On January 18, 2022, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy (D) signed two historic pieces of legislation that mandated the teaching of Asian American history in public school K-12 curricula. NJ is the second state to do so after Illinois.
Leading the advocacy efforts to adopt a more inclusive curriculum was Make Us Visible NJ, a coalition of students, parents, and educators founded by Dr. Kani Ilangovan. For months, members of the organization met with legislators, organized rallies, and wrote an open letter with over 1,500 signatures expressing the importance of Asian American visibility in education.
I got the chance to sit down with Dr. Ilangovan, a second-generation Indian American parent. We shared similar experiences growing up. “I went to a school where I was one of the only Asian kids. I remember when we would draw pictures of ourselves, I would always use a peach crayon because I did not want to emphasize my differences with my classmates,” Ilangovan said.
“I brought my kids to the West Windsor-Plainsboro School District, where 70% of the student body is Asian. I told my kids that story, and luckily my kids always drew themselves with the brown crayon. But when I went to back-to-school night and saw that despite the large population of Asian students, most of the kids with Indian names were still drawing themselves with the peach crayon.
“That was heartbreaking to me; even though there were so many kids that look like them, they still felt that they had to appear White, and I think that’s because they’re not seen in the curriculum that they are taught. They don’t read about people like them. They don’t know their history, just like I didn’t when I was growing up, and if our stories are not taught, we will continue to be invisible.”
In addition to bill S4021, which declares an AAPI curriculum requirement, bill S3764 establishes a 21-member Commission for Asian American Heritage in the NJ Department of Education that works to “infuse the history of Asian Americans into the social studies curriculum in order to provide an accurate, complete, and inclusive history.”
“I’m confident that the bill will make future generations of Asian Americans feel a greater sense of pride and belonging,” Ilangovan said. “There’s a saying, ‘If you don’t have a seat at the table, then you’re probably on the menu.’ This bill secures us [Asian Americans] that seat at the table.”
The effects of New Jersey and Illinois’ historic AAPI curriculum mandates have rippled across the country, with advocates in Connecticut, Florida, Ohio, New York, and other states starting to lobby for more inclusive curriculum amendments in their home states.
“We have a historic opportunity to do this because of what’s happening in our country. One in three AAPI parents report their children have faced some form of racism in school, and these acts of hatred take an enormous toll, both physically and mentally, on our children and communities,” Ilangovan explains. “We hear from our children about this fear that overtakes them, the nightmares they have that rob them of their energy, the hypervigilance that saps their playfulness, that emotional numbing that robs their childhood.”
Ilangovan urges us, as Asian American students, to continue the fight for a more “thoughtfully comprehensive school curriculum and environment.” She explains, “We, parents, helped get the bill passed, but we don’t go to school with you guys, so it’s really up to the students and teachers to make sure that the diverse history of Asian America is accounted for in school.
“As students, it’s not easy to dismiss your voice, so you must make it heard.”