Asian american voices part 1

Over the past year and a half, attacks on Asian Americans have drastically risen. According to NBC News, there were over 3,800 anti-Asian racist incidents in March 2020 to February 28, 2021, most of which were against elderly Asian people. Many of these attacks have been fueled by hateful rhetoric, particularly regarding the coronavirus, from individuals such as our last president, calling the virus a “Chinese virus” and “kung flu.” To address this growing hate, Jezuba decided to host an Asian American Voices series, not only to bring awareness to contemporary issues faced by AAPI individuals but also to teach about the history of discrimination against Asian people within the United States.  

​In our first seminar of the program, we had Edward Tepporn, the Executive Director at the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, talk about the experiences of Asian immigrants within America. Through the difficult yet important messages that he described to the attendees, he hopes to educate about and preserve the Angel Island historical sites. 

US history has been riddled with anti-Asian sentiment, particularly with regards to immigrants from Asia. For example, the Chinese Exclusion act of 1882 prohibited the immigration of most Chinese people to the United States. In 1942, due to fear and paranoia about US military secrets being discovered by Japanese spies, more than a hundred thousand Japanese Americans were incarcerated and sent to concentration camps, where they were subject to deplorable living conditions. Many Asian people who sought to immigrate to the United States were detained, deported, or subjected to invasive searches. Angel Island had an immigration station which operated between 1910 and 1940, and over 500,000 immigrants from 80 countries passed through it. Many of the immigrants were of Asian origin. Edward described how Asian immigrants received much harsher treatment than immigrants from Europe. From those who were able to overcome this treatment and were admitted to the US, Edward highlighted some of the most famous immigrants and their descendants and described their contributions to the United States. 

This history can be connected to the present, where unfortunately, many similar anti-Asian sentiments still exist. Edward talked about his own personal experiences dealing with racism, and expanded by talking about similar experiences for many Asian Americans, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. He suggested strategies for when someone is experiencing or witnessing anti-Asian hate. After the presentation, there were many questions asked by the audience and there was a further discussion with the audience.

Overall, the seminar was able to bring to light a lot of historic and current issues faced by the Asian American community within America, and generated a lot of valuable discussion. One attendee says, “Thank you for organizing the zoom meeting to learn and connect. I am grateful. I learned so much about Angel Island that I never knew.” At Jezuba, we want to make sure that everyone’s voices are heard. Through this webinar and through future events, we hope that our Asian American Voices series will educate and bring awareness towards these issues, and strive for a better future that is rid of discrimination. Thanks again to Edward Tepporn and the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation for their time and for educating us on our history. More information can be found on their foundation at this link: www.aiisf.org.

We plan on hosting the next two parts of our Asian American Voices series on May 8th (Caring for Our Community) and May 20th (Empowering Through Advocacy). We hope that you attend as we further the discussion of Asian American people.

Gavin Cartier
​Content Strategists