Witnessing, and sometimes experiencing, the backlash against minorities following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has prompted students at Penn to discuss their role in American society in a week-long campaign.
Students of color have watched as, in the past two weeks, U.S. officials have detained several hundred people for questioning concerning terrorist activities, most of whom are of Arab or Muslim descent.
For Japanese-American students, President Bush's recent proposals to defend the nation against further terrorist activity through detention revisits the 1944 Supreme Court rulings approving the internment of Japanese Americans.
Minority groups across campus sympathize with civil rights concerns, and feel a common bond with the Arab-American community. Many have said that if violations of civil rights could happen during World War II, they could happen again.
In response to the issues, members of various minority groups througout campus have joined together in what they have named the Harmony Campaign, which is designed to show solidarity with victims of racial and ethnic backlash and address sensitive issues facing all minority students as they struggle to define what is "American" in light of the recent events.
Shaun Gonzales, a College junior and special projects coordinator for the Latino Coalition, initiated the campaign after he saw his fears of racial backlash become all too real.
"When I started hearing reports of hate crimes, it just confirmed my fear of the inevitable," Gonzales said. "I thought then that it would be a good idea to hold a forum and get everyone's ideas out there."
Gonzales spoke with student leaders across campus last week, then consulted with administrators at the Greenfield Intercultural Center to determine a course for action.
"We waited for a week and then there were many unfortunate events," said Penn Arab Student Society Chairman Omar Madhi, an Engineering senior. "For anyone who looked like they were of Middle Eastern descent, there were harsh words and many physical altercations."
Madhi was relieved that these types of physical attacks were, for the most part, occurring away from Penn's campus.
"The majority of the Penn community has been very supportive," he remarked, noting phone calls and e-mails he has recently received from complete strangers offering him and the Arab-American community support. "However, it is those few students that act out the discrimination that is destructive for the whole community."
Though Penn has mostly been spared the wrath of racially-motivated attacks, nearby schools and areas in Center City have not been so lucky. Last week at 34th Street on the Drexel Campus a Muslim woman wearing a traditional veil was attacked by two Caucasian individuals.
"Penn's campus is lucky to have such an educated population," said Engineering junior Toufique Harun of Penn's Muslim Student Association. "Hopefully through the efforts of the Harmony Campaign we will be able to increase the awareness that not everyone who is Muslim is a terrorist. It's a stereotype and it isn't true at all. Islam means peace and everything terrorism does is against those teachings."
In the meantime, the group of student leaders decided to do something to symbolize their solidarity.
Modeled after a similar effort on the campus of University of California-Berkeley, the Harmony Campaign enlisted students from various minority groups to spread their message on Locust Walk by handing out purple ribbons in a show of support against discrimination. Students also are collecting money for the repair of damaged mosques and temples.
College junior Olivia Chung, chairwoman of the Asian Pacific Student Coalition and a Daily Pennsylvanian reporter, has been in charge of recruiting from the various student groups. She is ecstatic about the outpouring of support that she witnessed being on the Walk for only a few short hours.
"It's going extremely well," Chung said, citing a great deal of support from not only the Arab, Muslim and minority communities, but also from others who care about the effects of discrimination.
As a Japanese American, Chung said she feels strongly about the similarities between recent government policies and those enacted during the internment. She is anxious to discuss these issues with others.
"I don't want to see people directing their hate against the innocent again," she said, emphasizing the group's banner-signing project as a symbol of their solidarity. Students involved in the Harmony Campaign are signing banners in a show of solidarity, although the final location hasn't yet been determined.
The threefold mission of last night's forum was to address the history of racial discrimination in the United States by highlighting the events leading up to Japanese internment, discuss the current discrimination facing Arab Americans and offer proactive ways to solve any racial problems stemming from last week's attack.
"We think the forum is necessary even though many of the minority groups on campus have already issued some kind of official statement," Madhi said. "We in PASS want a chance to show our solidarity with the rest of the campus and let Penn and the rest of America know that our hearts go out to them."
The goals of the meeting were many, but organizers cite the most important as creating a new and improved definition of what it means to be an American -- a definition that does not exclude anyone.
"It is to reaffirm an identity for Americans and non-Americans living in the country," Madhi said, himself a foreign student studying far from his home country of Jordan. "Hopefully it will help us to all confirm our status here as part of the Penn and the larger American community."
Correction This article incorrectly attributed quotes to Penn Arab Student Society board member Omar Madhi. In fact, the statements were made by PASS President Omar Al-Wir.
