A virtual webinar on mental health and anti-Asian hate ended abruptly following an onslaught of “f” bombs and racial slurs interrupted the proceedings Tuesday.
The Michigan Daily reports it started with a series of high pitch screaming noises, but gradually intensified as the panelists attempted to carry on while encouraging the audience to stick with the panel and ignore the disruptions.
“We hope today’s presentation discussion helps to build community, clarify information, generate some creative advocacy strategies and interventions that you can use for supporting AAPI students,” Dr. Marcia Liu, the event moderator and Mental Health Coordinator for Hunter College AANAPISI Project in New York City said to introduce the session.
Keynote speaker Kevin Nadal, a professor of psychology at City University of New York and at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, then began his presentation.
“In order for us to really ensure that people feel safe … we have to target notions of white supremacy and the ways in which many people of color are targeted,” Nadal said about 14 minutes after the panel discussion had begun. “Within minority stress is the idea of microaggression—”
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At that point, the interruptions began. Everytime, Nadal tried to continue, a high pitch sound could be heard.
“F*ck you, b*tch,” a computer-generated voice, said.
“We can honor this moment of some Asian trauma happening right now,” Liu said. “I don’t want to let this kind of thing happen and not acknowledge it. This is exactly it. I’m noticing my heart race, you know, I’m noticing, feeling nervous.”
“This is part of it, right? We are resilient, we’ll make it through,” Nadal said. “As people of various ethnic backgrounds and cultural backgrounds, of various histories, we need to be resilient. And so all of the folks here trying to bring us down, we will survive and we will also thrive.”
The panel went on for about 20 minutes. But as the obscenities turned to racial slurs, the organizers decided to end the session.
According to Al Jazeera, Black, Asian and minority ethnic community face “immediate danger” when working on the Zoom. Rashad Robinson, the executive director of Color of Change, the United States’s largest online racial justice organisation,
“In the United States, particularly, there is a history of Black people having their community events disrupted: in recent memory White nationalists have shot up Black churches,” Rashad Robinson of Color of Change said. “Now, our Zoom gatherings are being targeted. Technology is supposed to bring us to the future, but instead it’s dragging us to the past.”
Several threads on 4Chan, a far right online forum, outline organized attacks on minority communities, calling for people to be outright racist and to use racial slurs to disrupt zoom gatherings.
“Color of Change have been contacted by at least 15 groups who have had their gatherings hijacked,” Robinson said.
The National Center for University Diversity at the University of Michigan condemned Tuesday’s zoom bombing.
“As scholars and practitioners, we know that this is what racial trauma looks like,” Dr. Tabbye Chavous said in the statement. “This act of violence underscores the necessity of addressing systemic racism, and reinforces our commitment to understanding and supporting Asian American/Pacific Islander students. Racial justice work on our campuses and nationally continues to be critical and of the utmost urgency.”
Chavous vowed that the interrupted panel would be rescheduled at a later date.
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