“You can't expect to do better unless you know better. Understanding who we are collectively - Asian-Americans and non-Asians.”
Representative Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, serves in Illinois' General Assembly - representing Illinois’ 17th District since 2019. Jennifer was the co-sponsor of a recently passed the nation’s FIRST Asian-American history curriculum bill - the TEAACH (Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History Act) - which is a big deal. Not just that it passed (long overdue), but that it will hopefully prove as a template in many other states around our country.
Jennifer's many things - a politician, a lawyer, and advocate, a mom. She’s the granddaughter of Chinese immigrants who fought deportation under the Chinese Exclusion Act. Her sense of justice was instilled from an early age through her parents - active in the civil rights and women’s rights movements - making Jennifer a determined fighter for the voiceless and the vulnerable her entire adult life - taking on transnational human traffickers and aggressively defending the rights of unaccompanied immigrant children. Providing access to justice to our community’s most vulnerable residents - developing legal capacity to represent Dreamers, domestic violence survivors, and low-income residents.
For Jennifer - the law is a piece of a greater system to be shaped to be more inclusive for all. But it’s ultimately about building greater empathy and understanding amongst ALL Americans.
LEARN ABOUT REP. JENNIFER GONG-GERSHOWITZ
Website: gonggershowitz.com
Illinois General Assembly: ilga.gov/house/Rep.asp?MemberID=2744
TEAACH ACT: politico.com/news/2021/05/31/aapi-history-education-illinois-491324
FOLLOW JENNIFER ON SOCIAL
Twitter: @gonggershowitz
Instagram: @jengonggershowitz
MENTIONS
CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT
PBS SHOW: Asian-Americans
BOOK: The Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan)
BOOK: The Woman Warrior (Maxine Hong Kingston)
FILM: Minari (2020)
BOOK: Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans (Ronald Takaki)
BOOK: Asian Americans: An Interpretive History (Sucheng Chan)
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