Vigil remembers Asian Americans

Dozens of students turned out for a candlelight vigil last night in remembrance of Asian Americans killed in racially motivated incidents. The vigil was part of the ongoing Asian Pacific American Heritage Week at the University. For the vigil, more than 50 students gathered in front of the peace sign on College Green, and candle memorials lined Locust Walk. The memorials -- small paper bags with candles inside them -- had names and dates of Asian Americans who have died in racial incidents written on them. According to Engineering sophomore Tom Peng, co-chairperson of the vigil, the event addressed violent and nonviolent discriminatory actions against Asians. Peng noted that the media are often slow in publicizing racial crimes and that "there are problems with the justice system" in identifying such crimes. A number of guest speakers from local Asian-American and community organizations participated in the vigil. Nick Shaenoy, chairperson of the Pan-Asian Association of Greater Philadelphia, cited ignorance as a cause of discrimination and praised the vigil for confronting racial issues on a college campus. "The campus is the worst place [for hate crimes]," he said, because "students have the energy and they are misguided." Stressing the need for greater awareness of different cultures, Shaenoy challenged his listeners to educate others. "The responsibility lies on you," he told the students. Manju Sheth, an expert in Asian American sociology from New Jersey who received her doctorate from the University, also emphasized the need for more education. "We know that since prejudice, discrimination, violence and hate is learned, it can also be unlearned." San Chin, a representative from the community relations division of the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, concurred with Shaenoy and Sheth and urged Asian Americans not to be afraid to report hate crimes. "One important problem? is the lack of participation [and] the fear of opening up," he said. Chin, as well as several of the other guest speakers, called on students to organize public educational seminars about Asian-American culture. In the same vein, College senior Dan Lai, vice chairperson for political affairs for the Asian Pacific Student Coalition, spoke about the need for Asian-American students to unite. "In order to prevent [racially motivated crimes] from happening again, we need to be a community," he said. Towards the end of last night's event, College junior Heather Heo, co-chairperson for APAHW, reminded students that "the vigil is just a starting point. You need to continue on." The ceremony concluded with the reading of individuals' names who were killed in racially motivated incidents. Students lit candles and could share their thoughts with the gathered audience. Peng said he was pleased with the number of people at the vigil but was disappointed at the lack of diversity among the audience. Peng had hoped to attract more non-Asian Americans than the few who showed. "I don't think you have to be Asian American to be interested in the issue," he noted.