AAPI Heritage Month is dedicated to celebrating the achievements, contributions, and traditions of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. As explained by the Library of Congress, Asian refers to all of the Asian continent and Pacific covers the Pacific Islands of Melanesia (New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands), Micronesia (Marianas, Guam, Wake Island, Palau, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia) and Polynesia (New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Rotuma, Midway Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Easter Island).
When the idea was first introduced to allocate a time for commemorating the Asian/Pacific American community in 1977, Congress chose the first ten days in May. It wasn't until 1992 that Congress passed a public law designating the whole month as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. May was chosen for two main reasons: the first Japanese immigrated to the United States on May 7, 1843, and; the transcontinental railroad, whose tracks were laid by Chinese immigrants, was completed on May 10, 1869.
5 Inspiring AAPI Women
In true Step Up fashion, we are using this space to celebrate women – in this case, from the AAPI community. While this is certainly not an exhaustive list, we are highlighting just a few of the AAPI women who inspire us: Bela Bajaria, Erika Moritsugu, Haleema Bharoocha, Josephine Santiago-Bond and Lisa Ling. We hope you will continue to explore the amazing trailblazers from this community – both past and present.
Bela Bajaria
head of global tv, Netflix
Image from: https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/bela-bajaria-global-tv-netflix-1234763428/
Bela Bajaria was named Head of Global TV for Netflix in 2020, overseeing English language and local language scripted and unscripted series around the world. Previously, she oversaw local language originals, original series across Europe, the Middle East, Turkey, Africa, India, Asia, and Latin America as Vice President of Local Language Originals. In this role, she managed the teams behind shows such as La Casa de Papel (Spain), The Witcher (Poland), Sacred Games (India), Kingdom (Korea), Blood & Water (South Africa), and Sintonia (Brazil). Bela joined Netflix in 2016 to lead Netflix's push into unscripted programming including the critically acclaimed Queer Eye, Nailed It! and Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. She was previously President of Universal Television, where she made history as the first woman of color to oversee a studio. Bela currently serves on the board of Los Angeles' Saban Community Clinic and received the Lenny Somberg Award in 2018. She has also been honored by the "I Have a Dream" Foundation of Los Angeles and The March of Dimes Foundation.
Haleema Bharoocha
senior advocacy manager, Alliance for Girls
Image from https://www.seattleu.edu/the-ones/2018/haleema-bharoocha/
Haleema Bharoocha is a Gen Z activist and first generation South Asian American. She serves as the Advocacy Manager at Alliance for Girls where she advocates to meet the expressed needs of girls and gender expansive youth. Outside of work, Haleema volunteers with South Asians for Black Lives, a volunteer run program focused on calling in the South Asian community to dismantle anti-Blackness and join the racial solidarity movement through awareness and education work. As a workshop speaker, she has trained over 700 people in equity-related topics, including bystander intervention, Islamophobia, equity, and gender injustice. When she was a student at Seattle University, she started the Gender Justice Center, a student-led community space serving women and Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming (TGNC) students. Haleema has been featured in Ms. Magazine's "25 Under 25: Women of Color."
Erika Moritsugu
deputy assistant to the president and asian american and pacific islander senior liaison
Image from: https://www.nationalpartnership.org/about-us/staff-board/erika-moritsugu.html
Erika Moritsugu was appointed in April 2021 to her current senior-level position in the White House as Asian American liaison – a newly created position. Prior to this role, Moritsugu was the Vice President at the National Partnership for Women & Families, where she led the organization's economic justice team, which is committed to advancing public policies to achieve economic stability and security, particularly for women of color and other marginalized communities. Previously, she was the vice president of government relations, advocacy and community engagement at the anti-defamation league. Maritsugu has had a distinguished career in politics and the federal government. She also has a history of being very active in the community, volunteering for or leading organizations focusing on voting rights, civil rights, community engagement, Asian and Pacific Islander empowerment, mentoring, Veterans, organ donation, domestic violence counseling, and disaster relief.
Josephine Santiago-Bond
chief, advanced engineering development branch, NASA
Image from: https://women.nasa.gov/josephine-santiago-bond/
Josephine Santiago-Bond is a Filipina-American who leads NASA's Advanced Engineering Development Branch. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in Electronics & Communications Engineering from the University of Philippines, Josephine moved to the U.S. where she landed her first engineering job designing sport products and was accepted into the master's degree in electrical engineering program at South Dakota State University. She secured a summer internship at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, and after completing her degree started working for NASA full-time in 2004. Since joining NASA, she's contributed to the design of new technologies, space shuttle ground system operations, the Constellation subsystems design, and worked on several lunar missions. Josephine says that NASA has given her the opportunities she needed grow as an engineer—evolving from an electronics engineer into a systems engineer—and as a leader.
Lisa Ling
executive producer, host, CNN
Image from: https://www.cnn.com/profiles/lisa-ling-profile
Award-winning journalist Lisa Ling is the host and executive producer of the CNN Original Series, This is Life with Lisa Ling. Prior to CNN, Ling was a field correspondent for the Oprah Winfrey Show and contributor to Nightline and National Geographic's Explorer. She has reported from dozens of countries, covering stories about gang rape in the Congo, bride burning in India and the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda, among other issues too often ignored. Ling got her start in journalism as a correspondent for Channel One News where she covered the civil war in Afghanistan at 21 years of age. She later went on to become a co-host of ABC Daytime's hit show The View, which won its first daytime Emmy during her time at the show. Ling is the co-author of Mother, Daughter, Sister, Bride: Rituals of Womanhood and Somewhere Inside: One Sister's Captivity in North Korea and the Other's Fight to Bring Her Home, which she penned with her sister, Laura. In 2014, President Obama named Ling to the Commission on White House Fellows.
AAPI Organizations
While we are witnessing a spike in violence against the Asian American and Pacific Island communities, especially with the recent rise of anti-Asian COVID-19 rhetoric, these occurrences are sadly rooted in a longstanding history of systemic racism in the U.S. Below is a list of organizations committed to supporting the AAPI community.
AAPI Institute on Gender-Based Violence is a national resource center on domestic violence, sexual violence, trafficking, and other forms of gender-based violence in Asian/American and Pacific Islander communities.
AAPI Women Lead and #ImReady Movement aims to strengthen the progressive political and social platforms of Asian and Pacific Islander communities in the US through the leadership of self-identified AAPI women and girls.
The Asian American Foundation provides funding and resources to build the structure to improve AAPI advocacy, power, and representation,
Asian Americans Advancing Justice works across a wide range of issue areas to ensure Asian American and Pacific Islander voices are being represented wherever policy and public opinion may affect these communities.
Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC) promotes social justice by engaging Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities through culturally relevant advocacy, research, and leadership development.
National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum mobilizes and builds power across the United States to create social, political, and economic change for AAPI women and girls.
South Asian Americans Leading Together is a national movement strategy and advocacy organization committed to racial justice through federal policy and advocacy, local and national partnerships, coalition building and strategic communications.
Stop AAPI Hate is a reporting center that tracks and responds to incidents of hate, violence, harassment, discrimination, shunning, and child bullying against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States.
We hope you will take action where you can, and also explore these organizations as resources for learning about both the challenges and numerous achievements of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
Additional Resources
Visit anti-asianviolenceresources.carrd.co for resources to educate others, take action and help the AAPI community following the recent surge in anti-Asian hate crimes.
Check out & follow these accounts on Instagram: @aapiwomenlead, @kimsaira, @angryasianfeminist, @dearasianyouth
Visit itsyozine.com/shopping-guide for a list of Asian American small businesses to support.
Who in the AAPI community are you celebrating? Share with us in the comments below! We'd also love to hear your topic ideas for our Step Up Blog!
