Art by Natalie Bui courtesy of 18MR
APAHM Spotlight: 18MillionRising
In honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, we sat down with Cayden Mak, Executive Director of @18MR, an organization that works to organize young Asian Americans online with a strong focus on building knowledge and identity. With Cayden living in the Midwest, he didn’t have a strong concept of what it meant – or could mean – to be Asian American, but finding the Internet meant finding a like-minded community that didn’t exist in his hometown. For him, this work is urgent. Let’s dive in.
How does 18MillionRising incorporate the importance of activism within the Asian/Pacific Islander community?
Activism by, for, and in Asian American and Pacific Islander communities is critical because our influence on culture is growing. From entertainment to politics, Asian Americans are becoming more visible. We can use this opportunity to make it clear what we stand for and why, or be manipulated by people who don’t have our best interests at heart for their own agendas. In order to properly defend against that kind of dis-organizing, it’s critical to be visionary in what we want, and our activism is about really about that vision. Now is the time to get organized and get involved.
When discussing the importance and impact of immigration within the Asian/Pacific Islander community, what are some common misconceptions about the community?
I don’t think a lot of people realize just how many ethnic groups, nationalities, and languages are encompassed in the umbrella of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. This plays out in a lot of ways, but I notice that people sometimes don’t have an appreciation for the wide variety of experiences that AAPI new arrivals in the United States have. Whether due to class, faith community, reason for emigrating, or any of many other factors, AAPI immigrants struggle against the systems that other communities of color struggle against. For example, the Cambodian American community has been brutally targeted by Immigration & Customs Enforcement over the past few years, but if you live somewhere without a large Cambodian American community, you might not be aware of it.
It seems cliche to say, but AAPIs are far from the model minority stereotype that you often see in the media. It bears repeating, though, because that stereotype was invented to shame and blame Black communities for their own struggles – it’s shorthand for saying, “If Asian immigrants could do it, why couldn’t you?” which elides how immigration policy has shaped the most visible parts of the Asian American community while erasing the ongoing implicit and explicit rules that have kept Black communities from gaining wealth and power in our society -- starting with the way the Thirteenth Amendment was even written.
Let’s talk about your operating principle of “Co-Conspirators Instead of Allies.” How do the truths of anti-Black racism and settler colonialism affect the Asian/Pacific Islander community?
From the colonization of many of our home countries by Europe and the United States to the way skin color impacted the way those colonizers related to and categorized our homelands, it’s easy to see the way these things have played out for us, historically. It’s also the case that here, in the U.S. and in the present, our communities have an uneasy relationship with both anti-Black racism and settler colonialism.
For example, like the vast majority of Americans, we’re settlers – even if we came here as refugees, we have an important role to play in decolonizing this place and supporting Indigenous sovereignty on Hawai’i and the mainland. Our work is focused on figuring out how to come from a place of strength and power rooted in developing our identities as Asian Americans, so we can work as peers and equals with Black, Indigenous, and other people dedicated to mutual liberation.
We’re so grateful for the work that Cayden and his team at @18MR are doing. What has been your experience growing up Asian American? Use the hashtag #APAHM to share your story.
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