Pay Attention to Anti-Asian Hate Crimes

To the Editors of The Crimson:

Anti-Asian sentiment has always existed in America. Legislation like the Alien Land Acts, the Exclusion Acts and the internment during World War II are examples of past government-sponsored injustices toward Asians and Asian Americans.

The racism and discrimination they faced during this time in American history has been repeatedly neglected by history books and are all but forgotten today.

Unfortunately, racial insensitivity and injury are not just restricted to the past. These wounds are being reopened today, both subtly and violently. In fact, recent events point toward a rise in anti-Asian sentiment in American. Articles on anti-Asian incidents appear daily in all the major American news publications. Here are only a few examples:

Sen. Ernest F. Hollings told workers in his home state of South Carolina to "draw a mushroom cloud and put underneath it: 'Made in American by lazy and illiterate Americans and tested in Japan'" (Boston Globe, March 4).

A recent report by the federal Civil Rights Commission "debunks the notion that Asian Americans are treated fairly in this country" (The New York Times, February 28).

Radio talk-show host Cliff Kincaid twice called Connie Chung, the prominent Asian-American television reporter and anchor, "Connie Chink" while on the air, and he claimed that is "common slang and 'perfectly acceptable language."

An auto dealership displayed a sign out front saying "No Japs."

Mary Yuhfil, a respected Asian American journalist, was referred to as a "yellow cur" and a "slant-eyed bitch" by Jimmy Breslin, a colleague.

A Japanese car was smashed to pieces by Americans with sledgehammers during a "Japanese bashing" day.

Several years ago, Vincent Chin, a Chinese-American mistaken for a Japanese citizen, was beaten to death with a baseball bat by fellow workers in Detroit.

The Harvard campus itself is not immune to such anti-Asian incidents. In the past couple of weeks, the words "fuck you, chink" have appeared on the Lamont Library poetry board.

This outrage comes during a time when the Harvard community is experiencing a series of prank phone calls insulting Asian Americans. The Crimson reported (March 7) that the phrase "fuck you, Korean bitch" was repeatedly used during these phone calls. The severity of such harassment has warranted a police investigation.

As the leaders of the Asian American Association (AAA), we feel that the press on this campus has not made a sincere attempt to inform the public of significant issues affecting not only Asian-Americans, but also the Harvard community as a whole.

An example is the 14th annual East Coast Asian Student Union (ECASU) conference, hosted by the Harvard-Radcliffe AAA. This three-day conference, which took place from February 28 through March 1, drew over 550 students from 50 colleges nationwide.

Financial assistance for the event came from the Harvard Foundation, Education for Action (E4A) and numerous businesses and individuals throughout the Boston area. President Neil L. Rudenstine, Dean Archie C. Epps III, Assistant Dean Hilda Hernandez-Gravelle and S. Alan Counter all gave their full support and encouragement.

So what kind of press coverage did we receive? None. This is the largest Asian American conference Harvard has ever seen and will ever see for many years to come. In accordance with this, we sent releases to every major Harvard news publication on campus. Yet not a single word of the conference appeared anywhere in print.

The press further aggravates this problem when it misrepresents its sources of information and, therefore, misleads its readers. People reading the front-page article in The Crimson about prank calls may have been led to believe that the AAA "has not heard about the calls and has no plans to address the issue."

This is simply not true. The AAA Steering Committee constantly focuses much of its time and energy on these issues in the belief that fighting racism is an on-going process. Our response to racial incidents on campus is a contiguous one, and we are greatly disturbed at being dismissed so easily by inaccurate reporting.

We at AAA condemn any policies and actions that have marginalized Asians and Asian Americans in the past. This is why we are so concerned today with the rebirth of such outrages across the nation and at Harvard itself.

As a voice for Asian Americans on campus, it is our main goal to educate the Harvard community about issues that face Asian Americans through rational dialogue. Most students at Harvard are unaware of issues confronting Asian Americans on campus and even attempt to deny that any such problems exist.

Furthermore, many do not realize that the Asian American community has been trying to address these issues in a constructive manner through such programs as the ECASU conference.

But how can members of the Harvard community take action if they aren't accurately informed of the ethnic issues and racially motivated occurrences that take place on campus? This is why we are frustrated with the publications at Harvard.

We believe that the campus news periodicals must firmly acknowledge that anti-Asian sentiment is a growing problem in America and devote more time and energy in addressing these issues. Only then can the Harvard community as a whole work together in easing racial tension and help prevent ethnic conflict in the future. Connie Chang   Mark Kim   Co-presidents Harvard-Radcliffe Asian American Association