MR x AAPIP: Fifty Years Later: Southeast Asians Are Still Not on the Radar—That Must Change Now
Participants of Andrew’s session at the AAPIP conference.
Moving Rasa had the honor of being selected by Asian American Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP) to share a prototype of Movement Tarot with funders, foundations, and organizations. The session was attended mostly by Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander people. It went well, and it would have been nice to see other parts of the AAPI community show up for this event. We had a fun, insightful time making our questions come to life by stepping into a movement relationship with our cards.
Reflections from the 2025 AAPIP Conference and a Call for Philanthropic Justice
Over 450 people gathered to explore how philanthropy could better serve AAPI communities. This was the first time Andrew had ever been in a philanthropy space. The conference made an attempt to lift up the often marginalized voices of Southeast Asians and Pacific Islanders.
This year marks 50 years since the official end of the U.S. war in Southeast Asia. But for many Southeast Asians—Vietnamese, Cambodian, Lao, Hmong, and Indonesians—the war never truly ended.
Its aftermath lives on in our families, in the chronic underfunding of our communities, and in the silences that still surround our histories.
The Data is Clear—But Still Ignored
When philanthropy talks about AAPI people, the data is often aggregated in a way that erases our experiences. But disaggregated statistics tell the real story:
Burmese, Cambodian, Hmong, and Laotian Americans have some of the lowest median incomes and education levels of all Asian subgroups.
In 2019, Burmese Americans had a median income of $44,400—about half the national Asian American average.
Only 18% of Laotian Americans hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 75% of Indian Americans.
In 2020, 71% of nonprofits serving AAPI communities received no new foundation funding at all. That underinvestment is even worse for Southeast Asian-led efforts.
These are not gaps. They are systemic erasures.
Southeast Asians Are Not “Emerging”—We Are Here
Too often, we are labeled as “emerging communities” or lumped into vague ethnic categories that render our needs invisible.
But our people have been organizing, healing, and surviving for generations. We are not new. We are not peripheral. We are here.
And we deserve to be resourced now, not in some future funding cycle.
A Call to Philanthropy
To Southeast Asian organizers:
Your labor, your leadership, and your love are essential.
To funders:
Stop waiting. Move the money. Support our work, fully and boldly.
To fellow AAPI and BIPOC communities:
Solidarity isn’t just symbolic—it’s survival. Let’s build together.
Fifty years is long enough.
Now is the time to invest in Southeast Asian healing, leadership, and vision.
Justice isn’t incremental. It’s intersectional.
And our funding must be, too.