“If you think about what this man did to these people, he literally reduced them to objects; he took away their humanity.”

Eight people were killed in a series of targeted attacks against three Asian-owned spas on March 16, the deadliest mass-shooting of 2021 in the US at the time. Six of the deceased included women of Asian descent who worked at the establishments.

“I was really shocked,” said Jean Li Spencer ’21, an editor-in-chief of GenerAsians, “but I wasn’t surprised because of the nature of gun violence in this country[,] and the invisibility and silence that a lot of people who are in certain positions receive from society on a daily basis.”

The shooting has not only sparked a new national conversation on gun violence, but also one on anti-Asian violence, which is at its peak since March 2020 when COVID-19 spread from the city of Wuhan, China to the United States. In 2020, violence against Asian Americans increased by over 150% in major cities, including 1,900% in New York City over an eight-week period.

According to Captain Jay Baker of the Atlanta Police Department, the suspect claimed the attacks were not racially motivated but rather because the massage parlors were a “temptation … he wanted to eliminate,”because they provided him “an outlet for his addiction to sex.”

However, the Chosun Ilbo, a major daily paper in South Korea, reported that a witness recalled hearing him shout “I’m going to kill all Asians.” Additionally, Deputy Police Chief Charles Hampton stated that the suspect had only regularly visited two of the locations, and is believed to have targeted the third because it was an Asian-owned massage parlor.

“The fact that Asian owned spas represent [temptation] to him, that’s a problem in itself and ties into the crime being racially motivated,” said Sophie Wang ’22, president of Wellesley’s Asian Student Union (ASU). “I don’t think a lot of people see these connections and nuances, especially because it’s been throughout history for so long: Asian women fetishization and then perceptions about Asian people as a whole.”

For many women of Asian descent, these perceptions are nothing new.

“The rise of the incel ideology has definitely coincided with yellow fever and fetishization of Asian women. Mainstream porn, as well as the history of comfort women, sexual assault in military bases in Asia, mail order brades, sex tourism, have all played a role in this,” Grace Fang ’23 said. “These men feel entitled not just to women but to Asian women who are stereotyped to be submissive, ‘better’ wife material. We exist only to ‘service’ them.”

“There’s a lot of objectification of our bodies. And that association [of sex addiction] is just another form of objectification,” Spencer said. “If you think about what this man did to these people, he literally reduced them to objects; he took away their humanity.”

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Wang has been in Queens, New York for the past year, where she described seeing anti-Asian attacks happen as far back as half a year ago. As a result, she initially felt numb when she heard news of the shooting.

“Very little people have talked about [the attacks] initially,” Wang said.“That’s kind of where the numbing feeling stemmed from, just because I’ve been having talks with my family since the first incident of an elder woman, I believe, being pushed in Flushing.”

Like Wang, many students of Asian descent have described becoming desensitized to attacks on other Asians in the US due to their frequency.

“I don’t really think I have a reaction anymore. It’s more just, ‘oh I’m not surprised.’ It’s painful, but I also feel really detached at this point,” Fang said. “It could be a coping mechanism or that I feel really safe here at Wellesley. I just don’t really have the emotional capacity to feel intense about it anymore.”

Despite this, for students in large metropolitan areas, the attacks are an everyday fear.

“A lot of people in [my community] who are Asian … are afraid to go out by themselves,” Spencer, who is also from New York City, said. “Unfortunately, a lot of people who identify as women especially feel this way.”

Wang has had talks with her sister and mother about keeping themselves safe. She now shares her location and gives updates on her whereabouts to her family whenever she leaves the house.

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Although the shooting has propelled anti-Asian violence into national news, students say that many national news publications are missing the real origin of the attacks: the deep-rooted history of racism against Asians in America.

“The manner [in which the media covers these stories] has not been okay at all,” Fang said. “They often hyperfocus on Trump and okay, Trump exacerbated xenophobic rhetoric, but it existed long beforehand. Cold War, anti-communism, red scare, yellow peril, all that. They sort of just want Trump to be the scapegoat.”

Fang believes the demonization of China in the media has contributed to the rise anti-Asian sentiment. US government officials have been among the voices propagating COVID-19 conspiracy theories, such as when former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and Chinese billionaire dissident Guo Wengui claimed on Fox News that the virus was created in a Chinese lab.

“The Chinese diaspora had a hand in spreading around [these theories],” Fang said. “So a lot of [Chinese-Americans] believe it. It’s different, of course, when non-Chinese-Americans internalize that kind of rhetoric because it gets translated into violence and hatred for us.”

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In response to the increase in anti-Asian hate crimes, Wellesley cultural organizations have decided to take action to support the Asian and Asian American community. Student organizations such as Pan-Asian Council, Chinese Students Association, ASU, GenerAsians, Korean Students Association (KSA), South East Asian Students Association (SEASA) and more have all written statements on social media addressing the influx of anti-Asian hate crimes and provided a list of resources to support Asian and Asian American advocacy organizations. On March 18, Karen Shih, advisor to students of Asian descent, also hosted an event allowing Asian students to decompress and express their sentiments on anti-Asian racism in a safe, nonjudgemental space.

Spencer has also talked about a potential project for GenerAsians on gathering an open-source library for students that fall both within and outside the umbrella of the AAPI community. In order to take advantage of the innumerable connections of colleges in the Greater Boston area, Spencer is hoping to circulate the resources to Asian organizations in other Boston area schools.

“We’re hoping this can be democratically assembled, so Wellesley students at large are invited to contribute to this,” Spencer said.

Wang hopes the new influx of conversations surrounding anti-Asian hate crimes will have lasting implications toward conversations about race in the US.

“In the future, I hope that conversations about crimes against the AAPI community will not only bring about awareness for these instances, but also to allow a more active and nuanced discussion about racism and white supremacy,” Wang said. “I hope we can continue to create a space for healing, community and solidarity.”

Within the last weeks of August, lightning storms ignited multiple fires across California, which have consumed 3.6 million acres of land as of Sept. 24. These fires differed in cause compared to the last four years, where fires were caused by damaged P&G powerlines. Lighting during a heatwave, also known as cloud-to-ground lightning, coupled with unpredictable winds and a dry climate, fueled the development of many of the wildfires.

During the heatwave before the fire, Gürer mentioned that the lightning storm had “over 11,000 lightning strikes in a matter of hours.” While this is the first time the fires have been so close to home, the air quality around her in the summer “was always bad.”

“It’s definitely been quite nerve wracking, to say the least. It’s going to be at least a couple of weeks before we get the all clear to go back [home],” Gürer said. “We came back the next day to get last emergency things, and the air quality inside the house was terrible, even though we had all the windows shut and everything.”

The majority of the fires started around the week of Aug. 16. According to Cal Fire, a government website that provides live wildfire updates, the fires have destroyed more than 7,100 homes and buildings and taken 26 lives in the past month, as of Sept. 24. 

These wildfires have significantly affected students at Wellesley in different ways, particularly those who live close to the East Bay. According to the Office of Admissions, California has been one of the top five states represented in admitted classes in the past three years. Due to the pandemic, both Californian students who have chosen to return to campus and those studying remotely have been affected by the damage caused by the fires.

While the brunt of the fires has been in Northern and Central California, air quality has been decreasing throughout the state, making sustained activity outside difficult. On Aug. 21, Jill Mankoff ’21, a Wellesley student in San Mateo County, recalls the sky being “all grayed out and really hazy” while driving to the library. On the same day in Santa Clara County, 30 miles away, Kaitlyn Wang ’23 remembers the “entire sky [being] gray.” 

“You cannot see the mountains at all, they’re just completely obscured. The sun was red, and the light sunlight [was] this orange hue,” Wang said. “Luckily, we haven’t had to evacuate.”

Wang lives in Saratoga, which received a red flag warning predicting thunderstorms on Aug. 23. After her city received the warning, Wang began packing for evacuation. Fortunately, the thunderstorms did not happen, which prevented more fires in the county from spreading in her area.

Lorraine Palmer ’20, a recent Davis scholar graduate, also had to evacuate due to the CZU wildfires along with her three cats and 42 hens. She was able to stay with a family who owns a farm, and has received support for food from numerous shelters. 

“The fire is only halfway contained. We could still have the fire reach us but I highly doubt it,” said Palmer.  “And the weirdest thing is that I feel optimistic. Tired, but hopeful.”

Evacuation centers have encountered difficulty accommodating evacuees and maintaining safety around COVID-19. According to Mankoff, the evacuation centers near her are limited in space due to the pandemic despite the large numbers of people being evacuated in her area. 

While she did not have to evacuate, Mankoff has been affected by the state’s mandatory rolling blackouts, which are spread out from town to town to avoid an overload of electrical grids. 

“Luckily we have a landline so we just make phone calls through that, but we can’t really check the status of things unless we walk or drive away from our house because there’s not really good cell service here,” Mankoff said. 

Though Mankoff is returning to campus, she mentioned that it would be difficult to sustain remote learning with the fires still occurring. 

“I wouldn’t have WiFi for multiple days,” Mankoff said. “I would have had really spotty internet access on my phone to do things like checking email or going to class.”

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Volunteer efforts bring communities together 

Jannitta Yao ’21, who lives in Santa Clara County, mainly used the radio and Calfire.org to keep track of the spread of the wildfires and location of the evacuation zones. Yao is currently in Boston, MA, where she is studying remotely for the semester. 

“The airport is still open,” Yao said, “although parts of Highway 80, which is this highway on the East Bay, have been closed to the fires.” 

Wellesley alumnae have also involved themselves in efforts to support evacuees and locals affected by the fires in San Mateo. Sandy Kraft ’84, an alum in California and president of the Wellesley Club of Silicon Valley, has been coordinating volunteer efforts in San Mateo to help bring supplies and resources to evacuees. Kraft started a group called “Neighbors Helping Neighbors – San Mateo County” during the start of COVID-19 to help deliver essential items to seniors and immunocompromised individuals. She also started helping nonprofits with impact projects, such as fire relief, by collecting donations from her 500 person volunteer group and throughout local communities. Volunteers have also been offering their houses as collection points and for picking up donations.

“Getting donations from one place to another and enabling people who don’t want to go out due to COVID or who don’t have time because they are working and helping kids with schooling is a particular challenge during the pandemic,” Kraft said.  “My goal is to make it as easy as possible for people to help others during this incredibly challenging time.”

Kraft has made several donation trips in the past two weeks, and is still collecting donations along with other volunteers. However, challenges arise due to COVID-19.

“The county evacuation centers only take new items,” Kraft said. “No used donations [are accepted] no matter how good the condition, so people have to spend money.”

Mankoff and Gürer have noticed volunteer efforts in their communities in San Mateo as well. 

“There are a couple of local organizations that are organizing all the shelters and soliciting donations to the local Red Cross,” Mankoff said. 

A local farmers organization in Mankoff’s area is also doing work to send supplies to evacuees. According to Gürer, more reinforcements and aid have been coming in her region as well. Gürer received help from hotel staff near her evacuation area, who provided basic necessities such as water, toiletries and free breakfast.

Recently, many mainstream publications have brought attention to California’s use of prison labor to fight fires. Before the pandemic, California used prison labor as an integral part of its strategy to control fires. However, California could not rely as heavily on incarcerated firefighters in the latest wave, as there has recently been a shortage of prison labor due to the surge of COVID-19 cases in prisons and early release programs around the state. 

As of Sept. 9, the CZU Lightning Complex had been 83 percent contained. Gürer is currently back home with her family after they were allowed to return home on Aug. 27. Mankoff has safely moved in on campus, while both Wang and Yao are studying remotely. Palmer has also been able to return home and is receiving assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for cleanup. 

As she reflected on her experience with evacuating this year, Gürer emphasized the importance of climate change and recognizing the exponential severity of the fires over the years. 

“Climate change is a reality, and it affects all of us in different ways,” Gürer said. “This problem is not just serious in California, but in the rest of the world too.” 

“I once heard that sugar gave rise to the slave trade,” Welfald said during her presentation. “Now sugar has enslaved us.”

Student Perspectives

Simone Nevills ’21, a student who became aware of the incident through Pergola’s tweet, was not surprised by the comment in the video.

“It’s hard being a Black student at Wellesley in ways that I have a hard time articulating, compared to other schools,” Nevills said. “We don’t have a lot of support from a lot of our professors. If they’re not racist, they often don’t have the tools to deal with racism in the classroom as it comes up.”

As Nevills explained, being a Black student at Wellesley is difficult. There are relatively few Black students at the College, comprising only six to seven percent of the student population. Additionally, these students are scattered across academic disciplines and, as Nevills noted, received little administrative support.

Nevills was concerned about how the many administrators that examined, edited and approved the video allowed its posting on Wisr. She believed that approving the video was an example of the “very flippant” way administrators handle Black students’ pain and suffering.

“It’s not just a Wellesley problem, but this is a [college that] advertises itself as a place where doors are open. It’s supposed to be a really open community,” Nevills said. “You know, it’s supposed to be great, and that’s not the experience that a lot of Black students have.”

Tulani Reeves-Miller ’21, another student who saw Pergola’s screenshots, shared the same unsurprised sentiments as Nevills about Welfad’s comment.

“I know from experience that if you’re not Black, you don’t tend to focus a lot on learning our history, or learning American history through that lens,” Reeves-Miller explained. “I just feel like the person who said it didn’t think a lot about who it might affect or the actual history of slavery in America. Honestly, it was hurtful to me.”

As an orientation mentor, Pergola raised concerns about the well-being of incoming first-years reacting to the video, as it is some of the first content that they were exposed to from Wellesley.

“This is one of the first things they’re hearing from us and this is what’s establishing their expectations of what the school is going to be like,” Pergola said.

Administrative Response

Pergola reached out to the head of orientation and sent an email to Health Services about the concerning comment. In response, she received an apology from the head of Health Services, Dean Horton and Patricia Welfald.

Welfald said that her statement was inspired from The 1619 Project, a New York Times magazine series examining the legacy of slavery in America. In the email, she wrote that an article from The 1619 Project “examines the racial caste system that sugar slavery helped create,” which particularly moved her.

“By no means do I intend to equalize our modern addiction to sugar with the horrific multi-thousand year history of slavery in our world, the 400+ years of the brutal institution of slavery in North America, nor with slavery’s systemic effects gripping our nation,” Welfald wrote to Pergola. “While I am distressed in learning how this unnecessary substance called sugar has hurt the health of so many people, I am horrified in the way sugar has also been instrumental in the slavery and suffering of innumerable [B]lack people, [I]ndigenous [people], and people of color.”

In response to the individual apology, Pergola emphasized that she should not be the one to receive an apology, nor would it be meaningful.

“I was just someone who happened to notice the video and publicized it. I’m not the demographic that is hurting,” Pergola said. “I think there should be a kind of statement that is made to the general Wellesley community.”

On Aug. 11 Dr. Jennifer Schwartz, the medical director of Health Services, posted a formal apology as a discussion post on Wisr. “While certainly there was no malicious intent and no controversy intended,” Schwartz said that she recognized the inappropriate nature of the comparison, and added that she hoped Wellesley students could accept the apology for the hurt Health Services had caused.

“I will use this as a learning experience for myself and our team moving forward. We are human and we are not perfect, but we do hope to grow and improve from this mistake.” Schwartz wrote. “I hope that you all can forgive this unfortunate choice of wording and we can work to regain your trust and respect.”

Following her statement, Schwartz thanked the Wellesley student body for helping instill a sense of cultural sensitivity and awareness for the institution. After being up for six days, the video was removed from Wisr.

Feedback to Administration

After hearing about the response from Health Services, Nevills agreed that given the culture of the College, “taking the video down was the best thing, even the only thing, Health Services could do” for the specific situation.

“At the end of the day, when this stuff happens, it’s a symptom of other stuff.” Nevills said. “If they really want to prevent things like that from happening in the future, that’s a whole different conversation.”

In order to prevent future harmful incidents like this, Nevills said that the people responsible for administering and green lighting the video, and those around them, need to truly think about how they might be covertly racist and hold some biases and prejudices and commit to understanding and working on those prejudices.

Nevills is also heavily involved with Wellesley for Black Lives, a movement wherein Black students collaborated on a list of demands for the College.

“Wellesley, I and a lot of other Black students believe, needs to have a cultural reckoning and that means that administrators and professors and our classmates need to dig deep and commit to wanting to not be racist.” Nevills explained. “And we haven’t really seen that on a large scale.”

Moving forward, Welfald said that her email to Pergola will suffice as her statement and that she will not be making another public statement to students about her comment. Aside from the formal apology on Wisr, there has not been another statement from Health Services.