Students Offer Solidarity through Facebook Photos

In two separate social media campaigns—one organized by several Asian and Asian-American students and another spearheaded by a handful of black student groups—students posted photos to Facebook last week to show solidarity with those affected by the Oct. 3 emailed death threat.

Citing poor communication from the University and a perceived lack of support, students from both initiatives said that they sought to bring more attention to the issues of race and gender related to the threat, which was targeted primarily at Asian and Asian-American women.

“We really didn’t think of this as a campaign.... It’s really that we just wanted to say to the Asian and Asian American community that we know how you feel, and to say to the rest of the community that you need to listen,” said Sarah F. Cole ’16, president of the Black Students Association.

Black students across campus changed their Facebook profile pictures over the weekend, framing their profile pictures with an overlay captioned, “I stand in solidarity with the Asian and Asian-American Women at Harvard.”

Black students posted new Facebook profile pictures with an overlay captioned, “I stand in solidarity with the Asian and Asian-American Women at Harvard.” By Courtesy of Sarah Cole

Asian and Asian-American students also participated in a separate social media initiative last week, coordinated by Gurbani Kaur ’17. The campaign, which was first devised at an informal gathering of Asian and Asian-American students held on Oct. 4 to discuss the email threat, invited students to post photos featuring the overlay “#unapologetic,” a reference to an article published last Tuesday in Manifesta Magazine.

Students involved in last week’s photo campaigns expressed their dissatisfaction with the University’s communications with students during the threat.  Although three community advisories were disseminated by Harvard University police detailing physical safety and security procedures, students noted that no supplementary materials were disseminated by the College to offer support regarding the emotional issues related to the violent, racial, and gender-related nature of the threats.

“It was like pulling teeth just to get an email from the Dean acknowledging that this was a threat to the community—that this was something that needed to be taken seriously,” said Shengxi Li ’15, referencing an email sent last week by Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana acknowledging that the College “can do better” to communicate with students in the future.

Though several Asian and Asian-American students who participated in the campaign maintained that University support was underwhelming, they said they were refreshed to see that they were not alone in their demands for more sensitivity and inclusion.

“When I saw all of these photos saying ‘I stand in solidarity,’ I was pleasantly surprised,” Li said, referring to photos posted by students from the black community.

“This is really an opportunity for students to come together as a Harvard community, regardless of whatever background or whatever clubs you’re involved in,” added Li, who received one of the original threat messages. “This incident affected all of us.”