Motivating inclusion: Asian American Heritage Club
By Olivia Kerber
This month, senior Lydia Wang kicked off the revival of the Asian American Heritage Club. The club, inactive for a couple of years before its rebirth, has returned to Owasso High School. The club epitomizes representation and remains steadfast in its commitment to cultural diversity.
A lot of people don't understand Wang's culture.
Wang explains the interaction that prompted her to want to renew the club, saying, “To be honest, it was because of a kind of racist comment I heard last year. It was a girl who I thought was my friend, but she was very ignorant about race. It kind of made me realize that a lot of people are like that, and they just don't know a lot about Asian culture specifically.”
(Asian American Heritage Club poster made by Lydia Wang)
She extended her sentiment by expressing, “It kind of upset me that people thought it was okay to make jokes about it… without understanding my [Chinese] culture.”
Wang couldn't shake the incident, and she decided she had to do something.
“That drove me to want to create a space for people to learn about my culture because I don't want people to make ignorant jokes and hurt [others].”
With Wang's unwavering intentions, the Asian American Heritage Club is bound to succeed. Although the club has only had a few meetings so far, it has already prompted conversations about different cultures. The club might only meet for a short period of time, but that time is used to its fullest by creating a space for conversations about culture and striving for unique learning experiences.
“Everyone has unique experiences that allow them to do new things that other people just can't, because they haven't had the life that the person has,.” Wang illustrates. “I think it is really important to share that; I think it's really important to connect with people and connect with a lot of people from different backgrounds because there is so much we can learn from each other.”
Despite the club being about Asian American Heritage, all are welcome, no matter their background. The goal of the club is to educate and discover Asian culture. The gravity of understanding other cultures is something that can apply to everyone despite their own race.
“I started a club for everyone to become more aware of my culture, and of other people's culture too,” Wang affirmed. “The point is everyone is here, everyone is welcome, and everyone is included, because all I want is for everyone to learn.”
In the future, Wang plans on continuing this by initiating discussions about the similarities and differences between different Asian cultures.
She expounds upon everyone's necessity to learn by stating, “I still have so much to learn. You see, I'm just Chinese, and I haven't experienced what it's like to be another kind of Asian American, because I feel like those experiences differ.”
The Asian American Heritage Club creates an area for profound discourse surrounding cultural experiences, while simultaneously creating a mosaic that reflects the communities diversity and inclusiveness. Be sure to be at their next meeting! If you are interested in joining, they meet every other Friday in room E4, after school from 2:45 to 3:15.