Over the past few years, the STAATUS index survey has asked Americans to name a famous Asian American. For three years in a row the most common response has been “I don’t know.” Number 2 has been Jackie Chan, who is not American, and number 3 has been Bruce Lee, who has been dead for more than fifty years.
I speak with many Asian American kids and adults across the United States, and a common theme that comes up in these conversations is invisibility. This includes feeling overlooked, having others make assumptions about their personalities and skill-sets based on stereotypes, and being regularly mistaken for other Asian people. And, critically, it includes a glaring lack of representation in history and literature instruction. Most Americans do not learn many, if any, Asian American histories and stories in school. In this absence, it’s no wonder that “I don’t know” remains at the top of our nation’s popular consciousness.