Black and Asian communities across the country are uniting, said C.K. Magliola, who identifies as Asian and is the women and gender studies program director at Chapman. In particular, these groups are working to combat the perceived source of their oppression: white supremacy. 

When Mitchell Tanaka, a junior television writing and production major, saw droves of people of a variety of racial identities attend the April 2 Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) solidarity rally held in Old Towne Orange, he felt a deep sense of connection with other marginalized individuals who can relate to his same struggle.

“There (was) a really strong feeling of togetherness … There were a lot of people honking their horns and cheering us on,” said Tanaka, who identifies as half white and half Japanese. “Despite all the speakers coming from different backgrounds, there's still a common discrimination that we all face.” 

Stop AAPI Hate, an organization that has tracked reports of anti-Asian violence and discrimination, documented almost 3,800 reports of hate incidents from March 2020 to February 2021 — including verbal harrassment, physical assault, civil rights violations and online harassment. Following the March 16 shootings in Atlanta, Georgia, when six women of Asian heritage were killed, AAPI activists have voiced concern for the safety of their community and called for action to be taken against those who perpetrate such violence.

“It's terrifying because I was initially scared for my mother, but lately, I've been scared for myself,” Magliola said. “I've just been scared for all Asians when I go out. I'm very aware and much more conscious.”

Magliola also told The Panther that her fears are only confirmed by recent troublesome encounters she’s experienced in Orange County. Recently, she recalled, a group of young white males sprayed Magliola with a water gun from their truck. 

“Would they have done it to any random person that was walking, or did they notice (that I am Asian) and chose me?” Magliola said. “I can't prove it, but I think it's really naive and highly problematic to refuse to acknowledge that particular people are vulnerable to these kinds of assaults.”

Xenophobia isn’t new in Orange County, according to Pete Simi, a Chapman sociology professor and expert on white supremacy and extremist groups. 

White supremacist propaganda has appeared multiple times on Chapman’s campus, and warnings of white supremacist protests on campus occured just last month. Most recently, a planned White Lives Matter rally was instead met by a much larger counterprotest April 11 at Huntington Beach Pier after Huntington Beach residents found flyers April 4 imprinted with Ku Klux Klan propaganda. 

In addition, Public Safety released an April 9 email announcement detailing an investigation in progress after a member believed to be part of white supremacist group Folkish Resistance Movement visited campus and distributed its organization’s flyers. Chief of Public Safety Randy Burba told The Panther there have been no additional leads on the investigation. Campus security cameras first caught an image of a male suspect walking around the Orange campus between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. April 9, placing flyers on five benches and the kiosk next to the Attallah Piazza.

Simi told The Panther that the motivation for white supremacists to hold such rallies and distribute such propaganda is clear-cut: to create a countermovement to the calls for justice and equality for communities of color. 

“We've seen a lot of things in the last year that from (the hate group) perspective — they've been watching and it's been mounting and now they're trying  to essentially counter it with a series of protests,” Simi said.

Activists within Black and Asian American communities have pointed to ideas such as the model minority myth — the stereotype that portrays Asian Americans as inherently successful, especially in contrast to other minority groups — as an example of how their communities have been historically pitted against each other when it comes to social, political and economic equality.

“There is this kind of fabricated animosity between the Black and Asian communities that is obviously very superficial and perpetuated by (this model),” Tanaka said. 

Simi told The Panther that the current rise in social justice and activism could serve as a way for people of all backgrounds to come together to support anti-racist movements and multicultural democracy. Magliola echoed this sentiment.

“Learning the lessons of experiences of and vulnerabilities to Black folks and Asian folks is helping us be more coalitional,” Magliola said.