SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC NEWS) As more anti-Asian hate occurs in the U.S., the Asian community is fighting back. Protests are everywhere, and more Asians are sharing their experiences. However, when an international group hosted an online discussion promoting more understanding, the event didn’t go well.
Aorui Pi, the organizer of the discussion cast the event information four days in advance and cooperated with Syracuse University’s multiple offices. The diversity and inclusion office helped them send an email to all students on campus, but only 50 people came.
“Ninety-nine percent of them are Asians,” Pi said.
Studying at Syracuse University for four years, Pi said she feels like it is hard for other races to resonate with the minority. After four years of efforts she made, the flyers and hate crime still existed. This semester, she shared her frustrated experience of promoting Asian culture in a course.
After class, she received many warm notes, but none of them were from the white community.
Experiences like this made her realize the difficulty of connecting with the majority groups.
“Even we talked about it, white students … they don’t feel any relatable,” Pi said. “So they can’t relate to us, they don’t have that experience.”
Pi said she is not surprised that there were only Asian students in the discussion. They shared experiences of microaggressions and talked about how to deal with them in the future.
She felt like the discussion has met its purpose, but that it was not enough. Pi said she still hopes one day the campus can come together.
She said they have taken the first step, but there is still a long way to go.
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Pi's organization promoted the event in Instagram
© 2021 Aorui Pi
