Every time I write about topics that touch on Asian American history, I am struck by how little people know about the country’s fastest-growing major racial group.

This is not surprising because while Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander history is U.S. history, it is still largely missing in U.S. K-12 classrooms, scholar Erika Lee reported in the Organization of American Historians. 

Growing up in Seattle in the ’80s and ’90s, I don’t remember learning any AANHPI history from school. Everything I did know I learned from my parents and our chosen family. It wasn’t until college and discovering books by authors like Ronald Takaki and Howard Zinn that I finally had some formal education on my own history.

Sadly, not a lot has changed in the past 30 years. 

But this year, a coalition of around 60 grassroots organizations serving AANHPI communities signed on to support state Senate Bill 5574, led by Make Us Visible Washington, a local volunteer group that looks to address through education the rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans. Sponsored by state Sen. T’wina Nobles and backed by a number of other senators, the legislation would require AANHPI history to be taught in K-12 social studies in Washington state by the 2029-2030 school year. 

At a legislative hearing last week, about 900 people signed in to support the measure. Proponents testified to the importance of using a state statute to ensure a more complete story of our history is told.

“Omitting AANHPI history from schools doesn’t just erase contributions, it deepens gaps in understanding and allows prejudice to grow, even in our own state,” Nobles said during the hearing.

“Education is one of the most powerful tools to combat ignorance. It also can help us to build empathy and to foster inclusion,” she said. “When students learn the full story of our state and country, they see how our histories connect and better understand the struggles and achievements that have shaped all of us.”

The bill did not make it out of committee this year, but supporters hope that next session it might make more progress. 

Teaching AANHPI history does not just benefit AANHPI communities — though it absolutely does — but we all benefit when we have a more complete and accurate understanding of who we are, the challenges we have faced and those who fought for change.

That’s particularly important at a time when efforts to advance a more complete picture are under ferocious attack by the federal government and many localities. 

Nobles said we need to lay these educational foundations now, to protect future generations when they experience similar challenging times.

Make Us Visible Washington director Angelie Chong is a parent who said her own kids have yet to learn about the histories of our diverse communities. 

“If students are lucky, they might hear a bit about Japanese incarceration or a bit about Chinese exclusion,” she said. “But our histories are so vast, and we’re certainly not a monolith. We have Southeast Asian Americans who have their own histories, and we’ve got Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders who have their own unique struggles and histories … And so we’re lumped together and viewed — as we saw in the pandemic — as foreign or as threats or just completely invisible.”

Chong said it was disappointing that the legislation didn’t get further this year, especially as “in this climate that we’re living in, things are just going to get worse for our communities.”

Chong said, “With all the attacks on diversity and inclusion, we really hope that our local lawmakers could stand up and say, ‘You know, you do matter. We do care about our communities, and we believe in inclusive education.’ ”

According to the census, Washington has one of the highest populations of Asian Americans in the U.S. About 12% of the state population is AANHPI, the third-largest racial group in the state.

Bill supporter Devin Cabanilla wants to see state legislators be more responsive. “I would ask that all of our electeds become a little bit more daring, a little bit more bold in ensuring that our state, at minimum, reflects our communities,” he said.

It seems absurd that anyone should need to say that in 2025. Students should not have to testify in front of the Legislature to lobby for a curriculum that acknowledges their existence. 

“We’re part of American history. This is American history. This is Washington history,” Chong said.