She just wanted to see their culture in the classroom.
Expecting her third baby upon landing in Delaware, Amna Latif was ready to raise her children in the First State. She followed her husband to the University of Delaware while finishing her own doctorate in education. They had already followed one another before, all the way from Pakistan.
In no time, her oldest daughter bounced around daycares.
“I tried to find a place where my daughter could have a sense of belonging,” Latif remembered.
To end this journey, Latif would launch her own school. The now-director would take her degree and develop a curriculum dedicated to integrating different cultures and the study of Islam, all starting from inside her own home. Enrollment grew exponentially. Today, Tarbiyah School serves just under 200 students in Newark.
Latif knew she couldn’t be the only Asian Delawarean who hoped for this reflection, even on a small scale. Last month, she was reminded.
Make Us Visible Delaware just launched this fall, under the mission to push for more Asian American history to infuse with K-12 curricula in Delaware. The budding arm of a national organization hopes to engage with residents, schools and lawmakers throughout the state to see legislation crafted to the same end, followed by active implementation. These hopes mirror efforts in Connecticut, New Jersey, Florida and others.
The group brings together educators, parents, local school board members and a college student. And its primary goals are two-fold — to reduce anti-Asian violence and bullying, as well as celebrate and humanize the role of Asian Americans in U.S. history.
“The way they teach Asian American history right now is traumatizing,” said Devin Jiang, co-founder and junior at University of Delaware, sitting in a Newark coffee shop. His mind jumped to Japanese internment camps, Chinese railroad labor, historic immigration restrictions.
“And this makes people see Asian Americans as separate from American history….
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