Two U Students Organize Protest in Support of Asian Americans
Delaney Rakuita holds sign at protest in support of Asian Americans at Washington Square Park in Salt Lake City, on April 3, 2021. (Photo by Natalie Colby | Daily Utah Chronicle)
April 3, 2021
On April 3, 2021, two University of Utah students led a protest in support of Asian Americans in wake of the Atlanta spa shootings and rise in anti-Asian hate during the pandemic. Over 100 people gathered in Washington Square, holding signs reading “not your model minority” and “hate is a virus.”
Christine Min, a pre-dental student in her fourth year, and Serena Aeschilman, a senior studying computer science and economics, initially started planning their own protest separately, but soon joined forces when they heard of the other’s plans.
This was Min’s and Aeschilman’s first time planning a protest and while they were the main organizers, they did receive help from a team of volunteers and various organizations like the Utah Party for Socialism and Liberation and the Women’s March Salt Lake City.
Aeschilman was tasked with organizing permits and COVID-19 guidelines for the event while Min worked on community outreach.
“A lot of Asian culture is about staying silent and not raising our voice, not making a scene, not putting too much attention to ourselves and not being a burden to others,” Min said.
Aeschilman shared a story that happened at the beginning of the pandemic, where she was told to go back to China and take the virus with her. The man assumed she was Chinese, even though Aeschilman is Taiwanese.
“I realized that that’s a problem that a lot of people do is they assume your Asian identity, especially right now, Asians across the board are being attacked,” Aeschilman said.
She began to post news on her Instagram story about anti-Asian violence and was upset when her mostly non-Asian following failed to repost the content. She was also disappointed in the lack of reporting on this violence in the mainstream media. Under the few articles that were written, Aeschilman said some of the comments were terrible.
“Someone on the Fox 13 one said that this stuff doesn’t happen in Utah and that’s what really got me mad,” she said. “This does happen in Utah, maybe not to the same extreme that other areas are facing, but there are definitely discrimination and microaggression encounters here.”
Min was disappointed the U had not released a statement condemning anti-Asian violence, so she reached out to express her concerns. Two hours later, the U released a statement in solidarity with AAPI communities entitled, “We will not let hate win.”
“I sent a message to them saying that it’s very disappointing that you have so many Asian students, and you have a campus in my home country, but yet you haven’t said anything about this,” Min said.
At the protest, around eight people joined the organizers in sharing their experiences and expressing their support.
“In middle school, I was told that all my achievements were all due to my race, and not because of my own hard work, and in high school, I was told that I wasn’t American, that I didn’t belong here,” said Anna Tang, a sophomore at the U.
Tiffany Chan, the vice president-elect of student relations at the U talked about the causes and problems with Asian hate.
“The Asian American experience is multifaceted and complex, especially for women who experience another myriad of gender-based violence. Among these are fetishization and white sexual imperialism,” Chan said.
She continued on to talk about holding the state accountable.
“Those who incite and are complicit are the ones to blame. So the state and its power structures need to be held at the highest accountability,” Chan said. “The increase of hate crimes against AAPI is a direct result of sanctioned sinophobic propaganda.”
Min also shared about the Asian link project, which provides chaperoning services to senior and younger Asian American residents in Salt Lake to prevent hate crimes.
John Hedberg • Apr 9, 2021 at 8:11 am
I think it may be time to acknowledge there’s been a rise in discrimination and assault against all groups, I think largely because politicians find it convenient to tell us we all hate each other in order to get us to march and donate, so they get the power they want while they let things get worse for all of us. I think it’s highly likely there has been a rise in anti-Asian violence, not because of the supposed origin of the pandemic in Wuhan, but because the political class is constantly telling us and reinforcing us into identity groups they then play off against each other. A year ago, burning Asian businesses in disadvantaged neighborhoods was considered politically righteous, as was excluding Asians from top colleges like Harvard and Berkeley purely because of how they looked, which is the definition of racism, but this was condoned by supposed civil rights advocates as “equity”, which is apparently the opposite of equality, where we’re all considered equally human, and we’re all deserving of the same high standard of treatment, not the worst.
As someone Euro-American and male, I’ve been the beneficiary of a lifetime of hatred and discrimination because I look funny and my family was extremely poor. The number of times I was cornered by groups of “entitled” fellow students of all colors and backgrounds during and after school, and force to fight my way out, is literally beyond count. When you’re ugly or dress funny because you’re poor (or both), it’s enough for all identity groups to pile on you, trash you verbally, and even try to see if they can beat you to make you cry, which is evidently the big “win” for bullies.
Being funny-looking and ugly, I had the privilege of putting up with several semesters of harassment because of how I look here on the U campus, and even got assaulted twice at Peterson, but when I reported it, I was told that I was the problem. A Social Justice Coordinator actually said she thought the assaults and discrimination were a good thing, since “now you know what it feels like”. I’ve know what that feels like my whole life, because I look different/ugly/dressed poorly. All it takes is some self-righteous person who looks at your differences as threatening or ugly, and usually after they get a group of like-minded bigots together to back their play, they come after you alone. That was my experience all through K-12 grade school, and that’s been my experience here at the U. If you’re Euro-American and male, the “liberal” administration actually condones hatred and violence against you.
So, I fully believe there’s been a rise in anti-Asian discrimination, possibly by the administration because they see Asians as “privileged”. I know for a fact personally that if you’re Euro and male, they actively discourage you from even reporting any hate incident, and will even try to blame it on you if you do. I can easily believe this is the reason Lauren McCluskey is dead: she happened to be the wrong color, so the U simply dismissed her report, just as they did several of mine. I’ve literally reported harassment and assault half a dozen times, and not once has anyone in any department ever so much as called me back. I think it’s likely that not only are Asians putting up with greater harassment and violence, but all identity groups are, as politicians teach us to hate each other based on false pretexts that work to their advantage. If you did a full survey of students who attend on this campus, I’m confident you’d find that much of the hatred goes unreported, because the U doesn’t find it socially or politically advantageous to admit that it’s going on, just like Lauren McCluskey. Just like me and so many others. If you think it’s just happening to your own “identity” group, you’re not alone. Singling out specific groups is one of the ways politicians isolate people and create fear they can use for their own benefit.
Ultimately, all civil rights are human rights, based upon our common shared human experience, human worth, thoughts, feelings, talents & limitations. Ugly people have been beaten and killed for thousands of years: it’s just that nobody cares, which is so ironic it’s almost (almost) laughable, considering how “outraged” they become when it happens to a group they care about. The truth is that we’re all part of the one group we all care about, and upon which all rights are based, which is our humanity, and the moment people (politicians or administrators) begin to pretend that one group is more or less deserving than another, that one group’s pain isn’t all of our pain as people, they’re actually practicing real racism and bigotry themselves, teaching us that the often momentary aspects they use to divide us matter more than the beauty and wonder and Love that we all share together, and always have.
We’re all in this together, and we should start marching against violence towards anyone, against harassment and discrimination towards anyone, and in open and vocal support of Loving everyone as equal and worthwhile children of the same Infinite Love, by whatever name you call that Love. Inside, where it counts, we are one, always have been, and always will be. Say it, speak it, sing it, befriend it, march alongside it, and always be there for it: we’re family.
With Love,
J Hedberg