The APIDA community formed by student organizations is vast as depicted by this year’s APIDA Student Welcome organized by the Asian American Association. Aug. 24, 2021. Courtesy of the Center of Belonging and Social Change. Courtesy of Center for Belonging and Social Change
Asian American activist movements are at the forefront of one the The Center of Belonging and Social Change’s Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Heritage Month event.
The CBSC is hosting an event titled “Solidarity: From Vincent Chin to #StopAsianHate” Wednesday from 6-7 p.m. at the Houston House. Madison Eagle, CBSC’s coordinator for belonging and student support, said the event aims to discuss past and present activist movements that have affected the Asian American community.
“This program is really geared toward anybody who is looking to be more involved in social change or wanting to learn more about all different efforts of activism,” Eagle said.
Eagle said a specific historical example the event will be centered around is the solidarity between Reverend Jesse L. Jackson and Lily Chin, which formed from the 1982 murder of Chin’s son, Vincent Chin, who was a Chinese American.
According to Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California’s archive, Vincent Chin was fatally beaten by two men in Detroit, Michigan. The world was outraged the two men were sentenced with probation and a $3,000 fine for Vincent Chin’s death. Lily Chin took the mission to pursue the goal of equality for Americans with Asian descent, according to the archive.
Jackson took time out of his presidential campaign to show support for the campaign for justice for Vincent Chin, encouraging unity between the Black and Asian communities, according to ABC7.
Eagle said the event will discuss activist movements enacted by Asian Americans for their own community and how efforts of solidarity from other communities pushed for the advancement of APIDAs.
“The whole point of this program is to lay out those different moments of connection across various identity groups and talk about how different activists are interconnected and support each other,” Eagle said.
Connor Vezina, the center’s graduate student assistant and a graduate student in higher education and student affairs, said he contributed to planning the event. He said he worked to develop the theme of the month, “Discover your Fire,” which encourages people to explore ideas they are excited and passionate about.
“I see how much opportunity there is for these communities to share their culture, share their experiences, share their knowledge with the larger OSU student population,” Vezina said.
Vezina said he has attempted to reach out to APIDA student organizations for their involvement and collaboration but did not receive as many responses as he hoped. However, he said he will continue to strive to form more intimate connections with the organizations in the future.
“I’m, kind of, looking at this year as me becoming more familiar with the student orgs, and hopefully next year, I can really get connected with all the student orgs in a more intimate way and be able to start programming or start thinking of ideas with them together.”
More information on the event can be found on CBSC’s website.
