Honoring Asian Pacific American Heritage Month at Google
This year, for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, Google is reaffirming its commitment to standing with the Asian and Pacific Islander community in the fight against hatred, while also honoring the diversity of different Asian cultures and elevating API voices. We’re doing this in part by launching a number of initiatives that uplift the API community through our products and in our own workplace.
Our commitments to help #StopAsianHate
We’re honored to grow our support for the organizations on the front lines fighting for safety, dignity and equity for the API community and have committed more than $10 million toward this critical work.
There’s an urgent need to improve the psychological and physical safety of the API community. To help, we’ve donated more than $3 million in Google.org cash grants to Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC, The National Council of Asian Pacific Americans and more than 35 local organizations across the country that provide physical protection services and mental health resources. These organizations include Self Help for the Elderly in the San Francisco Bay Area, Asian Counseling and Referral Service (ACRS) in Seattle, the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council (A3PCON) in Los Angeles and the Asian American Federation in New York City.
We also understand that the challenges facing the API community require sustained attention in order to achieve lasting change. That’s why we’re providing $3.5 million in Ad Grants to Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC, The National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, Stop AAPI Hate and more to help fund incident reporting, bystander training and the advancement of civil rights for the Asian Pacific Islander community.
Sharing our own history, celebrating our breakthroughs and educating the world about how we experience racism are critically important in this moment. So, we’re elevating API voices by providing $4 million in YouTube Ad Credits to nonprofits, creators and storytellers who are championing the #StopAsianHate movement.
These organizations and individuals are doing the work required to create meaningful change.
A spotlight on Asian and Pacific Islander art and culture
Throughout May, we’ll be elevating the voices of influential and inspirational members of the API community across our products and platforms. Today, the Google homepage celebrates the life and work of Hisaye Yamamoto, a Japanese-American author who was interned during WWII. Hisaye’s work reveals the Japanese immigrant experience in America, the disconnect between first- and second-generation immigrants, as well as the intersectional challenges she experienced.
Google Arts & Culture is also launching a hub dedicated to Asian American and Pacific Islander experiences alongside more than 48 partners, including the Museum of Chinese in America, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, the Center for Asian American Media and the Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design — to name a few. It features more than 114 online stories, and thousands of cultural artifacts, archives and artworks that dive into a rich history, such as the emotional story of the Chinese Poetry engraved on the walls of Angel Island by detainees of the Immigration Station.