A flyer advertising a white supremacist rally was sent to the Asian American Studies Center (AASC) at UCLA. Although the rally did not occur, students and faculty are voicing their concerns.
The incident was first reported by the Daily Bruin, UCLA’s student newspaper. According to the Daily Bruin, the AASC received the flyer in the mail on February 9.
Natalie Masuoka and Keith Camacho, the chair and vice-chair of the department, notified campus authorities and university administrators immediately. They also told staff and students in the AASC to be cautious on February 14.
Chancellor Gene Block sent a campus-wide email to students on February 13, stating that the university was investigating the incident and found no need to alter campus activities on February 14, the Daily Bruin reports.
UCLA hired private security officers from Professional Security Consultant to prepare for the rally. Despite the flyer, the rally never occurred.
According to the Daily Bruin, the flyer contained xenophobic language and slurs against Asian Americans. It featured a photo of the suspect involved in the Atlanta spa shooting that killed six Asian woman. The photo included a message that read “Good Job.”
The flyer also contained slurs referring to the Black and LGBTQ+ community.
A number of hate incidents have been reported at colleges and universities in the United States over the past few months. Several of the incidents involved hate against the Asian community.
In February, signs with anti-Asian slurs were posted on the door of the door of Harvard Undergraduate Council President Michael Y. Cheng. Anonymous posts attacking South Asian students at Boston College were also posted on the social media app Herrd. Last year, texts threatening Asians were sent to a student at Occidental College.
This isn’t the first time the AASC at UCLA has been the target of hateful messaging. Karen Umemoto, the director of the AASC, told the Daily Bruin, said the center received hate mail in 2014.
“Because (these letters are) so vile, they impact people in deep ways. … It just reaffirms the importance of our work,” Umemoto told the Daily Bruin. “My reaction to the flyer was that we just double our resolve to get the history and stories of our peoples out there to the American public so that this next generation of people … will have more empathy towards people who are different from themselves.”
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