Biba Fullon reports on the Asian American Students Rising panel discussion

“As long as there is rice to eat, we will keep on fighting.  If the rice runs out, we will plough the fields and fight again.” –Mui Dug Giang

This quotation from a farmer in Vietnam perfectly reflects the battles that Southeast Asian American youth have been fighting in South Philadelphia and in New Orleans.  On Friday, the youth leader from the Asian Student Association of Philadelphia (ASAP) and the Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association of New Orleans (VAYLA) came together to tell their stories of struggle and strength.

We rarely hear of the horrific treatment of Asian American communities, much less do we hear about the ways in which the communities fight back but the panel addressed both.  The students from New Orleans described the dumping ground that sprang up near the predominantly Vietnamese American community where they lived.  The dump became a major health hazard and seriously decreased the quality of life.  The community had to educate itself and one another about what a landfill was and what the potential hazards were and would be if the city continued dumping on them.  After numerous intergenerational protests at city hall, the community upped the ante.  Elders and youth linked arms in front of the dump, demanding that the city stop pouring their trash on the Vietnamese American community.  They won the battle and the dump was shut down.

Bok from South Philadelphia went through the physical attacks that he and other newly arrived immigrants experienced in their South Philadelphia public high school.  Students were constantly harassed in school and out of school.  Bok told the story of students chasing Asian immigrant students through the streets at the height of the attacks.  The worst part though, was the school and Board of Ed’s complete lack of response to the attacks.  After some of the most vicious attacks, students organized to boycott school until their safety was ensured.  In the time of the boycott on school, the students organized and also learned about the diverse history of Philadelphia organizing in order to better address the problems they were facing.  They demanded that school officials meet with them off campus.  The administration at school wanted the students to come back to school despite the dangers that students were facing. If they didn’t come back to school, school officials threatened students with being transferred to other schools and marked as illegally absent.  The two groups eventually came to an agreement and students started to return to school with the promise of an improved school environment for them.

While the problems in both communities have not been completely stamped out, it was clear from listening to these young activists that the communities will be strengthened by the power of its people –both its young and its elders, and that they will keep fighting. 

Read more about the South Philadelphia students and the Freedom from Fear Award they recently won here. 

Educator Biba Fullon has been an Education for Liberation Board Member since 2007. She's contributed two posts to the FMFP blog. You can read her first right here.