Resource Action Center’s (SEARAC) Moving Mountains community summit, KaYing Yang, long time civil rights organizer, activist, and former executive director of SEARAC shared, “History books don’t talk about us [Southeast Asian Americans]. History books only talk about the policy; they don’t talk about the people behind the policy. I witnessed SEARAC doing great things” (Yang, 2017). After listing a few ways SEARAC and Southeast Asian Americans contributed to educational equity policies, Yang continued, “Your data, your lived experiences moved the conversation. If not for those testimonies…AANAPISIs wouldn’t exist today” (Yang, 2017). The purpose of this paper is to amplify the voices and experiences of SEAA community organizers and organizations in the efforts to develop, pass, and implement AANAPISI legislation. I borrow the term “amplify” (Diniz-Pereira, 2005) to amplify “voices that are “often unheard, marginalized, and ignored by the systems and structures that hold inequality in place” (Wong, 2011, p. 140).
This paper is drawn from two data sources: archival research and oral interviews with key actors. First, I visited the SEARAC Washington, DC office and University of California – Irvine’s Southeast Asian archives to cull through SEARAC archival documents, such as board of director’s meetings materials, policy priorities, training materials, publications, records of activities and events, staff notes, and other materials. Second, I interviewed key individuals who worked at SEARAC or served on their board of directors between 1999 and 2008 and actively worked on AANAPISI efforts. These individuals included former SEARAC executive directors, education policy advisors, and board of directors. I also conducted snowball sampling with these individuals to identify others who were integral to the effort but were not listed within the culled documents.
Preliminary findings suggest that SEARAC leadership, staff, and other supporters played key roles in the larger AANAPISI story. First, SEARAC staff members provided key testimonies to important policymakers and community leaders that highlight the need for an Asian American Pacific Islander–serving institution designation. Second, SEARAC led the creation of and supported the infrastructure needed to ensure the inclusion of AAPIs, including Southeast Asian Americans, in national education equity conversations. After the passing of AANAPISI legislation, SEARAC continued its investment in support AANAPISIs and education advocacy at large. Although this work holds scholarly significance in a few ways, I discuss one avenue due to limited space. This paper demonstrates the importance of community-based organizations in the development, passage, and implementation of national educational equity policies, which disrupts singular stories of how educational policies come to be.

Author

• Jacqueline Mac, Northern Illinois University
  Presenting Author