Dear Friends and Allies, Thank you for your tremendous advocacy! We are so grateful to be allied with you. Governor Phil Murphy signed the AAPI Curriculum bill and the Commission on Asian American Heritage in the Department of Education (DOE) bill into law! We have made history together! AAPI inclusive curriculum is now a required part of NJ public school education. We are grateful to Governor Murphy for being a wonderful advocate for the AAPI Community.
We will be in touch with more details about commemorating this historical event soon.
We are deeply grateful to the legislators who introduced these historic bills! Senator Vin Gopal, Assemblymember Raj Mukherji, and Senator Gordon Johnson! We owe thanks to so many people and you can read more about them here.
The youth will be having a meeting in a week, if you know of any youth who would be interested in participating, please ask them to fill out the Get Involved form so we can forward the invitation to them directly. We will also be posting the invitation on Facebook.
We will be doing a big push to celebrate AAPI Heritage Month in May statewide. We are very grateful to Make Us Visible NJ Board Member and NJ Educator Sima Kumar for creating this fantastic resource guide with Tips for Celebrating AAPI Heritage Month. If you have resources you would like to share, would you please send them to makeusvisiblenj@gmail.com We are also planning a coalition meeting to discuss the next steps in a few weeks.
There are over 600 school districts in NJ. Each district is like its own kingdom. There is not a centralized curriculum. Each district creates its own curriculum. So we need to advocate at each individual school district. If you are willing to be the representative for your school district and/or would like to attend the upcoming coalition meeting, please fill out this Get Involved form and we will be in contact with you soon.
We ask you to be visible and vocal. Please attend your school board meetings and bring friends and students with you, if possible, and ask what your school will be doing at each grade level to celebrate AAPI Heritage Month in May. Please ask your school librarians what they will be doing to celebrate AAPI Heritage Month in May. Hopefully, you will be met with warmth and kindness. If not, please don’t be discouraged. Here is some good advice to encourage you in your efforts and to persevere. You can share the resource guide with them if they are open to suggestions on how to celebrate AAPI Heritage Month.
Please spread the word that Asian American Education Project is having free professional development workshops for teachers from Jan 23-April 3. Teachers can register here!
We would like to recognize K-12 educators who have been wonderful allies. We owe special thanks to Gabriel Tanglao for coordinating an April NJEA webinar series for teachers on the AAPI curriculum. We also owe special thanks to Sima Kumar and Rajneet Pimmi Kaur Goomer of Make Us Visible NJ and Kathy Lu and Julia Wang of Immigrant History Initiative for teaching this webinar series. Hopefully, it will plant the seeds for a wonderful AAPI History month in May 2022 at NJ schools. In addition, we are very grateful to Sima Kumar for writing this excellent feature article calling for the inclusion of AAPI literature in the high school American literature curriculum in the NJEA Review. We are also very grateful to Immigrant History Initiative for providing these awesome AAPI lesson plans.
We invite you to join us in celebrating AAPI Heritage month statewide this May!
(Pictured: Gabriel Tanglao, Sima Kumar, Rajneet Pimmi Kaur Goomer, Kathy Lu and Julia Wang)
Here is a Chinese version of our newsletter.
中文简体 in Simplified Chinese and in 中文繁體 Traditional Chinese.
If we have volunteers for other languages, please reach out to us. We would love to have your help.
We would like to share more about some of the amazing NJ organizations in our coalition who worked tirelessly to make this happen (listed in alphabetical order):
(Pictured: Amber Reed, Jeffrey Chang, Linda Kow and Serena Lee of AAPI Montclair)
AAPI Montclair is a grassroots organization of over 500 Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the Montclair, New Jersey area. Our mission is to create a more inclusive Montclair by uplifting the varied experiences of our AAPI communities, promoting awareness and education around AAPI culture and history, and advocating for AAPI representation and rights.
Since being founded by a small group of concerned mothers in late March 2021, AAPI Montclair has become one of the most active grassroots AAPI nonprofits in New Jersey. Together we have advocated for our public schools to do more to recognize and respond to anti-Asian racism; launched a Stop Asian Hate sticker campaign to encourage businesses to identify themselves as safe spaces; partnered with the New Jersey Division of Civil Rights to present a workshop on bias incidents and civil rights for the AAPI community; and raised funds for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Equality Lab, and our town’s Juneteenth celebrations.
Our advocacy is supported by events that build solidarity, raise the visibility of AAPI issues, and help involve and educate our wider community. Past events have included the Lantern Festival for Justice and Remembrance, which saw over 1,000 people gather to memorialize victims of racial violence, and most recently, Montclair's first ever large-scale Diwali celebration, a partnership with the Montclair Art Museum that drew 1,300+ attendees to celebrate the joy, strength, and diversity of our South Asian community. We look forward to gathering for our first Lunar New Year celebration later this month.
AAPI Montclair has been proud to ally with Make Us Visible in support of legislation that would fight anti-Asian racism at its roots by requiring Asian American history and contributions to be taught in all NJ public schools. It’s been a joy and honor to meet dedicated organizers from across New Jersey and in other states.
#StopAsianHate Workshop virtual Know Your Rights Workshop was a great success! It was highly informative and will be translated into multiple languages. Thank you, Amber Reed and Jeff Chang of AAPI Montclair, Patricia Williamson and the Civil Rights Unit for your awesome advocacy!
To listen to the recording, please click here.
Additional resources are located on this website (www.NJCivilRights.gov) and at this link
(Pictured: Ming Kuang and Professor Ying Lu)
AAPI Reads is a volunteer group of Asian American educators, librarians, and parents who believe in the power of good readings and civic engagement in transforming society. We aspire to make AAPI Reads a central hub for advocating and supporting AAPI books and writers in literature, arts, humanities and social science. We also envision AAPI Reads as a central hub for civic engagement education and community actions for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Working with library staff members, teachers, and school administrators, AAPI Reads provides practical, targeted and strategic suggestions for parents and students who want to engage in AAPI books and advocacy in their local public libraries and schools. 
(Pictured: Ngan Le)Asian Youth Act seeks to promote the political and civic engagement of Asian youth through informative, research-centered projects and personal narratives. AYA is a non-partisan organization constructed to be an open-minded space where youth seek empathy, understanding, and collaboration. The team empowers Asian students globally to not only be proactive and informed citizens, but to inspire change in all-generations of the Asian community by providing conversation-starting resources. Additionally, the team hopes to spark important conversations regarding these issues within friends, family, community, and oneself. 
(Pictured: Pam Andes, Jennie Jonson and Councilman Rolando Lavarro)
Jersey City AAPI Coalition and Jersey City Councilman Rolando Lavarro have been doing wonderful advocacy in the past year. They held a rally. They advocated for JCPS Resolution Recognizing Asian Pacific Islander American Heritage month and Inclusion of AAPI History into the Curricula. They advocated for Jersey City Resolution Condemning and Combating Racism, Xenophobia, and Intolerance Against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. They advocated for Jersey City Resolution Recognizing May 2021 as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month We are very grateful to Councilman Rolando Lavarro, who introduced a resolution in support of the AAPI Curriculum Bill, and are grateful to the Jersey City council for unanimously passing the bill.
(Pictured: Russell Fan, Eshaan Mahajan, Hannah Kim and Hannah Mattam of Livingston AAPI Youth Alliance)
The Livingston AAPI Youth Alliance is honored to have worked with Make Us Visible New Jersey (MUVNJ) in advocating for the NJ legislative bills S4021 and A6100 since May 2021. We are proud to have contributed, under the guidance of MUVNJ’s leadership team, to the passing of both of these bills. This has included delivering speeches at various webinars hosted by MUVNJ, reaching out to NJ state legislators to solicit support for the aforementioned AAPI education bills, and creating/presenting written and video testimonies to NJ State Senate and Assembly Education Committees in support of the bills S4021 and A6100.
With both bills having overwhelmingly passed the general votes in the state Senate and Assembly, they now await Governor Murphy to officially sign them into law. However, this accomplishment does not warrant a state of complacency as it can’t be regarded as a one-time event. The bills will now have to be implemented and enforced properly throughout all New Jersey public schools, which necessitates active input and guidance from students. This way, the newly-passed legislation can effectively be carried out to fulfill the purpose of protecting the AAPI community’s safety through reducing prejudices, clarifying stereotypes, and minimizing ignorance. In order for this to occur, more individuals of the younger generations need to continue participating in this advocacy for AAPI visibility, such as reaching out to members of their own communities to make their voices heard. This is not an easy task, to say the least, which we ourselves have experienced in our own hometown. Nonetheless, it is clear that more student involvement is critical for the AAPI movement. In light of this challenge, we cannot give up trying to inspire more adolescents to join this movement. The future of the AAPI community and the direction of the bills’ implementation for New Jersey public schools depend on students realizing their responsibility for this and contributing to this advocacy.
(Pictured: Lynn Lin, Xiaoshan He and Kiran Reddy of Livingston Multicultural Parents Association)
Livingston Multicultural Parents Association was founded this past March after the Atlanta mass shootings, with the goal of addressing anti-AAPI hate within Livingston. We work to do this by advocating for AAPI studies in our school district, while also undertaking projects to build better connections and understanding between the different groups and cultures that make up the Livingston community.
As part of our advocacy efforts, we have met with our district’s assistant superintendent in charge of curriculum to share why AAPI studies are needed in our school district, and organized Livingston High School students to give a presentation on AAPI history to the social studies curriculum department. We were also featured in a front-page article in Livingston’s newspaper in which we shared why AAPI studies are strongly needed in our schools.
Beyond our advocacy work, we have also donated AAPI-inclusive books to the libraries of each elementary school in our district, as well as to our town library, to provide children and adults in our community with the opportunity to see AAPI people and stories in the books they read. We have also held cultural events, including a Chinese watercolor class for kids, to build cross-cultural understanding within our community.
(Pictured: Jianping "Ping" Yu and Laura Liu)
Parents and Children Education (PCE) Club is a NJ-based national volunteer-run 501c(3) nonprofit non-religious organization that has now reached its 18th year mark! We have hosted 200+ monthly seminars and 18 annual conferences featuring celebrated educators and psychologists. PCE provides a learning and sharing platform for Chinese-speaking parents to develop the social and emotional intelligence that is crucial to effective intergenerational communication. PCE's programs improve the inclusion, belonging and overall wellbeing for our families and our community. In early 2021, in response to the wide spread Anti-Asian hate and sentiments, we organized parenting seminars on racial identity and cultural confidence that successfully increased awareness and civic engagement in our community. PCE applauds the leadership of MUVNJ in the historical wins in NJ to include AAPI history in K-12 curriculum.
PCE（Parents and Children Education) 俱乐部是 2003 年由一群在新泽西的父母自发成立的一个非盈利非宗教的教育学习型机构, 为华人家庭提供一个学习 “情商育儿” 的共同成长平台。18 年来，PCE 已经成功主办了 200多场教育研讨会和18次大型年会，聘请了许多知名专家作者现场和网上演讲。我们推广的教育理念是以人为本，父母信任尊重孩子，与孩子有良好的关系，与孩子共同成长，有深度联结,了解和参与孩子成长的美国社会，是孩子成长路上最好的支持。 除了每月的研讨会，PCE 还有多种形式的学习交流平台，包括改善家庭关系的“亲密之旅” 网上小组，李崇建老师的对话课程，父母自我成长读书群，线下聚会等等。在特殊的疫情年代里，PCE从新泽西走向网上，用 Zoom把 PCE 的教育理念传播给北美各地的华人家庭，我们的微信群也达到了3000 多人。PCE网站是 https://www.pceclub.org/， 欢迎您加入我们一起学习成长!
(Pictured: Cecilia Xie Birge)
PCC - Empowering the Community
Founded in 2020, Princeton Chinese Community is a grassroots and volunteer-based organization that strives to empower all members of the Asian American community. PCC focuses on community service, promotes civil rights, encourages the civic engagement of Asian Americans, and raises awareness of the equity and equality issues of minorities more broadly. It has led successful campaigns that produced meaningful changes, both in Princeton and across the nation. Through the dedication of our members, we work to hold local leaders and decision-makers accountable for their actions that impact the community, moving them to rethink what is possible and focus on what matters. Among the recent activities of the organization: - PCC mobilized the Asian community in Princeton at the beginning of the pandemic to provide Covid relief — raising a large amount of cash, PPE gear and other emergency supplies (over $75,000) and donating it all to hospitals, health care professionals, first responders, senior homes, local schools and communities. It also helped organize a massive food drive at the beginning of the Covid crisis to help alleviate food shortages in lower-income communities that arose from the pandemic.
- PCC organized the #StopAsianHate rally on March 27, 2021 in downtown Princeton partnering with over 20 other community organizations that signed on as co-sponsors. The rally attracted several thousand supporters across NJ to stand in solidarity, dismantle racism and stop the hate crimes recently rising in this country.
- PCC has led outreach of the Asian American community to local school districts, advocating for more attention to teach Asian American history (which is often completely overlooked) in local K-12 classrooms, and has frequently sponsored Asian American candidates to run for Board of Education and other local public positions as well as more generally inspiring the next generation of Asian Americans to become more active as leaders in all facets of the life of the broader community and to help weave the Asia American Community into the diverse fabric of America.
PCC is led by Cecilia Xie Birge, former mayor of Montgomery Township, New Jersey, as well as other community activists from Princeton and volunteers in the surrounding area.
(Pictured: Grace Kang and Lynn Benson, MSW, LSW)
Ridgewood Ambassadors for Global Citizenship (RAG) is a non-partisan group that formed organically after George Floyd's tragic death. RAG successfully advocated for parent DEI committees in each of the schools within our district; hosted a DEI Discussion Panel with experts in the field – here is the link if you haven’t seen it! Collaborated / engaged with community partners (Ridgewood Public Schools, Ridgewood Public Library, Community Read (Ridgewood, Fair Lawn and Glen Rock), Mack’s Wednesday Night Zooms, Race Together, Ridgewood YMCA and Bergen County social justice groups) Please be on the lookout for information regarding RAG hosting a second DEI panel discussion in the spring. We will be co-sponsoring this upcoming event with the NJ Division on Civil Rights.
We are especially grateful to the community partners who continue to do so much to help educate us and our community as a whole. Leaders are: Lynn Benson, Grace Kang, Miyuki Tsukada and Anne Burton Walsh
(Pictured: Kiran Kaur Gill, Navdeep Singh, Jyot Singh and Amman Seehra, Esq. of SALDEF) Founded in 1996, SALDEF is a national Sikh American media, policy and education organization. Our mission is to build dialogue, deepen understanding, promote civic and political participation, and uphold social justice and religious freedom for all Americans. We are grounded in our values of optimism (chardi kala), humility (nimrata), and service (seva) inspired by the community (sangat) for the benefit of all (sarbat da bhalla). 
(Pictured: Kim Chan, Ommer Khaw and Devyani Guha)
SOMA Action is a grassroots organization in South Orange and Maplewood whose mission is to drive progressive change. SOMA Cross Cultural Works, a community non-profit based in Maplewood, NJ, was behind the inaugural Diwali Fest NJ, the festival of lights that is one of the most widely celebrated South Asian holidays; Lunar Fest NJ, the beginning of the year according to the lunar calendar and one of the most widely celebrated holidays in Asia; and Hola Fest, the area's first festival celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. The organization supports and celebrates the rich cultural diversity of our community. Founded in 2016, SOMA Justice is a group of local volunteers working to promote racial justice and safe spaces for people of color (POC) in South Orange, Maplewood and surrounding communities in New Jersey. We focus on community activism and advocacy, education, and fellowship. We have more than 1,000 members who are active both through social media and in-person advocacy and engagement.
(Pictured: Fannie Chan Jarvis of United Asian Voices of West Orange)
Formed in 2021, United Asian Voices of West Orange brings together WO’s AAPI community to lift up and strengthen our voices in civic, educational, and legislative affairs. By fostering unity, engagement, and leadership, UAV hopes to embolden and empower our community. UAV has been working with local groups and officials to address curriculum and diversity issues so that AAPIs can be better seen, heard, and represented.
(Pictured: Board Members: Dr. Kani Ilangovan, Prof. Ying Lu, Sima Kumar, Nancy Lin, Dr. Christina Jenq, Jessica Kim, Christina Huang, MUVNJ Members: Dr. Annah Kuriakose, Emily Sun, Dr. Jasmine Ueng-McHale, Amman Seehra, Rajneet Pimmi Kaur Goomer, MUVNJ Allies: Laura Choi, Prof. Dake Zhang, Prof. Andy Urban and Prof. Karishma Desai)
Make Us Visible NJ is a coalition of students, parents, educators, legislators, professionals, and New Jersey community members advocating for a thoughtful and comprehensive inclusion of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) studies into K-12 curriculum for New Jersey public schools. Our goals include: Supporting the development of accurate, community-centered, engaging, and inclusive curricula, which reflects the histories and contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to the United States Passing statewide legislation mandating such curricula across subject areas; Building coalitions to support open access to resources for educators seeking to implement such curricula within their classrooms
Here is Make Us Visible NJ's history and origins.
This is our concise AAPI Curriculum resource guide and this is a more comprehensive AAPI Curriculum resource guide We are so grateful for the alliances we have with more than 60 AAPI and social justice organizers across the state, local teachers, local schools, Rutgers University, Princeton University, Fairleigh Dickinson University, the NJEA, the DOE, and the NJ Department of Civil Rights. We are so grateful for the alliances we have with 60+ amazing AAPI and social justice organizers across the state, local teachers, local schools, Rutgers University, Princeton University, Fairleigh Dickinson University, the NJEA, the DOE, and the NJ Department of Civil Rights. We are very grateful to our organizational allies: AAPI Montclair- especially Amber Reed, Jeffrey Chang, Esq., Linda Kow and Serena Lee AAPI Montgomery County - especially Denise Hellenbrand, Jim Lee, Tom Hasani, Serena Nguyen, and Beth Lee AAPI Reads - especially Ming Kuang, Laura Liu and Prof. Ying Lu AAPI Youth Rising - especially Mina Fedor Act to Change - especially Saad Qureshi and Richard Leong ADL NY/NJ - especially Alana Burman American Humanist Association - especially Roy Speckhardt Antiracist Teaching and Learning Collective - especially Jason Lee and Isabella Zou Asian American Alliance in South Jersey- especially Professor Ni Gao Asian American Alumni Association of Princeton University (A4P) - especially Nancy Lin and Dr. Jasmine Ueng-McHale Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago - especially Grace Pai and Laura Houcque Prabhakar Asian Youth Act - especially Ngan Le Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice - especially Robt Seda-Schreiber Central NJ Presbytery/Justice Team - especially Laura Choi and John Fong Central NJ Asian American Reading Group - especially Sonya Chen, Alexander Jin and Darren Yau CHOOSE - especially Winona Guo and Priya Vulchi Diversify Our Narrative Campaign - especially Katelin Zhou
Faith in New Jersey - especially Charlene Walker
The Filipino School of New York and New Jersey - especially Arianne Maliwanag and Venessa Manzano Fort Lee Chinese American Community Association - especially Amy Ko-Tang Garden State Equality - especially Christian Fuscarino and Lauren Albrecht Glen Ridge Pan Asian American Association - especially Linella Gavin Historical Records of Chinese Americans - especially Qian Huang Hopewell Valley Together Hunterdon County Anti-Racism Coalition - especially Karen Gaffney Huaxia Chinese School Cherry Hill branch - especially SUNY Professor Xiaoyun Yuan and Mr. Hong Wang Huaxia Edison Chinese School - especially Yi Li Immigrant History Initiative - especially Kathy Lu and Julia Wang #IAMNOTAVIRUS Campaign - especially Mike Keo and Vinh Dang Indivisible: Garden State Values - especially Laura Lu Choi Jersey City AAPI Coalition - especially Pam Andes, Evelyn Chan and Jennie Jonson Jersey Promise - especially Jun Choi, Dr. Khyati Joshi and Ron Chen, Esq. Livingston AAPI Youth Alliance - especially Russell Fan, Hannah Mattam, Eshaan Mahajan and Hannah Kim Livingston Multicultural Parents Association - especially Lynn Lin, Kiran Reddy and Susan Park Lyra Music - especially Rachel Odo
Make It Better for Youth - especially Kate Okeson Make Noise Today - especially Michael Vitug Make Us Visible CT - especially Prof Jason Chang, Mike Keo, Kate Lee and Jeff Gu McCarter Theatre - especially Paula Alekson and Andrea Cuevas New Jersey Association of Colleges for Teacher Education - especially Dr. Stacey Leftwich New Jersey Chinese Festival - especially Margeret Lam New Jersey Safe Schools Coalition - especially Shannon Cuttle Not In Our Town- Princeton - especially Linda Oppenheim and Miki Mendelsohn ONE Project - especially Amman Seehra and Stacey Kierman Parents and Children Education Club - especially Laura Liu and Jianping “Ping” Xu Pop the Bubble - especially Serena Nguyen Princeton Chinese American Parents Association - especially Lori Liu Princeton Chinese Community (PCC) - especially Xiaobing Li, Xu Cheng, Cecilia Birge, Ying Lu and Wei Wu Princeton Diversity Discussions - especially Jenny Korn Princeton Mutual Aid - especially Sonya Chen and Alexander Jin Princeton Public Library - especially Kim Dorman, Janie Hermann and Madeleine Rosenberg Princeton University Asian American Students Association - especially Jennifer Lee Ridgewood Ambassadors for Global Citizenship - especially Grace Kang Rutgers AAUP-AFT Executive Council - especially Prof. Andy Urban Safe Schools Action Network - especially Shannon Cuttle SAMBHAV - especially Professor Rupa Khetarpal Sikh American Legal Defense and Action Fund (SALDEF) - especially Kiran Gill, Navdeep Singh, Jyot Singh and Amman Seehra SOMA Cross Cultural Works - especially Ommer Khaw Springfield Unity Project - especially Jayani Alles TOGETHER: Building Inclusive and Just Community; a project of Coalition for Peace Action- especially Sharon Copeland The American Studies Department, Rutgers University, New Brunswick - especially Prof. Andy Urban The Asian American Education Project - especially Kate Lee, Stewart, and Patricia Kwoh The Center for Pedagogy - especially Dr. Jennifer Robinson The Championing Political Change Organization - especially Jai Jhaveri The Desi Project - especially Rishabh Sharma, Shreya, Nysa, and Dev The Institute for Anti-Racist Education, Inc. - especially Ashley Lipscomb The South Orange/Maplewood Community Coalition on Race - especially Kim Chan and Devyani Guha The We See Color Project - especially Sathya Sundar Trinity Church (Episcopal) - especially Rev. Paul Jeanes United Asian Voices of West Orange - especially Fannie Chan Jarvis United Chinese American Association of NJ - especially Margaret Lam United Chinese Americans - especially Laura Liu and Haipei Shue United Chinese Americans New Jersey - especially Dr. Yingchao Zhang Women Together, Inc. - especially Jenny Lee YURI Education Project - especially Dr. Karishma Desai and Freda Lin We are moved by our inspiring coalition. It is wonderful to see this civic engagement happening and to see people who've never stepped into a legislative chamber before speaking up. Jessica Kim's children attended the event and she wrote, "My kids can’t stop talking about yesterday and how cool the whole experience was. I told them that the Senate passed the bill and that we are halfway there. Their eyes lit up to know that they were a tiny part of this enormous effort." Doris Ma, a first-generation, recently arrived immigrant mother came and spoke and was crying about her hopes and dreams for her son and her worries for him in America. She said she was reluctant to come to the rally initially, but said now she is really glad she did because she realizes how deeply important passage of our AAPI curriculum bill is. It is moving to see the multigenerational, multicultural, interfaith, bipartisan coalition that deeply cares about this issue. From children to grandparents, we are stronger together! Let’s Be Visible! In solidarity, Make Us Visible NJ
Earlier Move: |
Dear Friends and Allies, Thank you for your tremendous advocacy. We are so grateful to be allied with you. We did it together! The Asian American and Pacific Islander Curriculum Bill S4021/A6100 and the Commission on Asian American Heritage in the Department of Education (DOE) Bill S3764/A3369 were unanimously passed by the Senate (39-0) and Assembly (78-0)! What remains is for Governor Phil Murphy to sign the AAPI Curriculum bill and the Commission on Asian American Heritage in the Department of Education bill into law and officially make NJ the second state in the nation to require schools to include AAPI curriculum. Would you please ask Governor Murphy to sign the bills into law? Here’s an email script. Thank you so much for being allies on this important cause! Let's do it for our kids! We are very grateful to all of you for your advocacy. Without you, none of this would be possible!
We are very grateful to Sen. Vin Gopal, Asm. Raj Mukherji and Asm./Sen. Gordon Johnson for introducing and advocating for these bills. We are very grateful to Speaker Coughlin and Senate President Sweeney for putting these bills on the agenda for Assembly and Senate and to Sen. Teresa Ruiz and Asw. Pam Lampitt for putting the bills on the agenda for the Education Committee.
We created this slideshow to honor all our amazing cosponsors. Thank you to our 44 cosponsors for A6100/S4021 Assembly members Jasey, Timberlake, Giblin, Murphy, Vainieri-Huttle, McKnight, Benson, Chiaravalloti, Zwicker, McKeon, Stanfield, Stanley, Johnson, Verrelli, Rooney, DePhillips, Reynolds-Jackson, Karabinchak, Moriarty, Carter, Conaway, Space, Spearman, Lampitt, Quijano, Kean, Speight, Simonsen, Calabrese, Swain and Caputo and Senators Ruiz, Corrado, Turner, Gill, Schepisi, Cryan, Codey, Weinberg, Thompson, Diegnan, Kean, Lagana and Cunningham, and our 37 cosponsors for A3369/S3764 Senators Weinberg, Diegnan, Greenstein, Kean, Codey, Ruiz, Schepisi, Gill, Thompson, Turner and Singleton and Assembly Members Stanley, Karabinchak, Vainieri-Huttle, Benson, Jimenez, Zwicker, Mukherji, Jasey, Giblin, Reynolds-Jackson, Stanfield, McKnight, Murphy, Timberlake, Munoz, Calabrese, Lopez, Tucker, Spearman, Freiman, Downey, Lampitt, DiMaso, Tucker, Speight, and Quijano.
We are also very grateful to NJ Legislature staff members Aislinn Brennan, Dyese Davis, Krishna Martes, Jash Gill, Brooke Lockwood, Ian McDaniel, Scott Devlin, Kevin Drennan, Mark Magyar, Dan Harris, Liz Mahn, Jade Bechelli, Zixuan Wang, Shadaya Bennett, Hira Shaikh. We applaud the NJ Senate and NJ Assembly for the overwhelming bipartisan votes to pass S4021/A6100 and S3764/A3369! We are very proud of our legislature for being a national leader on this important issue of diversity and inclusion!
These bills would not have passed without the tireless efforts of everyone in our broad, local coalition, but especially these organizations (listed in alphabetical order): AAPI Montclair, Asian Youth Act, Jersey City AAPI Coalition, Livingston AAPI Youth Alliance, Livingston Multicultural Parents Association, Make Us Visible NJ, Parents and Children Education Club, Princeton Chinese Community, Ridgewood Ambassadors for Global Citizenship, SALDEF, SOMA Action, SOMA Cross Cultural Works, SOMA Justice, United Asian Voices of West Orange. These advocates organized and mobilized their communities creating cultural events, rallies and opportunities for collective action. Together, we called, wrote and met with our legislators to communicate the urgency of these bills. This unity and these connections are deep and strong and have gotten us to where we are today. We would like to share more about some of the wonderful NJ organizations in our coalition.
Here is a Chinese version of our newsletter.
中文简体 in Simplified Chinese and in 中文繁體 Traditional Chinese.
If we have volunteers for other languages, please reach out to us. We would love to have your help.
Image by 7th grade activist Molli
We thank all of you, our entire coalition, for working together to protect our children! So grateful to you all!
There are so many others we are very grateful to and you can read more about them here. We would like to recognize K-12 educators who have been wonderful allies. We owe special thanks to Gabriel Tanglao for coordinating an April NJEA webinar series for teachers on AAPI curriculum. We also owe special thanks to Sima Kumar and Rajneet Pimmi Kaur Goomer of Make Us Visible NJ and Kathy Lu and Julia Wang of Immigrant History Initiative for teaching this webinar series. Hopefully, it will plant the seeds for a wonderful AAPI History month in May 2022 at NJ schools. In addition, we are very grateful to Sima Kumar for writing this excellent feature article calling for the inclusion of AAPI literature in the high school American literature curriculum in NJEA Review. We are also very grateful to Immigrant History Initiative for providing these awesome AAPI lesson plans.
We invite you to join us in celebrating AAPI Heritage month statewide this May!
(Pictured: Gabriel Tanglao, Sima Kumar, Rajneet Pimmi Kaur Goomer, Kathy Lu, and Julia Wang)
We also want to highlight our student advocates. As Russell Fan of Livingston AAPI Youth Alliance said, “With both bills having overwhelmingly passed the general votes in the state Senate and Assembly, they now await Governor Murphy to officially sign them into law. However, this accomplishment does not warrant a state of complacency as they can’t be regarded as a one-time event. The bills will now have to be implemented and enforced properly throughout all New Jersey public schools, which necessitates active input and guidance from students. This way, the newly-passed legislation can effectively be carried out to fulfill the purpose of protecting the AAPI community’s safety through reducing prejudices, clarifying stereotypes, and minimizing ignorance. In order for this to occur, more individuals of the younger generations need to continue participating in this advocacy for AAPI visibility, such as reaching out to members of their own communities to make their voices heard.”
(Pictured: Christina Huang, Russell Fan, Eshaan Mahajan, Hannah Kim, Hannah Mattam, Serena Lee, Ngan Le, Soorya Baliga, Jennifer Lee, Gabe Chao, Bryan Zhao, Gabriella Son)
Thank you all for your amazing advocacy! Let’s Be Visible! In solidarity, Make Us Visible NJ Invitation to Join the AYLUS
AYLUS stands for the Alliance of Youth Leaders in the United States. It is a national student-run non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of our communities, which range from our own houses to all across the United States!
Christina Wu， who is the hero in Philly Subway racial attack, is the founder of the AYLUS Philadelphia branch, and she is inviting you, our Asian American youth, to join her and her friends to make a difference, and better the community that we live in.
For her bravery, Christina Wu has been accepted into the University of Pennsylvania and has received numerous awards from Philadelphia City and many Asian community organizations. Join her effort and many young Asian American youth in making America a better place for all. Click here to read more on AYLUS Philly, and fill out the google form! here https://forms.gle/VFN5Fk2yr8hugSqKA
or Join an AYLUS Branch near you here
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