By Colleen Coveney
Dedicating the month of May to the Asian American and Pacific Islander community can help push for social change, but also proves how much still needs to be done to end marginalization and combat hate, UC Santa Barbara faculty panelists said last week.
Sociology professor Lisa Sun-Hee Park, who teaches Asian American history, said she welcomes the chance to focus on the Asian American experience but that the need to designate a specific month is a symptom of how much still needs to improve.
“I do appreciate that there’s some recognition, but that recognition assumes our invisibility as well,” said Park, who was born in Korea, raised in the United States and identifies as Korean American.
The “HFA Speaks” virtual panel, called AAPI Heritage Month: Enriching America, was hosted by the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts as part of a quarterly series to highlight the work of faculty and students. The event also featured Yunte Huang, a UCSB English professor originally from China, and Tiffany Lytle, a Ph. D. candidate in Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies who identifies at Cambodian American.
Lytle said celebrating the heritage month is not a priority for many AAPI individuals, because the focus is often on “over there” traditions rather than promoting the identities and experiences of those living in America today.
From top to bottom: UC Santa Barbara English professor Yunte Huang, sociology professor Lisa Sun-Hee Park, and Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies doctoral candidate Tiffany Lytle participated in a recent Humanities and Fine Arts panel celebrating AAPI Heritage Month.
“More and more in popular culture and events that are organized in celebration of this month, we see heritage become code for AAPI homelands, or a celebration of various ethnic identities and this idea of traditional AAPI values,” Lytle said. “It can create an outsider effect.”
Yunte Huang, who has written a book on the fictional detective Charlie Chan, said AAPI Heritage Month does offer an opportunity to discuss the recent rise in racist violence against Asian Americans and others, including a shooting earlier this month at a Korean hair salon in Dallas, and the murder of 10 Black Americans in a Buffalo, N.Y. supermarket.
Huang’s point was underscored by an incident toward the start the HFA event, during which the three faculty speakers were interrupted by a racist ‘Zoombomber’ who left a disturbing message in the chat box as well as played hate speech aloud, briefly startling the audience and panelists. The interloper was quickly ejected and the discussion proceeded without further incident, which served as a gesture of resilience.
Panelists later said they appreciated student moderator Katie Posey’s poise as she ignored the interruption, allowing them to speak on behalf of an approach to AAPI heritage that recognizes the nuances of different Asian historical experiences and identities in America .
For Lytle, this means celebrating Asian American leaders, creators, and businesses, drawing inspiration from their work and promoting it across widespread audiences to shift the American narrative.
Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies Ph. D. candidate Tiffany Lytle recommended several AAPI creative artists to during a recent Humanities and Fine Arts event titled Enriching America.
“My heroes in the Asian American communities are doing work that has truly changed me,” Lytle said. “Who are… teaching Asian American studies, teaching us how to organize, teaching us that we can advocate for our rights, teaching our histories, and giving us space to grow as individuals.”
She said her professors at UCLA, where she received an M.A. of Asian American Studies, changed her life by inspiring her to dream bigger personally and in turn give back to the community by embracing her identity and inspiring others.
On the other hand, Huang noted that it is important to be cautious when choosing Asian American leaders to idolize, as not everyone promotes values which are positive and uplifting in the AAPI community. For example, he said Chinese American former Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao stood alongside former President Trump as he empathized with white supremacist individuals who spread hate in Charlottesville in 2017.
Blatantly racist violence has been more common since Trump’s election, the Zoom audience heard, but panelist Lisa Park urged the audience to look at the long-term trajectory of history and remember that American history is rooted in racial violence.
“What I’m experiencing today as I think about this, it’s not just a singular moment that has a beginning and an end, it feels like a history that flows,” she said.
Park also noted that hope can be found and slow change does occur. She cited the UCSB Pan Asian Network (PAN) that in 2019 presented a list of demands to the university’s administration outlining action items to increase Asian community members’ wellbeing on campus. The group represents a vast cross-section of the UCSB community and ultimately met with Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Margaret Klawunn to set specific goals.
“It was kind of a remarkable moment to see that level of leadership that was collaborative which was persistent and really effective,” Park said.
In order to move support of the AAPI community beyond the symbolism of a month in May, the speakers urged the audience to avoid labels that put people in predefined boxes and instead focus on listening and learning about specific individuals’ experiences.
“Labels pin you down,” Huang said. “Labels are mostly for others.”
Lytle also gave a detailed list of Asian American artists and creators she recommends whose work exemplifies AAPI excellence.
Colleen Coveney is a fourth-year UC Santa Barbara student majoring in Psychology and Brain Sciences. She is a Web and Social Media Intern for the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts.