Panelists at the University of Southern California urged students angry about recent hate flyers sent to both USC and UCLA to turn their anger into a vision for the future, reports the Daily Trojan.
The flyers which made racist and sexist comments about Asian American women, men as well as Mexican women were sent to the USC Asian Pacific American Student Services and UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center.
“It’s easy to get angry about issues, [but] we can’t think about our policies and actions as reactionary, you have to think about what you want to see, what is your vision for your future and your community. It might not feel like activism but you’re enabling people to keep doing what they’re doing,” said one of the panelists, Tracy Zhao, a graduate of Pomona College and a research associate at UCLA.
Among those attending the panel discussion was USC’s Vice Provost for Student Affairs Ainsley Carry. The administration has not formally responded to the flyer, but the campus police have been directed to investigate it.
“Imagine how our response would be if we were all equally offended by this,” Carry said. “When any part of our community is challenged, we should all feel challenged; this problem is so big we can’t expect one culture to deal with it. Our approach needs to be cross-cultural.”
You can read more about how students are being encouraged to respond to the flyers in the Daily Trojan.
