By Jennifer Zhan, AsAmNews intern
Louisiana State University freshman Christy Nguyen is trying to make the best of a bad situation.
On Aug. 31, a fellow student repeatedly yelled “Get the f*ck out Ching Chongs” at Nguyen and a group of her friends at a football game, according to a now-viral tweet posted by Nguyen. He was later identified as sophomore Foxworth Vidrine.
“There’s time that you just spend to think about it and come to peace with it, which is what I’ve done. I’m not saying you should just accept it, obviously,” Nguyen said. “But [I would tell someone who is targeted in a similar situation to] try to turn it into something positive.”
Nguyen told AsAmNews she and Thao Ngo, a friend also present at the incident, have decided to apply for LSU’s Freshman Leadership Council because they want to use an “obviously negative situation” to leave a positive impact.
In a statement released to the media, LSU Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Mari Fuentes-Martin said the language and words used in the incident do not reflect LSU as a university and the welcoming environment created for students of all backgrounds.
“The university is committed to maintaining a safe living and learning environment that embraces individual differences and values cultural inclusion,” said Fuentes-Martin, who met with Nguyen and her friends after they reported the incident.
But Nguyen said that at the beginning of the week, she didn’t feel her experience with the administration reflected the sentiment of that statement.
“It just seemed like they were trying to have meetings just to appease us,” Nguyen said. “I was expecting them to talk about solutions or punishments. The initial meetings were mostly about what the community could do to improve. I just came out of the meetings not really knowing what happened.”
She said that the tweet getting more attention and news coverage “definitely seemed like one of the biggest factors” affecting the university’s response. According to Nguyen, after the president of LSU saw it, administration began asking for more meetings.
LSU Media Relations director Ernie Ballard told AsAmNews the university is looking into the matter further, although it cannot disclose any potential discipline or violation for an individual student since it is part of their federally protected educational record.
Nguyen said no one from Vidrine’s side has contacted her. She and her friends have been told the next step in the process will be meeting with the Office of Student Advocacy & Accountability at the end of this week or beginning of next week.
“Now that action is actually being taken, I do feel differently. I feel like they are putting care into it,” Nguyen said. “But I would’ve changed how quickly they responded to it and how quickly they were thinking of the resolution. Because obviously I would want them to have solved this situation a little bit quicker and not have to deal with it for so long.”
This is not the first time racist incidents have been reported within the school. LSU’s student newspaper, The Reveille, has compiled a timeline of instances of racially-charged statements by students and faculty at the university over the past 57 years.
Nguyen said if she is able to join the student government at LSU, she would like to focus on speaking out more for appreciation of diversity.
“After this happened, I was like, ‘How can I become sort of an activist for this situation?’” Nguyen said. “I just wanted to actually have an effect that lasted, not something that was just like, oh, that Tweet happened, forget about it, it’s over.”
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