AAPI Heritage Month: How equity and inclusion foster California’s growth | Opinion

Inclusion is not a concession. It’s California’s competitive edge.

This May, as we celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, we are reminded that diversity, equity and inclusion is more than a set of values — it’s a vital force behind California’s workforce resilience, public trust and long-term economic growth.

These efforts deliver real results for more than six million Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander residents in California. These aren’t symbolic wins; they’re structural investments that benefit every part of our state.

But recent federal actions are dismantling systems and protections for our community. As federal commitments erode, the responsibility to protect inclusive policy — and the communities that depend on it — increasingly falls on state and local leaders. For Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities, the risks are immediate and specific:

▪ In the workforce, rollbacks have reduced access to employee resource groups, mentorship and advancement pathways. AAPI workers participate in these programs at nearly twice the national average. Their disappearance threatens retention, visibility and belonging in high-performing workplaces.

▪ In education, these changes disproportionately affect underrepresented AAPI subgroups — such as Southeast Asian, Pacific Islander and refugee communities — who already face barriers to college access and completion. Aggregated data often hides these disparities, and cuts to scholarships, grants and other funding could jeopardize financial aid for the 66% of Asian American and 74% of Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander undergraduate students who rely on it (totaling over 1.3 million Asian American and 111,000 NHPI students).

▪ In public health, the lack of disaggregated data and representation in the health workforce deepens mistrust and drives disparities within our communities: 19.4% of Asian adults compared to 12.9% of white adults report being without a source of health care. Within individual communities, the data is even more striking: Cambodians and Vietnamese people are three times more likely to skip doctor visits due to cost compared to all Asians or U.S. residents.

And yet, California has shown us a different path that doesn’t treat equity as an afterthought or a burden, but as a strategy.

In 2021, the state launched the AAPI Equity Budget: a $166.5 million investment in public safety, disaggregated data and language access. It was the first of its kind in the nation and helped California reach communities long overlooked by the status quo.

The impact was real: Community-based programs gained stability. Language access expanded in critical areas like mental health and disaster response. State agencies began working with AAPI Californians not as a monolith, but with data-informed and nuanced approaches.

The result? Improved outcomes and increased trust — not only in institutions, but in the idea that government can work for everyone.

Diversity, equity and inclusion is a public good that improves lives: helping patients communicate with doctors in their language, revealing hidden health disparities, guiding educators to connect with diverse students and ensuring economic progress reaches every community.

As federal support weakens, California must choose: reinforce what works or risk losing it. The tools exist. The model is proven. The question is whether we’ll act.

The progress we’ve made doesn’t just serve one community. It serves all Californians. When diversity, equity and inclusion is embedded into policy, everyone benefits. Inclusive economies are more resilient. Diverse teams drive innovation. Equitable systems foster stability and trust.

This AAPI Heritage Month, we are reminded that representation is not the end goal, it’s the starting point. California’s strength has always come from its ability to include, adapt and innovate. That doesn’t happen by accident. It happens by design.

This story was originally published May 24, 2025 at 6:00 AM with the headline "AAPI Heritage Month: How equity and inclusion foster California’s growth | Opinion."