When speaking on American history, what do you think of? Is it George Washington, The Declaration of Independence, Abraham Lincoln, white men with wigs? We rarely acknowledge the Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders that have played a major role in American history. So many topics to go into depth with such as The Bellingham Riots , Japanese internment camps during WWII, and The Delano Grape Strike. Seeing somebody who looks like you, or who is in the same community as you, is comforting, but most of the time Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) can’t relate or don’t have their heritage recognized. This is all about to change. Recently, New Jersey became the second state to require the teaching of Asian American history in schools.

 Democratic Governor Phil Murphy signed this bill into law mandating the teaching of AAPI history in all public schools in New Jersey. This will aid in the inclusion of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders into American History which is well deserved, as they play a valuable role in history. It is shocking that this wasn’t mandated in all public school systems sooner. Kani Ilangovan is the founder of Make Us Visible New Jersey a group that supports the inclusivity of AAPI. Ilangovan touched on the disheartening racial attacks on Asian Americans during the pandemic and said that “education is the best antidote to hate”. While it is upsetting that this wasn’t mandated in American history throughout grades K-12 earlier and AAPI had to be subjected to violence for acknowledgement to occur, it is a huge step for AAPI and recognition of different ethnic groups. 

New Jersey follows Illinois, which was the first state to mandate this in the public school curriculum. Illinois Governor J.B Pritzer had signed the bill 5 months earlier. As a result of these states taking action, other states have started pushing for Asian American History to be taught in school, such as Michigan. Advocacy groups around the United States have high hopes that more and more states will require AAPI history to be taught in school because of the benefits and inclusion it will bring to public schools. Make Us Visible has members from across the board. Ranging from Florida and Georgia, to Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. After the pandemic which was so frightening for AAPI because of the violence and hatred directed toward them, this new law brings hope and ambition for future improvements for different ethnic groups that are discriminated against in the United States.