ElevAsian: Elevating AAPI exposure in the Milwaukee area

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Daniela Cado meets some of the AAPI leaders in the Milwaukee area who came together to form ElevAsian. The group celebrated AAPI Heritage Month in May with various local events.

"There weren't that many of us, there were maybe a handful that we'd see each other at events all the time and it was always the same people, we're like, there's gotta be more than just us here," said Shary Tran, one of the co-founders at ElevAsian.

The Milwaukee-based group was born in 2016 out of a need to create community and raise a voice they say wasn't there.

"Here in Wisconsin, it's not a large population but, you know, we've found opportunities to really showcase and spotlight what we do have to offer for the community and what we provide in terms of, you know, cultural enrichment and economic opportunity," Tran added.

Jessica Boling helped form the group with Tran and two others in hopes of bridging a cultural gap.

"What does it mean to be white-adjacent? And what is our role in racial equity and how do we move things forward," Boling said.

Boling is a Korean American adoptee who said growing up 'different' was hard.

"I grew up in a small rural White town, with a White family, so I didn't really have really any Asians in my environment," she said. "I think I grew up most of my life feeling really ashamed of who I was."

Tran's family emigrated to Wisconsin at the end of the Vietnam War in the 1970s. Being the youngest of 10, and the only one who was born in the U.S., she said she longed for a sense of community.

"When I was younger, I really tried to suppress a lot of anything that made me different; I just wanted to fit in with everybody else and that was coming at the expense of my own identity, and after a while, you start suppressing so much, you don't really fit in anywhere," Tran explained.

As adults, they said they've often felt adversity and they're not alone.

According to a recent study by Axios, Asian Americans, especially young, Asian American women, are the least likely to feel they completely belong and are accepted in the U.S.

"I really tried to hide how Asian I was and didn't even fully embrace, and I still am embracing, you know, in a journey of what it means to be in a predominantly White city and state," said Boling.

The study also found that the COVID-19 pandemic generated a wave of anti--Asian violence that caused more anxiety among Asian Americans.

"It's not necessarily just the fact that crime has to happen but it's the potential of it happening...'can I go out to the store? Do I feel safe? You know?" added Tran.

Stop AAPI Hate counted more than 11,500 hate crimes nationwide from March 2020 to March 2022.

During this time, ElevAsian thought to launch 'Asian Restaurant Week' during Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (AAPI)--creating visibility for a number of local restaurants.

"Businesses were suffering, we wanted to say, 'hey you know, let's support our Asian businesses,'" said Tran. "Part of our mission as ElevAsian is to elevate, people, businesses, issues."

They also partner up with the Milwaukee Film Festival to highlight Asian films.

Teaching others to be an ally and helping celebrate diversity is something the co-founders of ElevAsian say extends far beyond the month of May.

"To be able to talk about what it means to be Asian and to discuss some of the challenges that you have because sometimes you feel like you're going crazy...but also celebrate," said Boling.