Along with the annual entourage of outrageous April Fools' jokes, yesterday marked the beginning of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.
APAHM is nationally celebrated during the month of May, but is celebrated in April by the University and other institutions in order to designate a full academic month to APA culture and heritage.
"I believe APAHM was created with the purpose of educating non-Asians about the contributions of Asians in America," Asst. Dean of Students Ajay T. Nair said.
He noted that the month of May has particular significance to the APA community, because the first Japanese immigrants arrived in the United States May 7, 1843.
The theme of this year's celebration is "Accomplishment, Pride, Action."
"The theme concisely describes the purpose of APAHM, which is to recognize the rich and diverse contributions and accomplishments of APA's and to encourage all people to take pride in being American, while also acknowledging that this already great country can only be improved if we aren't passive and take action," said Ryan McCarthy, outgoing Asian Student Union President.
For the first time, the ASU created an APAHM committee within the organization in order to include the most diverse range of individuals in planning for the celebration.
A full month of activities commenced yesterday evening with an address from Howard University Law School Prof. Frank Wu in the University bookstore. Wu described his experience teaching at a predominantly black college.
He made particular note of the fact that he is occasionally asked if his ethnicity is actually black.
"This tells us if you're Asian-American, you're expected to fit in," he said. "What we don't mention is what the standard [of fitting in] is."
Wu described the fight for civil rights as an ongoing process in which everyone should participate.
"Diversity is like democracy," Wu said. "It never ends."
The APAHM committee has organized events almost every day for the month of April, spanning the many different cultural groups included under the ASU.
"Our goal was to make [the month] more diverse, not just within the Asian-American community but without," Trinh said.
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