On Wednesday, April 7th, the Kent State community hosted a "Stop AAPI Hate" rally to show support for our Asian students, faculty, and staff. People stood in solidarity to show that our community is one of love and unity – not hate. A Chinese student Yu (Eline) Li, who is pursuing her Ph.D. program with Cultural Foundations, shared her story at the event. We were all very touched by it and would like to share her speech here with everyone:
Thanks so much for joining.
Great thanks to all the organizers for organizing this. We have been waiting so long for this opportunity to be together, stand together, and support each other.
I am an international student coming from China and I have been studying for my doctoral degree at Kent State for 5 years. I deeply love Kent and Kent State and for me, it is a home far away from home. I have my best years and memory here; my daughter was born here, and I am always surrounded by the kindest and warm, and friendly people. I had an incredibly great time until the pandemic started.
I admit I have a great fear of the pandemic, of the virus. But what scares me more is every time, when I heard it is being called China virus, every time when I saw the news about Asian people being violently hurt, every time when I know my friends experienced racial discrimination, like being viciously shouted at, go back to China. My fear and anger reached the top when the shooting happened, 8 people died, 6 are Asian women and the police officer explained that the criminal just had a very bad day. I cannot agree. for the innocent victims and their families, it was a very bad day. For the Asian population is suffering from all those injustices, discrimination, and violence, it was a very bad day.
March 25, about two weeks ago, in the morning, I found my car has been sprayed white painting while parked at my apartment complex, just 5 minutes’ walk away from campus. There were 7 cars parking there is a line and just my car is painted white, I know it is because I am the only Asian living there. I became the target, and it was just one of the many acts of violence, the Asian hate crimes now happening everywhere in America.
I was so afraid at that moment. Standing there with my 4-year-old daughter, I was extremely depressed, and I don’t know what I could do. I just wanted to hide somewhere safe or flee away.
A moment later, I called my advisor, Dr. Vilma Seeberg and my advisor immediately guided me to report to Kent and the city policy and university about this hate crime. What happened following, on the same day, is that I got a lot of emails, phone calls, messages from the dean, professors, and classmates of my department and college to check with me and ask what they can do to help with the situation. I also got messages from teachers of my daughter at the child development center at Kent State, they told me they will do anything in their power to keep my daughter safe and sent a Door Dash gift card so that I can order dinner and have the time to sort everything out. My second dissertation advisor, Dr. Clark called me and offered me to move and live with her family. In the following days, my professors and friends still check with me many times and I know if I need any help, they will be there. I am not alone. I know I am so lucky and have such a loving and caring community standing behind me.
For the past year during the pandemic, I live in such isolation, I have lost the Chinese community since many Chinese students have to leave America or they cannot return to America, my heart was occupied with fear and negativity with all that terrible news toward Asian populations and the incident happened to me.
But the care and love I received from people of the community of Kent State light me up and empowered me to step out from my small apartment and share my story and stand with each other. The love and care I received remind me of my goal and dream, why I came to Kent State, and make me suddenly understand I don’t want to live in silence and fear and lose the joy of the present. My life should not be shadowed because of the racists. They are cowards, when we stand together and make a voice, we get stronger and we can have the basic right to work, to go to school, to safely walk down the street without being attacked.
Therefore, I am here, I take my daughter with me here, and we stand here together in encouragement. We belong here and we are responsible for changing it. We speak out against hate and violence against all of us, who are people of color. We have the power to make a better future, for ourselves and for our children.
Yu (Eline) Li
Instructor & Doctoral Candidate - Cultural Foundations
School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration
College of Education, Health and Human Services
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