You know Jeannie Mai Jenkins. She gained fame as a host of The Real and currently hosts America's Test Kitchen: The Next Generation.
Well, Jeannie co-hosted the White House Forum on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders in Washington DC last night. As a Pacific Islander, I appreciated how the White House planned this big event to celebrate our heritage month. With the theme of "visible together," it featured talks and performances from public officials like Vice President Kamala Harris, artists, entertainers, community organizers, and trailblazers across various industries.
But there's one part of the night that really stood out to a lot of people. When Jeannie and White House liaison Philip Kim introduced themselves as co-emcees, Phil asked members of the audience to use two hashtags on their social media posts: #visibletogether and #AANHPIHM (Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage Month).
But Jeannie leaned over and told people to use the hashtag #Asianheritagemonth instead.
Now, this sparked backlash for several reasons. In the US, May — usually called APAHM for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month — combines two separate groups that already have many diverse nations beneath their respective umbrellas. Since Asians greatly outnumber Pacific Islanders, what happens every year is the focus is almost exclusively on Asian people. While it's certainly important to celebrate Asians, it usually comes at the expense of PIs. Whether it's recommendations on books, TV shows, and movies, or a celebration of achievements, or a panel to discuss issues affecting our communities, Pacific Islanders are largely forgotten and ignored, even if it's labeled as AAPI.
Using a term like AAPI that combines Asians and Pacific Islanders has real-world consequences beyond lack of representation. The US census only began separating us in 2000, and many institutions were slow to follow, meaning important data surrounding disparities in poverty rates, health issues, and education was hidden. Since we now know that Pacific Islanders statistically have lower household incomes, lower rates of health insurance, different health issues, and less education than Asians, this suggests that additional and specifically PI-focused visibility, research, funding, and scholarships would improve PI quality of life.