Princeton BOE Should 'Do Better' To Address Asian Hate: Student

PRINCETON, NJ — The Princeton School District needs to "do better" to address Anti-Asian hate. This was the message from a freshman during the Board of Education meeting held last Tuesday.

“What we see in Atlanta is a reflection of the fact that there's been a lot of Asian hate and Asian neglect through all of our times,” said Oliver Huang, from Princeton High School.

Huang was referring to the shootings in the Atlanta metro area in March that killed six Asian women.

The student went on to recall his own experience with microaggressions that he experienced in school.

Huang said that as a seventh grader, one of his classmates "blatantly asked whether or not I eat a dog. It was really demeaning.”

“Just because I eat a dog doesn't mean that I'm less human.”

The student said he found the comment "incredibly ethnocentric.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic last year, another student “shoved an umbrella” under Huang’s face, and told him it was to “keep the corona away,” Huang told the Board.

“These things keep on going... And this builds up into people coming into spas and literally shooting six to eight victims,” he said.

Huang also addressed the Board about their message on anti-Asian hate. The student said the email message from the board was “incredibly vague” and “emblematic” of the fact that they were not doing a “good job at communicating with the Asian parents.”

Although Asian Americans make up a large population of the school district, Huang pointed out that the district still does not have a holiday in the calendar for Chinese New Year.

“I'm just going to challenge the board to do better and for our schools to actually address the Asian racism that goes on in our school every day,” said Huang.

After Huang spoke, Board member Dafna Kendal apologized for the racism the student faced in school.

She recalled the recent incident of a 65-year-old Asian American being beaten up in New York City, while bystanders watched or recorded.

“I just think it's a reminder... that we all have a responsibility to speak out against this kind of behavior,” said Kendal.

Earlier in the meeting, Board President Beth Behrend mourned the victims of the Atlanta shootings and acknowledged the rise in hate crimes against the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community.

Behrend said violence against the AAPI community “diminish the diversity of our community."

"We all share the obligation to stand up against racism wherever and whenever we find it."

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