Party-goers Leave Racist Messages at CSA Party

Members of the Chinese Students Association discovered racially charged messages posted on the walls of the Lowell House Grille after a graffiti-themed party Friday night, prompting a wave of anger and frustration within Harvard’s Chinese community.

Party-goers were encouraged to write phrases on strips of tape and paper in glow-in-the-dark highlighters. But after the party’s conclusion, students discovered inflammatory writings such as “Chinese people perform genocide” and “Chinese people suck” written on the walls.

“I think outrageous would be a good adjective to describe it,” said Daniel C. Suo ’10, co-president of the CSA.

CSA board members have not identified the student or students responsible for the writings, but many noted that finding them may prove to be impossible.

“We had hundreds of people who came in the room that [night] so it would be really hard to find out who it was,” said CSA co-Vice President Lisa M. Yu ’11.

The incident in Lowell Grille follows another Ivy League incident in which disparaging comments were aimed at the Asian American community.

Last week, a popular Dartmouth e-mail list-serve, “Generic Good Morning Message,” sent an e-mail to hundreds of students laced with racist remarks about the University’s newly appointed president, Harvard Medical School Professor Jim Yong Kim, who is South Korean.

The Asian American Association’s recent marketing of the “Mr. Asian Sensation” male beauty pageant also stoked controversy on the Kirkland House e-mail list. Some students said that the pageant was offensive because it presumed that non-Asian participants would be excluded.

The organization has already responded to the incident by reaching out to the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations with the intention of creating a forum for student groups to discuss the issue.

“It’s odd for something like this to hit so close to home,” said Felix M. Zhang ’11, CSA co-vice president. “Its kind of disconcerting and a little disappointing.”

“In the spirit of President Obama’s speech about a post-racial society, it may be interesting for us to reflect on our own colleges like Harvard and Dartmouth,” he added.