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The Brooklyn College Asian American Faculty and Staff Association is hosting a series of events in May to highlight Asian American Heritage Month. These events are both online and in person, and all events are free and open to the campus community.
One of the highlights of this series features a discussion with New York State Senator John Liu, who will discuss Asian American and Pacific Islander issues in education. Senator Liu has introduced a senate bill (S6359A), currently in committee review, which requires New York State public elementary and high schools to provide instruction in Asian American history and civic impact. Joining Liu will be Professor Ying Lu, New York University, and board member, Make Us Visible NJ; Mark Treyger ’05, ’09 M.A., ’12 M.S.Ed., executive director, Intergovernmental Affairs, New York City Department of Education; and Mikayla Lin, sophomore, Stuyvesant High School.
This entire calendar of events is being presented by the Brooklyn College Asian American Faculty and Staff Association, SAIL, Office of Equity and Diversity Programs, Wolfe Institute, American Studies Program, dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, student government, and many others.
There are a variety of mental health and self-care resources available for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Some examples are included in this guide as a helpful starting point.
April 26 12:30–2:15 p.m. West Quad
Discover empowerment through self-defense training, taught within an uplifting and safe space by certified Malikah, black-belt instructors.
Discussions include:
May 2 11 a.m.–12:15 p.m. Tanger Auditorium
Watch the film’s trailer.
On June 19, 1982, Vincent Chin, a Chinese American, was murdered by a White father-son pair. The perpetrators, like Chin, were residents of Detroit. Unlike Chin, the murderers were disgruntled, laid-off autoworkers who scapegoated Chin (and others who looked “Japanese”) for their plight. The murderers were fined $3,000 and three-years’ probation; they did not serve any jail time. The scapegoating of Asian Americans is not a new phenomenon. From the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act to the incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II, to profiling South Asian Americans after 9/11, Asian Americans are routinely targets of violence, deemed foreign, yet also marginalized in the larger American imagination. The violence directed toward AAPIs since early 2020—and that has continued to escalate—falls into this pattern. The producer and writer for the film Vincent Who? will screen the movie and contextualize the Asian American experience through the lens of the Vincent Chin killing. This screening is ever timely, given how Asian Americans are perceived and targeted in our current sociopolitical climate.
Sponsors: Office of Diversity and Equity Programs; We Stand Against Hate
May 4 3–5 p.m. West Quad (rain location: West Quad Center)
Join Muslim students and student clubs to celebrate the end of Ramadan with food, picnic blankets, games, henna table, and cultural celebrations.
Sponsors: Muslim Women’s Leadership Development Project; Muslim Women’s Educational Initiative; student government; Women’s Center
May 4 5–6 p.m.
What does it mean to fail? Why are we so terrified of failure? This workshop explores our ideas around success and failure, the social and cultural forces that shape those ideas, and the costs those ideas bear on us. The stakes of failure are particularly high for Asian Americans, and this workshop explores the burden of constantly feeling like a failure and how we might opt out—perhaps by leaning into failure and not having our shit together at all times.
Sponsors: Wolfe Institute; Women’s Center; Office of Diversity and Equity Programs
May 5 5–7 p.m.
Panelists include New York State Senator John Liu; Professor Ying Lu, New York University, and board member, Make Us Visible NJ; Mark Treyger, ’05, ’09 M.A., ’12 M.S.Ed., executive director, Intergovernmental Affairs, New York City Department of Education; and Mikayla Lin, sophomore, Stuyvesant High School.
Sponsors: School of Education; Office of Diversity and Equity Programs; We Stand Against Hate
