Dear Commissioner Morath,

My name is Ayne Park. I’m a 16-year-old Korean-American living in Dallas, Texas. I urge you to mandate teaching Asian American Pacific Islander history in all Texas secondary schools.

Teaching Asian American history cannot stop at token inclusion of the Chinese Exclusion Act and Japanese Internment. 

Chinese workers were omitted from the photograph commemorating the completion of the first transcontinental railroad despite the fact that they were 90% of the workforce that built its western half. While we honor Cesar Chaves every year, Larry Itliong, the Filipino activist who began the Delano Grape Strike, is largely forgotten. While we celebrate Title IX, we do not remember Patsy Mink, the Hawaiian congresswoman of Japanese descent who authored it. These are not innocent oversights. AAPI achievements and sacrifices have been intentionally and systematically blotted out from the American consciousness for centuries.

Anti-Asian hate has much deeper roots than Covid 19. The pandemic simply uncovered the systemic failure of our education system to teach about AAPI in America. Despite the census reporting that Asian Americans are the fastest-growing minority group in Texas, numbering about 2 million, they remain perpetual foreigners in many minds. 

Combating racist stereotypes, discrimination, and xenophobia cannot wait any longer, and it must start with educating the young generation. Only by adding Asian American history to our systems can we create a society that is more united and compassionate to each other. Texas students of all races and ethnicities must learn Asian American history in order to have a well-rounded understanding of ourselves.

We must teach Asian American Pacific Islander history in Texas public school curriculums. American history without Asian American history is not complete.

I thank you in advance for your consideration and action.

Sincerely,

Ayne Park