Anti-Asian American violence is still raging. AAPI teachers are trying to stop it.

• Asian Americans make up more than 7% of the U.S., yet account for just 2% of teachers.
• USA TODAY interviewed more than a dozen Asian American educators, all of whom said they themselves learned virtually no Asian American history until college.
• AAPI educators say they teach lessons about other locations Japan attacked in WWII or the importance of Spam in the Philippines.

Carla Cariño plugs Asian American history as often as she can – even by advocating for Spam.

A veteran ethnic studies teacher in Denver Public Schools, Cariño regularly draws from her own experiences as a Filipina American. Recently, in modeling a writing assignment for students, Cariño challenged historical stigmas about Spam, the canned pork, and celebrated Asian ingenuity that reinvented it.