Ascend

Ascend is the largest, non-profit Pan-Asian organization for business professionals in North America. Established in 2005, Ascend has grown to serve professionals and corporations across various professions and across multiple industries. Ascend reaches 60,000 people with 30 student chapters and 17 professional chapters located in both the United States and Canada around major business hubs and educational institutions. Ascend offers professional development and career enhancement programs designed to cultivate Pan-Asian talent.

Asian American Advertising Federation
The Asian American Advertising Federation is made up of Asian-American advertising principals, media, advertisers and strategic partners. Its mission is to grow the Asian-American advertising and marketing industry, raise public awareness of the Asian-American community and further professionalism within the industry.

The Asian American Architects and Engineers Association

AAAESC provides a platform for empowering professionals working in the built environment in personal and professional growth, business development and networking, and leadership in the Asian American community.

Asian American Business Development Center
Since its establishment in 1994, the Asian American Business Development Center has been striving to assist Asian-American businesses in strengthening their capacities to compete in the mainstream marketplace, to expand business opportunities and to promote greater recognition of the contribution of Asian-American businesses to the general economy.

Asian American Government Executives Network (AAGEN)

The Asian American Government Executives Network (AAGEN), founded in 1993, is a non-profit, non-partisan organization of the highest ranking Asian American and Pacific Islander career and appointed executives, foreign service officers, legislative and judiciary members, and military officers in Government.

Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA)
The Asian American Journalists Association is a nonprofit professional and educational organization with more than 2,300 members. AAJA serves Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders by encouraging young people to consider journalism as a career, developing managers in the media industry and promoting fair and accurate news coverage.

Asian American Legal Defense & Education Fund (AALDEF)
The Asian American Legal Defense & Education Fund is the first legal rights organization on the East Coast serving Asian Americans. It was founded by a group of lawyers, law students and community activists who believed that the law should be used as a tool to achieve social and economic justice for Asian Americans and all Americans.

Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF)
Headquartered in Oakland, APIAHF influences policy, mobilizes communities, and strengthens programs and organizations to improve the health of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders.

APIAHF supports local AA and NHPI communities to have an influence on local, state, and national policy by providing policy and political analysis, research and data support, and effective communications strategies.

Asian Women in Business
Asian Women in Business is a not-for-profit membership organization created to assist Asian-American women in understanding their entrepreneurial potential.

Asian Pacific American Chamber of Commerce (APACC)

The mission of the Asian Pacific American Chamber of Commerce is to facilitate business relationships among Asian and U.S. based companies and to promote the economic advancement of Asian Pacific Americans.

Asian Pacific American Medical Students Association
The Asian Pacific American Medical Students Association is a national organization that aims to address issues important to Asian-American students studying medicine.

The Center for Asian Pacific American Women
The Center for Asian Pacific American Women (formerly The Asian Pacific American Women’s Leadership Institute) is the only national, nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing and enriching leadership skills for Asian-American and Pacific-Islander women leaders. Its mission is to address the challenges facing Asian-American and Pacific-Islander women and to nurture trusteeship within their communities by expanding leadership capacity, fostering awareness of Asian-American and Pacific-Island issues, creating a supportive network of Asian-American and Pacific-Island women and strengthening community.

Committee of 100

The Committee of 100 is a national non-partisan organization composed of American citizens of Chinese descent. Each member has achieved positions of leadership in the United States in a broad range of professions. With these diverse backgrounds, members collectively pool their strengths and experience to address important issues concerning the Chinese-American community, as well as issues affecting U.S.-China relations.

Federal Asian Pacific American Council

FAPAC is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization representing the civilian and military Asian Pacific American (APA) employees in the Federal and District of Columbia governments. The mission is to promote equal opportunity and cultural diversity for APAs within the Federal and District of Columbia governments. FAPAC encourages the participation and advancement of APAs in the Government work force.

Japanese American Citizens League (JACL)
The Japanese American Citizens League was founded to address issues of discrimination against people of Japanese ancestry residing in the United States. It is the largest and one of the oldest Asian-American organizations in the United Sates.

Korean American Coalition (KAC)
The Korean American Coalition is a nonprofit service, education and advocacy organization that facilitates Korean-American participation in civic, legislative and community affairs. KAC has grown into a national organization with membership chapters in several cities along the West Coast, Alaska and Hawaii and affiliate organizations on the East Coast. With more than a dozen full-time staff and a large base of volunteers, KAC provides a variety of direct and indirect services to the fast growing Korean-American communities across the nation.**

National Asian Pacific American Bar Association
The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association monitors legislative developments and judicial appointments, promotes Asian/Pacific American (APA) political leadership, advocates for equal opportunity in education and in the workplace, works to eliminate violence against APAs and builds coalitions on these issues and others within the legal profession and the community at-large.

National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum
The mission of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum is to forge a grassroots progressive movement for social and economic justice and the political empowerment of Asian and Pacific-American women and girls.

National Association of Asian American Professionals
The National Association of Asian American Professionals is a nonprofit, all-volunteer organization whose mission is to promote the personal and professional development of the Asian-American community.

National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development
The National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development is the first national advocacy organization dedicated to addressing the community development, organizing and advocacy needs of the diverse and rapidly growing Asian-American and Pacific-Islander communities nationwide

NetIP North America (Network of Indian Professionals)

NetIP North America’s mission is to serve as a voice for the South Asian Diaspora and to provide a vehicle for South Asian professionals to enhance the communities in which they work and live. Areas of focus for the organization include economic growth and security, cultural awareness and preservation, family needs and education and learning.

The Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers (SASE)

The Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers (SASE) was founded in November 2007 to help Asian heritage scientific and engineering professionals achieve their full potential. Organizations existed for other affinity groups – The National Society of Black Engineers, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, and the Society of Women Engineers – and there was a need for a similar organization where students representing all of the pan Asian cultures could connect and support each other.

South Asian Bar Association of North America

The South Asian Bar Association of North America (SABA) seeks to strengthen the rapidly growing South Asian legal community with a recognized and trusted forum for professional growth and advancement, and promotes the civil rights and access to justice for the South Asian community.

U.S. Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce
The U.S. Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce is a nonprofit organization that represents Asian- and non-Asian-American businesses and professionals in business, sciences, the arts, sports, education, entertainment, community and public service through advocacy, education, information and networking.

The post Asian American Organizations You Need to Know appeared first on Seramount.

In addition, we provide a couple of tips on how to structure your programming in order to get the best out of the material you choose (from this list or your own).

If you have read, watched or listened to anything in the last year that you would add to the list, please let us know!

Books

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu

Interior Chinatown is a great book to use to prompt a discussion about Hollywood tropes and Asian stereotypes. The novel takes place somewhere in between a real life Chinatown and a movie set, where Willy Wu is “Generic Asian man…but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy—the most respected role that anyone who looks like him can attain.”

A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza

A Place for Us is a family drama about an Indian, Muslim family in the Bay Area that starts at the wedding of the oldest daughter. The story goes back and forth in time slowly putting the pieces of the puzzle together as to why the youngest brother is estranged from the family. The story is beautifully written and allows us into the most intimate aspects of this family’s celebrations and challenges as they navigate their faith and what it means to be a family.

Frankly in Love by David Yoon

This young adult novel centers on Frank Li, a Korean-American teenager navigating between his parents’ traditional values and expectations and the realities of being a teenager in a diverse Southern California. The book is filled with charming characters, humor and family challenges, but at the core it is an exploration of culture and identity and asks the question: who am I?

Television and Movies

The Farewell written and directed by Lulu Wang

This film “based on an actual lie” tells the story of a family returning to Changchun, China to gather around the matriarch of the family who has been given weeks to live, a fact the family has not shared with her. From the producers’ website: The Farewell is a heartfelt celebration of both the way we perform family and the way we live it, masterfully interweaving a gently humorous depiction of the good lie in action with a richly moving story of how family can unite and strengthen us, often in spite of ourselves.

Patriot Act: Don’t Ignore The Asian Vote In 2020

Patriot Act is a Netflix series hosted by Hasan Minhaj that explores social, economic and political issues through a combination of hard-hitting journalism and humor. Although a little out of date (Andrew Yang was still in the running for the Democratic nomination), this particular episode presents some compelling data about the Asian American population and their potential political influence in the upcoming election. Also, it is incredibly funny.

And…a podcast

NPR’s Codeswitch: When Xenophobia Spreads Like a Virus

To help people to understand the larger context of the current state of xenophobia and racism directed at Asian and Asian-American people, we recommend NPR Codeswitch’s recent episode, When Xenophobia Spreads Like a Virus. It frames the current situation by looking at the history of anti-Asian racism and xenophobia in this country and shares the voices of people who have experienced this sort of hate over the last several weeks. The podcast is only 25 minutes long and would make a great conversation starter for a virtual discussion at your organization to explore these issues.

Tips

Tip #1: The Book Club Model is Not Just for Books

One of the most difficult challenges when planning this type of program is time. Most events or gatherings need to be an hour or less and take place during the work day at a time that is convenient for as many people as possible. Not an easy task. Using a book club model to discuss movies and television is one way to address this. Employees are invited to read a book or watch a film or television show on their own time and come ready to discuss it with fellow employees either in person, if possible, or virtually. You can set multiple times for people to meet and/or encourage teams to use part of their regular meeting to talk about the content.

Consider preparing three or four discussion questions for each piece of content that people can use as conversation starters.

Tip #2: Show Short Clips (or read short passages) as Conversation Starters

No time to show a full length film or an hour-long episode of a television show? Find a powerful clip from the movie or episode that can stand alone without too much context that you can show and discuss. This would also work for books by reading aloud a short passage from a book to kick off a conversation. You would be surprised by how much people love having books read to them out loud!

Pro tip: you can sometimes find audio clips from books on publishers’ websites if you would prefer to use them instead of reading aloud.

The post 5 Books, TV Shows, Movies (and One Podcast) to Get your Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Programming Started appeared first on Seramount.