Building Self-Worth by Dr. Don Vu
One of my favorite things to do as a principal was to go into classrooms and read aloud to kids. I fondly remember one afternoon reading a story about Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani Nobel Peace Prize winner who has dedicated her life to empowering and educating girls throughout the world. I was reading to a group of second-grade students and noticed one girl gently stroking her hijab while listening intently. I gave her an encouraging look as I stopped to turn the page. She took the cue and said, loud enough for the whole group to hear, “I’m wearing what she wears. It makes me happy and proud.” What she said struck me because years before, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks,
many of our Muslim families were sending their girls to school without their hijabs for fear of prejudice and discrimination. Sadly, they were willing to give up a part of their identity so that their children would be safe in school. I was elated to hear my second grader’s excitement for seeing herself in a book, for making a connection between herself and the heroine in the story. I know that hearing Malala’s story made a difference to her that day, but I was also reminded that the prejudice and discrimination in the world come from hate and fear of the unknown. This hate and fear come from not knowing the stories of others. This happened to our Muslim community almost 25 years ago, and this is why we continue to see skyrocketing incidences of hate crimes against Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPI) in our post-pandemic world today. We tend to hate and fear what we don’t know. And we don’t know or share enough stories about our AANHPI community. In a national survey conducted by The Asian American Foundation (TAAF) in 2022, 58% of Americans could not name a single prominent AANHPI person (LAAUNCH/TAAF, 2022). Today, you may be able to name a few (can you?), but this highlights the continued invisibility of this community in our society.
16 • Rising Voices: Amplifying AANHPI Narratives
RVAANHPI_TG_K-5_Sampler.indd 16
1/30/26 11:02 AM
14 | Rising Voices: Amplifying AANHPI Narratives
Made with FlippingBook - PDF hosting