300 brave the cold to march against racism

About 300 people of all races and from cities across the East Coast rallied last night against racism in a march down Locust Walk. The rally protested a recent New Jersey trial verdict that freed three men who had allegedly beaten a South Asian doctor senseless five years ago. Khausal Sharan, the victim of the attack, was walking home one evening, when he was assaulted by several men who claimed to be members of the Jersey City Dot Busters, a reference to marks worn by some Indians on their foreheads. During the attack, the men yelled racial slurs and beat Sharan over the head with a baseball bat. Despite a signed confession by one of the attackers, the all-white jury did not convict any of the defendents in the case U.S. v. Evangelista, Kozak and Riccardi. "The whole thing has been a shattering experience," Sharan said yesterday before the rally. "I've been suffering from short term memory and I can't comprehend things the way I used to. But I'm trying to deal with what I've been left with." Sharan said that aside from his difficulties, he is glad to have such support from his community. "Everyone has been so supportive and I want to thank them for that," he said. "I was surprised at [the response] but now, I think we should project unity to fight for the cause." Many members of the University's South Asian Society attended the trial over the past few weeks and said they were outraged at both the crime and the subsequent verdict. Engineering senior Sanjay Desai, the society's vice president and one of several University students who helped organize the march, said that it is important that no act of racially-motivated violence be ignored. "We are Americans," he said. "We deserve the same rights as everybody else and if some people aren't aware of that, then we going to make them aware." He added that while this particular incident was one of anti-Asian violence, that any act of racism affects all minorities. College junior Mita Sanghavi, a South Asian Society member, and one the march's organizers, said that she wanted to use the trial to heighten awareness. "We're using the trial to mobilize people and educate people," she said. "We want to educate the South Asian community here on what's going on and secondly, we want to show the rest of the public around us that we're going to agressively attack these issues." She added that anti-Asian violence in general is on the rise, citing 58 recorded incidents of anti-Asian violence in New Jersey in 1991. "Anti-Asian sentiment exists," Sanghavi said. "Many people don't realize that." Wharton senior Rajeev Chand, former political liaison for the South Asian Society and a march organizer, said that while many South Asian Americans are not familar with physical violence, they can still relate to racism. College sophomore Naim Peress, one of the protestors in the rally, said last night that he felt a moral responsibility to be there. "A wise man once said that for evil to triumph all good people have to do is be indifferent," he added. "But for good to triumph all good people must take action -- that's why I'm here tonight." During the march, protestors carried candles and shouted "The time has come, justice must be done," as they marched from Superblock to College Green. Several student and community leaders spoke in front of the peace sign on social consciousness and the importance of political involvement. Sanghavi, one of the first to speak, said that the battle for equality should extend beyond the march. "We must not stop fighting at the end of this rally," she said. "[We] must use this event as a symbol of the beginning of a fierce movement that will not stop until racism in it's overt and covert forms has been defeated."

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