Although there has been no official report yet, on March 2nd, a Vietnamese-American student at UCSB was allegedly harassed by four members of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity, who--without provocation--attacked Thanh and his friend while using various racial epithets such as "chink," "chinaman," and "gook." There is an ongoing investigation currently being conducted by the University of California Police Department and the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office. Below is the article that has been circulating Facebook.

Early in the morning of March 2, 2009, Thanh Hong, a Vietnamese American student at the University of California at Santa Barbara , and his Asian American friend walked home through Isla Vista – the college town adjacent tothe UCSB campus. On their way home, Thanh and his friend passed in front of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house. Four men emerged from inside the fraternityhouse, approached Thanh and his friend, and began yelling racial epithets atthem including: “Chink,” “Chinamen,” and “Gook.”

THANH AND HIS FRIEND TRIED TO WALK AWAY. Before they could, however, one of the men -- without provocation -- punched Thanh’s friend in the face, and then attacked Thanh. The man from the fraternity house continued using racial slurs during the attack. Eventually, he stopped his attack and started laughing, providing Thanh and his friend an opportunity to escape. Thanh suffered a facial laceration requiring several stitches and his friend suffered a concussion resulting in partial memory loss.

The University of California Police Department and the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office were called and opened an investigation into the case. The police questioned members of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity who all denied any involvement. The fraternity also denied that any attack had taken place, even though the sidewalk in front of their house was stained with Thanh’s fresh blood. I still haven’t been able to ascertain where Thanh is originally from.

Interesting article on the first Vietnamese-American elected to Congress. Take a closer look at the reporting in the following exerpts.

"NEW ORLEANS — Soft-spoken, retiring and diminutive, Anh Cao does not appear to fit the role of dragon-slayer."

"Mr. Cao was a refugee from Vietnam at age 8, a former Jesuit seminarian, a philosophy student with a penchant for Camus and Dostoyevsky, an unknown activist lawyer for one of the least visible immigrant communities here and a Republican in a heavily Democratic district."

"Mr. Cao is not large, standing only 5 feet 2 inches by his own sheepishly given reckoning. But he is persistent and has the sort of difficult life story that would have made taking on Mr. Jefferson seem like a lesser hurdle."

"He is only a recent convert to the Republican Party, having been a registered independent for most of his adult life, and has no position — at least not one he cares to share yet — on President-elect Barack Obama's agenda. His politics seem less a matter of ideology than of low-key temperament and a Jesuit-inspired desire to “help and serve people,” as he put it. His mother bundled him onto a military transport plane with some siblings as Saigon fell in 1975 — “She shoved me along with a bunch of relatives,” he said — and he was separated from his father, a South Vietnamese army officer sent to a prison camp, for 16 years. He recalls a letter he received from his father at age 9, sent from the prison: Study hard, and give back to the community."

"Mr. Cao left the Jesuits, set up as a lawyer and began advocating for the small Vietnamese community clustered in the eastern section of New Orleans. Like others in the community, his life was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which flooded his house with eight feet of water. And like others, he quickly bounced back, part of a resilience in the community that was chronicled here in the first months after the hurricane hit. "

"The odds did not look good for Mr. Cao, but he was helped by two circumstances. Whites, fed up with the scandals around Mr. Jefferson, who is black, turned out in force, and blacks stayed home. In largely white precincts, turnout was around 26 percent, while in the blackest precincts, it was only around 12 percent, said Greg Rigamer, a New Orleans demographer and analyst."

"Full article: "History and Amazement in House Race Outcome"

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/08/us/politics/08cao.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

By Adam Nossiter