How Chapman University is responding to anti-Asian hate, violence
A solidarity rally and Zoom discussion were held the week of March 29 to address violence against the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. A vigil for the Atlanta shooting is scheduled for April 9. Photos by CLARISSE GUEVARRA, Staff Photographer
After six of the eight victims in a series of March 16 spa shootings in Atlanta, Georgia, were revealed to be women of Asian descent, at least 75 people took to the streets of Orange April 2 to condemn Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) hate through peaceful protest.
At the AAPI Solidarity Rally co-hosted by the Chapman Activist Coalition and the OC Justice Initiative, Chapman University students and Orange County community members alike shared sentiments and speeches about Asian racism and what it’s like to identify as an AAPI. The rally began at the steps of Chapman’s Leatherby Libraries, and attendees marched to the Plaza Square Park in Old Towne Orange while chanting and waving signs related to the Stop AAPI Hate movement.
“The past couple weeks I’ve just been really numb,” said Hailey Lee, a junior strategic and corporate communication major at Chapman, in an interview with The Panther. “Part of me is really conflicted too, because I have friends who are posting things and who are speaking up about it and are posting resources ... I’m so tired of trying to make people understand all the different feelings that I have about this issue.”
“The past couple weeks I’ve just been really numb. Part of me is really conflicted too, because I have friends who are posting things and who are speaking up about it and are posting resources ... I’m so tired of trying to make people understand all the different feelings that I have about this issue.”
In a March 18 email to students, faculty and staff, President Daniele Struppa issued a statement condemning AAPI racism and violence, providing links to the Cross-Cultural Center’s (CCC) resources. Additionally, many department heads sent personal notes to their students, such as Jennifer Keene and Stephanie Takaragawa, the dean and associate dean of the Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. In a March 18 statement, they discussed issues surrounding COVID-19 rhetoric like the use of the term “China Virus” and reinforced efforts to create a new Asian American studies minor.
Roughly two weeks later, the Asian Pacific Political Alliance (APPA) student organization hosted a “Come Chat with Us: Being Asian in America” discussion-based event March 30 over Zoom. According to Emily Lam, the club’s president and founder, the event was intended to create a sense of solidarity and discuss what could be done to stop the hate and violence.
“The whole idea of it was to share, but also to amplify Asian voices and experiences — some of which I think some people might not have ever heard or been exposed to,” said Lam, a senior political science and peace studies double major.
Senior economics major Allie Ma is not a member of APPA, but decided to attend after seeing a friend promote the meeting on Instagram. She said she appreciated how the event allowed her to voice her lived experience, being half Chinese and half white, as well as listen to others’ perspectives on how they have been processing Asian hate. Ma plans on attending future APPA meetings to stay in touch with her community.
“I’ve always felt weird going to those events because I’m mixed,” Ma said. “I felt like people would question why I was there, and obviously, that’s not how it was meant. I just felt more excited to get to go to more meetings because obviously, I knew that I was going to be welcomed.”
Lee has participated in at least two APPA meetings this semester, during which attendees have discussed attacks on elderly Asians and the history of anti-Asian racism.
“To be able to dive into that with the club and to also talk about how we can build solidarity with different races — especially the Black Lives Matter movement — it’s been really inspiring and really awesome to be part of,” Lee said. “I’m really grateful for that.”
An April 2 AAPI Solidarity Rally that saw at least 75 people in attendance was co-organized by the Chapman Activist Coalition and the OC Justice Initiative.
Three days after the APPA Zoom event, the AAPI Solidarity Rally was held in the Orange Plaza. Chapman Activist Coalition co-founders Lucile Henderson and Natalia Ventura first decided to hold the rally in order to help create a physical sense of community for students and raise awareness of AAPI violence.
“I feel like, in general, Asian communities aren't represented that much when it comes to social justice initiatives, even though there's a long-standing history of Asian activism coinciding with Black solidarity movements as well,” said Henderson, a senior communication studies major. “This rally can be a space for community and healing, and to educate people on the long-standing history of activism already within the community.”
Ryan Leano, an Asian American studies professor from California State University, Fullerton, took to the stage at the event and read a March 19 statement he wrote for the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns, of which Leano functions as the national coordinator.
“We encourage the whole community and people of color to be vigilant and act in the spirit of solidarity and community in this period of heightened racist violence, to fight for justice for the victims and those who are still living,” Leano said.
Some speakers, like Rozlind Silva of the Bayanihan Kollective, a Filipino youth and student community-based organization, read out poems they wrote. Silva’s poem focused on Tou Thao, an Asian American police officer who has been criticized for his role in the death of George Floyd.
“The world is ready for you to change it,” Silva said, in an assertion that treating a movement as a swipeable social media post is equivalent to Thao’s actions. “We are ready for your hand in ours instead of your iPhone screen. We are waiting on Zoom calls. We are writing to you of books we have read, of dreams of a new world for all people and you are in it. And you are not him. But you must act like it.”
The Fish Interfaith Center will be holding a vigil April 9 for the Chapman community to mourn the victims of the Atlanta shooting and condemn anti-Asian sentiments. The vigil was originally slated for April 2, but was rescheduled due to its conflicting time with the AAPI rally.
“It's a place to show not just our grief, but also our anger,” said Reverend Cisa Payuyo, who identifies as Filipino and works as the associate director of the Office of Church Relations. “We've been silenced so much and we need a place in spaces to be heard.”
“It’s a place to show not just our grief, but also our anger. We’ve been silenced so much and we need a place in spaces to be heard.”
Payuyo and her colleague Annie Tang, a Coordinator of Special Collections and Archives in the Leatherby Libraries, wrote a letter of solidarity that was attached in Struppa’s March 18 email. Sensing that more work needed to be done as she didn’t feel the letter was enough to show solidarity with AAPI people against racial injustice, Payuyo collaborated with the Fish Interfaith Center staff as well as faculty who identify with the AAPI community to create the vigil.
With Asian Pacific Islander and Desi American (APIDA) Heritage Month also taking place in April, Chapman’s Cross-Cultural Center will be celebrating APIDA communities through a variety of events. The kick-off focuses on colorism and features guest panelist and actor Ryan Alexander Holmes, who identifies as Afro-Asian American and starred in an episode of the Netflix series “Dear White People.”
Clarisse Guevarra contributed to this report.
