Did You Know?

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Over 10% of Evanston's residents identify as ASPA, and that percentage isn't accurate.  Due to the limitations of boxes on census and city surveys, the term "Asian American" does not resonate with many who identify as ASPA.  South Asians, for example, seldom identify with the term because the general understanding is that Asian American refers to East Asians.  Filipinx, and other communities whose countries were colonized by the Spanish, sometimes identify as Latinx.  Further, in Evanston, there are many mixed families, especially White-ASPA families, with family members who might identify as "mixed race."

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Despite the fact that ASPA's have lived in Evanston for generations, and there is a solid and growing number of ASPA's in Evanston, historical data, community stories, and artifacts are nowhere to be found.  The lack of documentation of a community is a function of white supremacy.  It is a systemic erasure of a people.  The perpetual foreigner stereotype is one that has been applied to ASPA's in the U.S.  Regardless of whether they were born in or the US or your family has been in the US for multiple generations you are not American.  This certainly rings true if it is supported by a lack of documentation that a community ever existed.

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“By not showing up in American history, by not hearing about Asian Americans

in schools, that contributes to that sense of foreignness.”

- Sarah-SoonLing Blackburn, Teacher-Educator

  Southern Poverty Law Center’s Learning for Justice initiative

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In 2021, the TEAACH Act was passed in the state of Illinois, mandating that Asian American history be taught in all IL K-12 public schools.  Although this is a significant step towards ensuring that ASPA people and stories are brought to light, we have to ensure that the ASPA experience in the U.S. is not reduced to a monolithic experience and limited to facts and dates.  We can start by ensuring that students who are learning in our D65 and D202 have access to ASPA people and stories in their own community.  ASPA students should be able to read, see and hear about people whose stories reflect their own, and non ASPA students should be able to find ways to make personal connections to the ASPA experience in their own community.  How can we teach Asian American history without knowing our own ASPA history here in our city?

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The Kitchen Table Stories Project is partnering with the Evanston History Center on a project called "Placemaking."  The goal is to establish an accessible archive of the ASPA community in Evanston.  We are currently researching historical documents and artifacts, and gathering oral histories to include in the archive.  The goal is to unearth these stories that have been hidden for so long, and to establish a timeline for the ASPA community in Evanston.

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