Issue 51 • APRIL 18, 2023
PRESENTED BY THE KAUFFMAN FOUNDATION
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THE BIG STORY
Sikh Americans march in a USA Independence Day parade in Washington, D.C. on July 4, 2015. Photo by Tim Brown via the Bureau of Global Public Affairs.
U.S. lawmakers reintroduce resolution to designate National Sikh Day
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Sponsored by U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pennsylvania) and supported by the American Sikh Congress Committee, H.Res.1007 designates April 14 as National Sikh Day to celebrate the largest Sikh holiday—Vaisakh—and recognize the importance of the Sikh community’s contributions to the United States.
📃 WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
National Sikh Day was first introduced in March 2022 to celebrate Sikhs and one of their central principles of “public service” as an important enrichment to the “social fabric of the Nation,” the text of the resolution notes.
Sikhism is the fifth largest religion in the world, and roughly 500,000 Sikhs live in the U.S. today, according to the advocacy group Sikh Coalition.
Vaisakhi, also known as Baisakhi, is typically observed on April 13 or April 14 and has its origins in the celebration of the spring harvest in Punjab of Northern India. In April 1699, the holiday developed religious significance when Sikhism became more formally organized with the birth of the Khalsa, which is the name of the collective body of baptized Sikhs.
Don’t forget: Sikh Americans have experienced a long history of discrimination since they first arrived in the U.S., and this resolution serves to recognize and celebrate their community.
In the 1907 Bellingham riots in Washington, around 500 white working men worked together to drive the entire South Asian population, which included Sikhs, out of town.
And in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks, the U.S. recorded a sharp increase in violence and hate crimes targeting Sikhs—from physical attacks and verbal assaults to murders and mass shootings. Since 9/11, Sikh Americans have been racialized as foreigners and potential terrorists due to racist and discriminatory stereotypes about religious markers such as facial hair and turbans.
These beliefs have fueled a sustained rise in prejudice against Sikhs—2021 saw the highest number of anti-Sikh hate crimes recorded since the FBI began tracking them in 2015.
In their words: “For two decades, our community and so many other underrepresented American communities have had to persevere in the face of hate and discrimination,” Inderpreet Kaur, Sikh Coalition’s community development manager, told PBS Newshour in 2021. “We honor those we’ve lost, but also celebrate that solidarity, as well as the resultant education and advocacy efforts to combat and prevent future hate crimes in America.”
Worth noting: The resolution for National Sikh Day was reintroduced on April 4 in the House of Representatives—a week after the Georgia Assembly passed a resolution condemning Hinduphobia and two months after Seattle enacted an ordinance banning caste discrimination.
— By
Wendy Ying Lau
+
Katrina Pham
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AAPI NATION
Rep. Patsy Mink announces the formation of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus at a press conference in 1994 with (left to right) Reps. Don Edwards and Norman Mineta, Guam Delegate Robert Underwood, and Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Neil Abercrombie. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.
🔎 IN FOCUS
STATES INCREASINGLY MANDATE AAPI STUDIES:
The latest: Two Kennesaw State University professors received a $50,000 grant to develop an Asian American history curriculum for Georgia public schools, 13WMAZ’s Gabriella Nunez reports.
“We want to connect the common themes in experience from people we have talked to within local Asian American communities to include in the larger collections of literature detailing the experience of Asian American families living in the U.S.,” Theresa Alviar-Martin, one of the two professors tasked with developing the curriculum, told 13WMAZ.
Yes, but: Activists in Georgia have faced pushback from state lawmakers and school boards who say teachers and students should not be made to feel uncomfortable by focusing on their race.
Worth noting: In August, New York state Sen. John Liu introduced a bill that would require the integration of AANHPI history into social studies curriculum in public schools across New York.
The proposed pilot curriculum would teach the histories and cultures of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and is set to roll out in all New York City public schools by the fall of 2024.
CATCH UP
📈 NUMBER OF THE WEEK
3
That’s the percentage of reporters who self-identified as Asian in Pew Research Center’s survey of 12,000 journalists in the U.S. Across most coverage areas—such as politics, business, health, entertainment, and sports—reporters were least likely to be Asian.
Here's what else is happening across America...
Guam averts a total abortion ban: A judge has denied Guam Attorney General Douglas Moylan’s request to lift a decades-old block on a law that would bar doctors from performing abortions and make it a felony to access the procedure, writes The Guam Daily Post’s John O’Connor.
Moylan, a Republican, moved to lift the block after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which protected a person’s right to an abortion. He is already appealing the ruling.
Yes, but: While abortion remains legal in Guam for now, the nearest clinic that performs abortions is 4,000 miles away.
Asian Americans are undercounted in the U.S. Census, especially in rural areas, according to a new analysis by Asian Americans Advancing Justice. The undercounting can limit access to federal funding and political representation for Asian populations. An earlier report from the Census Bureau revealed that Asian Americans were among the least likely to participate in the Census due to language and outreach barriers.
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Rachel Lee
+
Preston Lieu
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