CAPA-NoVA Survey Report on Calling for Actions to Stop Asian Hate
By 王军 (Jun Wang), April 2, 2021
Executive Summary
On March 25-April 2 2021, the Chinese American Parents Association of Northern Virginia (CAPA-NoVA) conducted a survey of our community to gain their inputs on the actions that the FCPS School Board and CAPA NoVA should take to stop Asian discrimination and hate.
707 people participated in the survey, including several other Asian members. 100% of the participants support the proposed actions outlined in CAPA NoVA’s letter to the FCPS School Board on March 22. Our community urged the Board to consider the March 22 CAPA NoVA letter and develop a comprehensive action plan to 1) increase awareness, learning and recognition of the Asian American history and contributions in the school curriculum and the staff training programs; 2) increase bias trainings and enforce policies to stop anti-Asian racism behaviors and bullying; 3) evaluate and ensure the fair representation of the Asian Americans in the FCPS committees and decision-making process; and 4) enhance safety around the campus.
The survey participants also recommend that the Board has frequent and transparent communications with the Asian American communities to get feedback and share the progress of the action plans.
Based on the survey results as of April 2, 2021, the CAPA NoVA leadership team compiled this report and submitted it to the FCPS Board members for review.
Detailed Survey Results
100% of the survey participants supported the proposed actions outlined in the March 22 CAPA NoVA letter to the FCPS School Board. The section below includes a selective list of comments from the survey participants, to share additional inputs from the community.
Advocacy to the FCPS School Board:
- Hope the FCPS School Board can propose practical plans against Asian discrimination and hate, and apply in all schools of FCPS.
- Hope the FCPS School Board will start discussion on every motion proposed by CAPA-NoVA as soon as possible.
- Include the Asian American history in school curriculum is the perfect way for FCPS to truly show their support and respect to the AAPI community.
- Asian Americans should have equal rights and equal opportunities.
- We should work together with all to minimize stereotypes and tolerate/respect differences.
- The FCPS School Board needs to stop its bias toward the Asian American students.
- Stop identity politics and CRT propaganda as they will create more hate in the community.
- Promoting equity should not be done by taking opportunities away from Asians, another vulnerable group. There are better ways to fix equity problems.
- Recruit and hire more Asian employees.
- FCPS should have zero tolerance against bully and racism behaviors.
- Educate kids to cope with the situations in recent incidents.
- Educate FCPS students on behaviors and self-control.
- Respect everyone, take care of kids from disadvantaged families, but don’t judge by skin color.
- Encourage merit based evaluations.
- Support gifted education.
- TJ admission should be merit based instead of quota by demographic composition.
- Motivate our kids to focus on their education and reward their efforts.
- FCPS need to learn from Asian countries/families on how to improve education quality, instead of lowering education standards.
- Open a Chinese Immersion Program.
- Allow students to provide inputs on teachers’ performance.
- What steps/strategies will FCPS take to address this year’s deficit of learning, so students are prepared for their next year’s courses?
- Add Lunar New Year to school holidays.
- Add Asian American history in school textbooks.
- Provide periodic newsletters regarding Asia American cultures and/or other updates.
- Teaching history of different cultures will help people understand different cultures.
- Cover both contributions and struggles of Asian Americans.
Suggestions for CAPA-NoVA:
- Voice for the community, service the community.
- Build alliance with other Asian American communities and beyond.
- Invite FPCS school board members to meet with Chinese American community, at least twice a year, to learn about Chinese community and get input.
- Utilize not only WeChat, but also other social media to advocate.
- Organize activities that kids can involve.
- Advocate to the General Assembly to include Asian American history studies in all public schools
- NoVA should also include LCPS, not just FCPS. This should be a state wide effort.
- By all means improve understanding of Chinese Americans in other cultures.
- Find ways to protect kids effectively.
- Please provide a report on future development of this motion.
- Collect input from the community, represent the community, advocate for Asian Americans, help Asian Americans and people of other races live in harmony.
- Unite Chinese Americans with various political opinions. Strongly oppose discriminative language such as “China Virus”.
- Just learned the existence of your org through a WeChat food group. Maybe more promotion and outreaching to Chinese parents?
Suggestions for the community:
- Advocate voting, and build a voting force to sway election results.
- Have more Asian school board members.
- Encourage candidates from the community to run for elections.
- We should also have more Asians, and especially Chinese representatives on the school board.
- Starting with children, increase the communication of different cultures to reduce racial hate.
Quotes from Asian Americans outside Chinese Community:
- “Include South Korea culture.”
— from a Korean American
- “Listen to all the complains from parents.”
— from a Vietnamese American
- “Only to make sure to include more than just east and south Asians into the curriculum. I am south East Asian (Indonesian), and often feel excluded from the “Asian” conversation.”
— from an Indonesian American
