About 200 Bay Area residents gathered for AAPI 5K’s run in hopes of raising awareness for minorities and creating a welcoming community for the month of May, also designated as Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month.
AAPI 5K is a community-driven organization, dedicated to celebrating the AAPI community. This year was AAPI 5K’s second year hosting a race in San Francisco.
Around 17.8 million Asian adults live in the U.S., and 78% of Asian adults have been treated as foreigners in some way, even if they are U.S. born, according to Pew Research.
“Our main hopes for this event are to celebrate the month of May for AAPI, support local Asian nonprofit organizations, and the AAPI community as a whole,” said Anthony Loui, the organizer of AAPI 5K.
The organization was created to diversify the community that participates in races and acts as an event to raise awareness since few are tailored to minorities.
“As a runner myself, whenever I show up to 5K’s, it is always about 90% Caucasian. There is nothing wrong with that, but there are a lot more people in the U.S. that do not identify with that group, and because of this, AAPI 5K was born,” Loui said.
Runners of varying experience and paces gathered to run the 5K.
“I have never done any running event in my life, but this 5K kept showing up, so I thought what a great idea because I just turned 36, and it is AAPI month,” said Jenny Yen, a participant in the AAPI 5K.
Aside from running, volunteers and nonprofit organizations viewed the event as an opportunity to get involved.
“I am part of the registration table, so as runners come up, I check them in, find their bib number, and give them a t-shirt if they have purchased one,” said Chi Pang, a volunteer at the race.
Aside from checking people in, the volunteers set drinks and cheered the runners at the finish line, creating a warm and supportive atmosphere.
“This is not my first time volunteering for this event. I have done it in the past and loved it, so I came back,” Pang said.
However, organizing the event did not come with ease. Race organizers faced many challenges, including marketing the event to nonprofits.
“Often, these nonprofits do not understand what we are trying to do. If you ask someone to fly, and they have never flown before, they will not go out of their way and learn about it; you have to teach them,” Loui said.
The AAPI 5K is held in various locations around the country. They have runs in six different major cities including Boston and New York.
“We started with the major metropolitan centers across the U.S. because it is easier to rally volunteers, runners, and partners, but in the future, we are looking at other bigger markets all over the U.S.,” Loui said.
However, the demographics that make up the participants are less diverse than AAPI 5K hoped they would be.
“For diversity, it is more about outreach and awareness. Of course, in a few years, it will be dominated by larger ethnicities, like Chinese or Korean, just because there is more of that demographic in these large cities,” Loui said.
Despite this, each year, AAPI 5K attempts to gather more and more people from different backgrounds instead of just the dominant ethnicities.
“We try to include people of Thai, Vietnam, Singapore, and more. We are not avoiding them; it just takes more effort to reach out to those smaller communities,” Loui said.
Events like the race are created to target awareness and hope to make a change in limiting discrimination while diversifying cities throughout the country.
“I want the AAPI community to be proud of who they are, their culture, and their heritage. Hopefully, we will end all struggles one step at a time,” Loui said.
