Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Resources

Yuji Ijiri

Spotlight on AAPI

Yuji Ijiri

An outstanding accounting teacher and researcher, Yuji received many honors. He is the only four-time recipient of the AICPA-AAA's Notable Contributions to Accounting Literature Award (1966, 1967, 1971, 1976). In 1985 he was selected as the AAA's Distinguished International Lecturer and in 1986 he received our Outstanding Accounting Educator Award. Learn More

 

PBS Series: Asian Americans

A fascinating film series on the history of Asian Americans described by PBS in part: “told through intimate and personal lives, the series will cast a new lens on U.S. history and the ongoing role that Asian Americans have played in shaping the nation’s story.” In addition to viewing the series, check out the “For Educators” tab that provides shorter clips that, though suggested for secondary education, we might find useful in our own classrooms. More Information

 

Statement from the White House

Click here to read A Proclamation on Asian American and Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander Heritage Month, 2022

Academic Research and Literature

 

Perceived ethnic discrimination, race-related stress, and coping styles by Lori Ezzedine and Senel Poyrazli 2020 International Journal of Educational Research

Based on surveys of 250 non-white college students (51% Asian) the authors report students use behavioral disengagement to cope with racial stress and suggest that this negative coping style may reflect the possibility that students do not have an established social support system, a positive coping style, where they currently reside.

Race on Campus Debunking Myths with Data by Julie J. Park

Recipient of the 2020 American Educational Studies Association Critics Choice Award draws on the latest empirical research on admissions and racial dynamics of campus life to challenge pervasive myths on how race works in higher education. Using a conversational style, Dr. Park helps readers to "examine their assumptions and gain a more informed perspective on diversity in higher education."

Minor Feelings An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong

Recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography, Cathy Park Hong provides her candid and authentic view of being Asian in America, where "our status here remains conditional; belonging is always promised and just out of reach."

Feature


Meet AAA's New Chief Diversity Officer: Building an Inclusive Community

An Interview with Barbee Myers Oakes

As part of realizing our vision of being an organization that promotes and supports a culture of belonging, mutual respect, and diversity, the AAA recently welcomed Dr. Oakes into the professional staff as our first Chief Diversity Officer (CDO). So that you get introduced to Barbee and share in our excitement, we have prepared a video interview with Dr. Oakes, conducted by Past President Elaine Mauldin.


Ruth Coles Harris, 2022

Trailblazers of the Accounting Profession

Feature: Ruth Coles Harris

In 1963, Ruth Coles Harris became the first African American woman to earn a CPA license in Virginia. At that time, there were fewer than 100 Black CPAs in the United States. Dr. Harris was a professor at Virginia Union University in Richmond for 48 years. There, she served as the first director of the Sydney Lewis School of Business, which now houses the Ruth Coles Harris Leadership Institute.

Harris holds a bachelor’s degree from Virginia State University, a master’s from New York University and a doctorate from William & Mary. Meet Ruth in a pair of podcasts at the Journal of Accountancy Website:

Interview 1: The struggles and triumphs of the first Black CPAs Interview 2: What we can do to increase the number of Black CPAs

YOU ARE INVITED TO JOIN TLC SECTION'S DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION BOOK CLUB

First Meeting of 2022: Friday, February 11th, 3:00 pm-4:00 pm Eastern

All AAA members are invited to join the Teaching, Learning and Curriculum Section's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Book Club! The next meeting will be held on Friday, February 11th, 3:00 pm-4:00 pm Eastern. Please join our year-long conversation on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

In 2022, we are starting a new book:  Courageous Conversations About Race: A Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools Second Edition, by Glenn E. Singleton

We will generally be covering one chapter during each book club session, to reduce preparation time and so that we can focus on the exercises at the end of each chapter. However, for the first session, we will cover the Introduction and Chapters 1 and 2. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

REGISTER HERE

Resources Course Specific Content

For Tax Accounting or Policy Oriented class

The Whiteness of Wealth by Dorothy A. Brown

Combining extensive quantitative data with the history of tax legislation, Dorothy demonstrates the disproportionate financial effects of the marriage penalty (because Black families are much more likely to comprise equal-earning spouses), the deduction of mortgage interest (due to housing discrimination and discriminatory valuation of homes in Black neighborhoods), the tax treatment of higher education (addressing the absence of gift tax for tuition payments and the varying treatment of student-loan interest over time), and other examples. Each topic is vividly illustrated through stories from her own family as well as several interviewees.

 

 

For DEI Class

AAA WeAre webinar by Jennifer Joe on how the course "RACE IN BUSINESS" is delivered at the University of Delaware. Note, only members can access this webinar.

For Financial Accounting Courses – Introductory to Advanced – or Policy oriented courses

For Managerial courses

Accounting for Slavery:  Masters and Management by Caitlin Rosenthal. The book provides resources useful for management accounting or a management course in particular. Dr. Caitlin Rosenthal, a history professor at UC Berkeley, uses detailed historic records of slave owners in America and the Atlantic to explore the development of quantitative management practices with disturbing parallels to ethical dilemmas facing businesses today.

 

 

For Managerial or AIS courses – At EYARC

EY Academic Resource Center (Sharepoint)

Spotlight on Persons with Disabilities

FDR

Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the US 1933-1945

"FDR’s illness threw him into a category frowned upon by most of the American population. The way he viewed himself as a person, father and politician despite his limitations helped others to change the way they viewed others crippled by disease or disability. Disabled or not, FDR became a symbol of strength and perseverance to Americans, showing them that ‘You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’…You must do the thing you think you cannot do’" (Roosevelt, You Learn by Living 29-30). 

For more, click here

Learn More

In a 2018 report, Accenture partnering with Disability:In and the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), note that there are 15.1 million people of working age living with disabilities in the U.S. Organizations who champion inclusion gain increased innovation, improved productivity, and increased shareholder value. For the full report see: Getting to Equal: The Disability Inclusion Advantage | Accenture

‎Included: The Disability Equity Podcast on Apple Podcasts

A podcast from the Johns Hopkins University Disability Health Research Center that challenges stereotypes of disability by sharing stories, data, and news. Episode transcripts can be found at http://disabilityhealth.jhu.edu/included

Academic Research and Literature

Self-Care for Caregivers: A Twelve Step Approach

2000, Hazelden Publishing, by Pat Samples, Diane Larsen, and Marvin Larsen, provides down-to-earth, sensible guidance for how to care for yourself so you can care for others.

Resources

Links to Other Organizations

About | AIBL American Indigenous Business Leaders – the only American Indigenous non-profit organization dedicated to empowering business students in the U.S. since 1994

 

Learn more about Native American Heritage Month National Native American Heritage Month

 

This month, we celebrate National Native American Heritage month. Because Native Americans were in America long before other race/ethnicities, you might be surprised that we have only celebrated Native American Heritage month since 1990. For a quick review of how the Native American Heritage month was recognized, see this short video: The Origins of Native American Heritage Month | NowThis

Spotlight on Native American Heritage Month

Dr. William Rudolf Kinney, Jr.

Dr. William Rudolf Kinney, Jr.

Born August 13, 1942, Dr. Kinney is Professor Emeritus at the University of Texas Austin, renowned researcher and revered educator. In 2018, he was inducted into the Chickasaw Hall of Fame as a champion of diversity in scholarship for his outstanding contributions to the Chickasaw Nation (William R. Kinney, Jr. | Hall of Fame (chickasaw.net). Dr. Kinney was inducted in the Accounting Hall of Fame in 2014.

Click Here to experience "a four-part PBS series that challenges everything we thought we knew about the Americas before and since contact with Europe… The series reveals some of the most advanced cultures in human history and the Native American people who created it and whose legacy continues, unbroken, to this day."

Academic Research and Literature

Dreaming In Indian: Contemporary American Voices

2014, Annick Press, By Lisa Charleyboy (Editor). A powerful and visually stunning anthology from some of the most groundbreaking Native artists working in North America today.

Enabling, enacting and maintaining action at a distance: An historical case study of the role of accounts in the reduction of the Navajo herds. Alistair M. Preston, 2006 (Accounting, Organizations and Society 31 (6): 559-578.)

The study examines how, in the 1930s, accounts created by agents in Washington, DC had disastrous consequences for the Navajo thousands of miles away in the Southwest. These accounts contended that the land was overgrazed, and were used to justify the killing of Navajo livestock despite contemporaneous starvation on the tribal lands. The paper provides an example of the dire human consequences that can result from purportedly neutral accounting techniques.

Reconciling conflict: The role of accounting in the American Indian Trust Fund debacle. Leslie S. Oakes and Joni J. Young, 2010 (Critical Perspectives on Accounting 21 (1): 63-75.)

In 1887, the US Congress split American Indian Tribal lands into allotments, controlled by trust funds. Over a century later, the funds were dogged by allegations of mismanagement and worse, and after a 10-year attempt to reconcile the funds, the Department of the Interior defended its trustee role and narrow definition of “historical” accounting, arguing that this was acceptable in light of the high cost of a more complete accounting approach. This paper explores how framing accounting definitions and process can be a powerful tool to control allocations and political advantage, either deepening or resolving centuries long conflicts.

"Incorporating" American Colonialism: Accounting and the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. Steven W. Thornburg and Robin W. Roberts. 2012 (Behavioral Research in Accounting 24 (1): 203-214.)

The authors analyze how the creation of corporations, with Alaska natives as shareholders, that was perceived as an improvement over the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, ultimately contributed to poverty and conflict among Alaska native tribes.

Academic Research and Literature

The Whiteness of Wealth by Dorothy A. Brown

Combining extensive quantitative data with the history of tax legislation, Dorothy demonstrates the disproportionate financial effects of the marriage penalty (because Black families are much more likely to comprise equal-earning spouses), the deduction of mortgage interest (due to housing discrimination and discriminatory valuation of homes in Black neighborhoods), the tax treatment of higher education (addressing the absence of gift tax for tuition payments and the varying treatment of student-loan interest over time), and other examples. Each topic is vividly illustrated through stories from her own family as well as several interviewees.

The Role of Racial Microaggressions, Stress, and Acculturation in Understanding Latino Health Outcomes in the USA” K. F. Anderson and J. K. Finch. 2017.

Based on surveys of almost 1500 English-preference or Spanish-preference Latinos in seven states the authors report only English-preference Latinos experience higher physical stress from racial microaggressions. The authors attribute this finding to greater awareness of the US racial schema, a downside to acculturation seldom recognized in the literature.

The Relation Between Mexican American Cultural Values and Resilience Among Mexican American College Students: A Mixed Methods Study M. L. M. Consoli and J. D. Llamas. 2013.

Based on quantitative and qualitative surveys of 124 self-identified Mexican/Mexican American college students the authors report that both methods suggest strong family values contributes to student resilience and overcoming adversity. Thus, the authors highlight the importance of cultural values for providing strength to persist in the face of challenges.

CPA Credential Perceptions: A Case Study of Hispanic Accountants H. G. Gabre, D. L. Flesher, and F. Ross. 2017

Based on a survey of 196 CPA and non-CPA Hispanic accountants, the authors report high perceived value of the CPA certificate, but that fewer female Hispanic accountants pursue the CPA. The authors encourage higher education, national accounting organizations, and employers to provide information on, and incentives for taking, the CPA exam.

My Beloved World. 2013 Random House. Sonia Sotomayor

The first Latinx (Puerto Rican) and third woman appointed to the US Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor writes a “searching and emotionally intimate memoir” (New York Times). Just one quote from the preface; “I will be judged as a human being by what readers find here. There are hazards to openness, but they seem minor compared with the possibility that some readers may find comfort, perhaps even inspiration, from a close examination of how an ordinary person, with strengths and weaknesses like anyone else, has managed an extraordinary journey.”

Resources

Links to Other Organizations

Association of Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA) began as the Association of Hispanic CPAs in 1972. Founded by Gilbert Vasquez.

View his interview here.

Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (hacu.net): this is the unique perspective we bring through the intersectionality of our identities across underrepresented groups.

 

Learn more about the White House Hispanic Prosperity Initiative (ed.gov)

Spotlight on Hispanic Heritage Month

Sonia Sotomayor

Sonia Sotomayor

Sonia Maria Sotomayor, born June 25, 1954 is an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She was nominated by President Barack Obama on May 26, 2009 and has served since August 8, 2009. She is the third woman to hold the position. Sotomayor is the first woman of color, first Hispanic, and first Latina member of the Court (Source: Wikipedia)

Learn More

Click here to experience the PBS landmark series, LATINO AMERICANS, a six-hour documentary featuring interviews with nearly 100 Latinos and more than 500 years of History.

LGBTQIAP+ Pride Month Resources

Resources

Transgender Day of Remembrance

Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) is an annual observance on November 20 that honors the memory of the transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence.

Learn More

An Introduction to LGBTQ+ Inclusiveness and Allyship, provided by the Diversity Movement

This hour-long webinar from May 2021 discusses the terminology of LGBTQIAP+ under the umbrella of the re-invented term "queer" where identity and sexual orientation are distinct concepts with diverse perspectives. The webinar also provides tips to show up for LGBTQ+ colleagues, and points for, as well as barriers to, developing allyship. Susie Silver concludes with a call to commit to one new action in the next 30 days. We suggest this webinar is a good place to start.

View the Webinar

Reaching Out MBA

Reaching Out MBA's mission is to increase the influence of the LGBT+ community in business by educating, inspiring, and connecting MBA students and alumni.

They are a community of LGBT+ MBAs and other professionals with ever-growing diversity in sexual orientations, gender identities, and races and ethnicities. "One of our strengths is the unique perspective we bring through the intersectionality of our identities across underrepresented groups."

Learn More
Harvey Milk

Spotlight on LGBTQIAP+

Harvey Milk

(1930–1978)

Gay rights activist and community leader Harvey Milk made history when he became one of the first openly gay officials in the United States in 1977 when he was elected to San Francisco's Board of Supervisors. He was tragically shot and killed the following year, and numerous books and films have been made about his life.
Learn More

Research

Does Lesbian and Gay Friendliness Pay Off? A New Look at LGBT Policies and Firm Performance,Veda Fatmy, John Kihn, Jukka Sihvonen, and Sami Vähämaa (Accounting and Finance, forthcoming; available on SSRN 2020; Presented at 2017 AAA Diversity Section Meeting)

Based on archival data from 657 publicly traded organizations, the authors conclude, “Taken as a whole, our empirical findings provide strong evidence to suggest that LGBT-friendly corporate policies enhance firm performance. These findings can be considered to support the view that socially progressive corporate policies and diversity management pay off and create value for the firm.”

Pride Against Prejudice? The Stakes of Concealment and Disclosure of a Stigmatized Identity for Gay and Lesbian Auditors, Sebastien Stenger and Thomas J. Roulet (2018 Work Employment and Society)

Based on participant observation and semi-structured interviews, the study finds that gay and lesbian auditors experience stigma and subtle discrimination leading them to conceal their identity, often negatively affecting their socialization into the firm. The authors conclude that this result "confirms that professional service firms may promote behaviours that clash with broader social norms." Though the data for this study was gathered about a decade ago in France, recent U.S. data (see the IMA/CalCPA research in the next column) report similar results and conclusions.

Diversifying U.S. Accounting Talent: A Critical Imperative to Achieve Transformational Outcomes, 2021 Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) and the California Society of CPAs (CalCPA)

Based on surveys and interviews, the study reports that 60 percent of the LGBTQIAP+ respondents believe "Leaders demonstrate unfair prejudice or bias against persons who identify as LGBTQIA, which negatively affects promotion." The study also reports that, in turn, over 30 percent indicate they have left companies and about 20 percent have left the profession because of lack of inclusion. The study concludes that “without targeted and coordinated efforts to improve diversity, recognize talent equitably, and foster an inclusive environment, the profession may risk losing the race for relevance."

Queering Accounting: Opening Up and Connecting Professional Services Firms, Nicholas McGuigan , Alessandro Ghio (2018 Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal)

The authors provide a commentary urging professional service firms and academic researchers to "open up and connect to cultural identification, theory, research ideas, methodologies and research impact and dissemination" surrounding the "lifeworlds" of LGBTQI communities to overcome heteronormativity in accounting. By embracing the unique aspects of LGBTQI culture and identity (instead of simple acceptance or assimilation), professional service firms can obtain new perspectives that enable true diversity and inclusion at the workplace, benefiting the accounting profession.