麻豆传媒

National Arab American Heritage Month (NAAHM) takes place annually throughout the month of April. During the month, Arab American heritage, culture and achievements are celebrated and recognized.

C茅sar Ch谩vez, Mexican鈥揂merican civil-rights activist, practiced nonviolent resistance to improve the working and living conditions of farm workers in the United States. Having experienced injustice growing up in the early 1930鈥檚, C茅sar Ch谩vez saw his father work the land where his home was located in Arizona only to have it taken from them in a broken land agreement. Following this life-changing event, the Ch谩vez family moved to California, eventually settling in San Jose where C茅sar encountered racism and segregation throughout his early years in school. After the eighth grade, C茅sar quit school to become a migrant farm worker when his father was no longer able to work due to an accident. While his formal education ended, C茅sar never stopped learning and educating himself through books.

Introduced in 1997 by The National Association of the Deaf (NAD), National Deaf History Month recognized the accomplishments of people who are deaf and hard of hearing. National Deaf History Month has been celebrated annually from March 13 鈥� April 15 to recognize three key developments for the Deaf community: the opening of the first public school for the deaf, the founding of the first institution dedicated to advanced education for the deaf and hard of hearing, and the hiring of the first deaf president of Gallaudet University.

International Women鈥檚 Day, observed annually on March 8, has roots deep in political activism dating back to 1909. Originally held as National Woman鈥檚 Day in New York City, the Socialist Party of America organized the event to address both suffragist and socialist causes. Spreading to Europe, the first International Woman鈥檚 Day, organized by the socialist government of France, was recognized worldwide with over a million women participating. Declared an official Soviet holiday in 1917 by the communist party founder, Vladimir Lenin. Celebrated primarily by socialist countries until the mid-1970鈥檚, the United Nations General Assembly recognized March 8 as International Women鈥檚 Day beginning in 1975.

In March, we celebrate DREAMer Awareness Month. The term DREAMer is commonly used by students who relate with the DREAM (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Act movement. The movement also allows students to interrupt socialized ideas and terminology that are often used to describe them, such as illegal, alien, criminal, and so forth. In 2012, the Obama administration provided a reprieve from deportation and initiated the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. This program allows students to apply for a driver's license, social security number, and work permit. Under this program, approximately 680,000 DACA students are attending college and universities in the United States.

Throughout the month of March, we highlight Women's History Month. Organized by the school district of Sonoma, California, in 1978, Women's History Month was created to reshape American patriarchal history that largely neglected women's achievements. As we recognize Women's History Month, try to learn more about pioneering women, explore unfamiliar women like public health advocate, Annie Dodge Wauneka who was the first Native American to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom and Nobel Prize recipient Gertrude Elion, pharmacologist and biochemist, who invented an immunosuppressive drug key to organ transplants.

On February 20, we observe and celebrate World Day of Social Justice but what is 鈥榮ocial justice鈥�? According to Adams, Bell, and Griffin (2007), leading scholars in the field of social justice, 鈥淪ocial justice is both a process and a goal. The goal of social justice is full and equal participation of all groups in a society that is mutually shaped to meet their needs. Social justice includes a vision of society in which the distribution of resources is equitable and all members are physically and psychologically safe and secure. We envision a society in which individuals are both self-determining and interdependent.鈥�

As an early proponent of equal pay for equal work and the right of women to vote, Susan B. Anthony and others involved in the women鈥檚 suffrage movement, paved the way for women鈥檚 rights. We celebrate Susan B. Anthony Day on February 15, the day of her birth. Although she was not able to see her dream of women being given the right to vote before her death in 1906, her work contributed to the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920 that gave women that right. After having met William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass, she became an abolition activist and spoke openly against slavery. Beginning in 1851, she and Elizabeth Cady Stanton worked for over 50 years for women鈥檚 rights and, in particular, the right for women to vote.

Black Heritage Month, annually recognized during the month of February since 1976, originated with Dr. Carter G. Woodson as Negro History Week in 1926. Dr. Woodson, founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), dedicated his life and work to the study and sharing of African American History. Black Heritage Month is a time to amplify and bring to the forefront particular issues in the Black community and educate how Black people and the Black community contributed to history and society.

The Chinese New Year 2022 begins on Tuesday, February 1 and is celebrated for 15 days culminating with the Lantern Festival on February 15. According to the Chinese Zodiac, 2022 represents the Year of the Tiger and it is believed that persons born in this Zodiac are thought to be extremely competitive, courageous, and ambitious.

January 27 marks Holocaust Remembrance Day. It is a day established worldwide by the United Nations, and commemorates the liberation from the Auschwitz death camp and to honor the victims of Nazism. On this day and every day, we should remember the victims and survivors of the Holocaust and affirm our promise to never let this happen again. The 2022 theme of 鈥淢emory, Dignity and Justice鈥�, encourages the accurate writing of history and challenges Holocaust denial and the distortion of history often seen in antisemitism.

Next week we will honor the life, legacy, and accomplishments of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Most notable for his speeches that spoke truth to power, this day was not quickly deemed as a holiday as we see it today. Shortly after his assassination in 1968, the campaign to federally recognize Martin Luther King, Jr. began; however, it was not until 1983 that the holiday was signed into law. Finally, in 2000, all 50 states formally acknowledged and observed the holiday.