Cynn said the conversations would lead to opening up about emotions and discomfort through painful experiences.
“Humanizing the Asian race, to students who never saw or talked to an Asian before, allowed my students to look past the exterior and see the heart,” she said.
As anti-Asian hate and violence is on the rise, schools across the country have been feeling pressure to step up and take action. In 2020, hate crimes against Asian Americans increased 15 percent and the number of anti-Asian hate incidents hit nearly 3,800 over roughly a year during the pandemic, according to data from the reporting forum Stop AAPI Hate.