Second annual AAPI summit in Albany sees growth, celebrates culture

The New York State Assembly Asian Pacific American Task Force held its second annual Asian American and Pacific Islander summit on Thursday and Friday in Albany to celebrate its culture and promote awareness of issues confronting the community.

The group hosted a reception Thursday night to kick off the event before the summit on Friday. Thursday night’s keynote speaker was author Sheetal Sheth, who wrote a picture book featuring an Indian American girl hero.

Chair of the state Assembly Asian Pacific American Task Force, Assembly Member Grace Lee on Friday morning noted the summit was only in its second year and had already likely doubled the population of attendees.

“Even here in New York, with one of the largest and most diverse AAPI populations in the country, we had never come together like this in Albany until last year. And I want you guys to think about that, because the Black Caucus has had a legislative summit for over 50 years. The Hispanic Puerto Rican Task Force has had a summit for over 30 years, and we have been in this country for over 200 years, and this is only our second summit. We're a little bit behind,” Lee said at the Well of the Legislative Office Building. “We're going to catch up. But, this summit matters because representation doesn't mean just seeing someone who looks like us on a TV or on a ballot. It means being present in the rooms where decisions are made.”

Assembly Member Ron Kim, the first Korean American elected in the state in 2012, echoed a similar message, adding the demographic needed to hold the executive more accountable. 

“We need more Asian Americans in executive roles and administrative roles. More commissioners to actually enforce the laws that we're passing and more judges,” Kim told attendees. “That's where we are at this juncture in Asian American empowerment, because we can pass 1,000 laws, but administratively, they just punted over and rely on third parties like yourselves - nonprofits - which is great. You guys are all amazing, but it is an unfair burden on you, the nonprofit contractors, because you alone can't enforce those laws.”

State Sen. John Liu used as an example on one piece of legislation he and Kim have been pushing in recent years, which would increase diabetes screening and lower the Body Mass Index for the medical community to screen for the disease.

“A lot of Asian Americans have diabetes, and in fact, the diabetes prevalence in the AAPI community is far greater than the non AAPI community,” Liu said. “How come so many people have diabetes and die from it, is because we don't get screened. Why don't we get screened? Because the current standards are that you have to have a body mass index of at least 25 but a lot of Asians, you see them as mostly thinner.”

Also involved were state Sen. Jeremey Cooney and Assembly Member Steven Raga. Cooney was the first Asian American to be elected in upstate New York and represents the Rochester area. He made a point to recognize the people who traveled to it. 

“We have to work collectively to make sure that these laws aren't just ideas, but they get votes and they get passed and that we deliver for our communities,” he said.

Raga said that the summit is what civic participation looks like. “We know that this is such a historic endeavor, bringing our community together, talking about the issue together in the same room. It's so important. It's so critical,” he said in his remarks. 

Assembly members Zohran Mamdani, Jenifer Rakumar and Sarahana Shrestha also promoted the event. One of the last panels featured the stars of the Hulu show “Deli Boys,” Asif Ali and Saagar Shaikh, speaking about having one of the few shows that have ever starred AAPI actors.

“If you just play cab driver three times, you're just a cab driver for the rest of your career,” Shaikh said. “So what we did is ‘We're like, screw that. We're going to make our own stuff. So, we wrote and produced and directed our own sketches and short films where we got to play characters that we wanted to be in.”