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Get informed about Asian American and Pacific Islander people and issues in your community.

Demographics | History | Community Organizations | News Sources | Seattle Voices | RSJI

AAPI Demographics

• Asian American and Pacific Islander Population in Washington State

• State of Washington Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs - APA Demographics

• A Community of Contrasts: Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States - Demographic Profile Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) are often perceived as a financially successful and well-educated community. Yet a new national report indicates that a large number of AAPIs are faced with poverty, overcrowded housing, and below average high school graduation rates. This report details one of the fastest growing populations in the United States and examines both the contributions and the needs of this diverse community.

AAPI History

• A Historical Timeline of Asians in America

• Asian Americans and Seattle's Civil Rights History 
  Resources for exploring the civil rights activism of Asian Americans in the Pacific Northwest. Included are activist oral histories, research reports, newspaper reports, photographic collections, maps, historical documents.

• A History Bursting With Telling: Asian Americans in Washington State 
  The documents that accompany this essay demonstrate how Chinese, Japanese, and Filipinos came to Washington, struggled against discrimination, labored to earn their living, and created distinctive cultures and identities. These documents chronicle, in a small way, how some Asian immigrants became Asian Americans.

• Filipino American National Historical Society 
  Founded in 1982, the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) is truly a community-based organization whose mission is “...to preserve, document, and present Filipino American history and to support scholarly research and artistic works which reflect that rich past...”

• Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project 
  Densho's mission is to: preserve the testimonies of Japanese Americans who were unjustly incarcerated during World War II before their memories are extinguished. We offer these irreplaceable firsthand accounts, coupled with historical images and teacher resources, to explore principles of democracy and promote equal justice for all.

• Cambodia Cultural Museum and Killing Fields Memorial 
  Founded by Dara Duong, a survivor from the 1975-1979 Killing Fields of Cambodia, the museum is a place where people of all communities can actively learn about Cambodian history and culture. 

• The Chinese Experience - Eyewitness 
  The Chinese American story is still unfolding as arriving immigrants strive to assimilate while other Chinese Americans help define the U.S. - a country that continues to reinvent itself. Here are stories from people who have lived the Chinese American saga first-hand.

• Wing Luke Asian Museum 
  The Wing Luke Asian Museum engages the Asian Pacific American communities and the public in exploring issues related to the culture, art and history of Asian Pacific Americans.

• Washington State Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs (CAPAA) 
  CAPAA handles advocacy, community education and outreach, as well as interagency and community collaborations to improve the well-being of the APA communities.

AAPI Community Agencies and Organizations 

      Local

• Inter*Im Community Development Association

• Filipino American Civic Employees of Seattle (FACES)

• Asian Pacific Islander Community Leadership Foundation

      National

• Asian American Justice Center works to advance the human and civil rights of Asian Americans through advocacy, public policy, public education, and litigation. AAJC is one of the nation's leading experts on issues of importance to the Asian American community including: affirmative action, anti-Asian violence prevention/race relations, census, immigrant rights, immigration, language access, and voting rights.

• National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development the first national advocacy organization dedicated to addressing the community development, organizing and advocacy needs of the diverse and rapidly growing Asian American and Pacific Islander communities nationwide.
  Video of their 6th annual convention: "Power of our Voices." 

AAPI News Sources 
Local AAPI publications available online. Also check your local newsstand for publications available in print only.

      Local

• International Examiner

• Northwest Asian Weekly

• The Asian Reporter

      National and International

• Asians in America Magazine

• AsianWeek

• Newspapers and News Sources from Asia...

AAPIs on Seattle Voices 
Host Eric Liu engages in one-on-one conversations with some of the most interesting, provocative, and inspiring people in Seattle, on The Seattle Channel's "Seattle Voices" program:

• Ron Chew, Executive Director, Wing Luke Asian Museum. Video

• Diane Narasaki, Executive Director for the Asian Counseling and Referral Center. Video

• Assunta Ng, Founder and Publisher of Northwest Asian Weekly & Seattle Chinese Post. Video

• Tomio Moriguchi, Chairman and CEO of Uwajimaya. Video

• Nhien Nguyen, Editor-in-chief of the International Examiner, a news journal for the Northwest region’s Asian American communities. Video

• Lori Matsukawa, Anchor for KING 5 News. Video

• Bob Santos, Community Leader and Activist.  Video

• Matt Kelley, Founder of MAVIN Foundation, an organization dedicated to multiracial youth and families. Video

• Gary Luke, editorial director of Sasquatch Books. Video

• Reverend Angela L. Ying, Founding Pastor of Bethany United Church of Christ. Video

• Tom Ikeda, Executive Director of Densho.  Video

• Enrique Cerna, Host of KCTS Connects.  Video

• Alan Sugiyama, Director of The Center for Career Alternatives. Video

• Martha Choe, Director of the Washington State Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development. Video

• Naomi Ishisaka, Editor of Colors NW magazine. Video

• Pramila Jayapal, Director of Hate Free Zone of Washington. Video

Race and Social Justice Initiative 
Seattle’s Race and Social Justice Initiative (RSJI) is a citywide effort to: 
Create a community where residents and employees experience our cultural and ethnic diversity as an asset; eliminate institutional attitudes, practices, and policies that result in racial disproportionality; 
understand the challenges that cultural pluralism places on democracy and transform our civic and citizen engagement processes to address those challenges.

Updated: May 14, 2008