The danger of having a less-than-prolific blog now is that it gets harder to publicize and organize around issues that are urgent and relevant to our communities. It's important now that we get back on track.

So far the news has hit all the outlets. Asian students, once again, seem to be targeted for victims of assault. While not all of the news pieces make note, here are the facts: five of seven students assaulted Sunday morning were Asian, as was the only female assaulted. The Columbia Spectator, IvyGate, Gothamist, The Daily News, Fox News NY, and even our esteemed Asian American anti-racist blogger Angry Asian Man have all moved to publicize these incidents. Commendable, sure, and for some perhaps a little more for alluding to preexisting racial discourses.

And then we turn to the surveillance tape. We see footage of people of color in stereotypic street wear. "Stereotypic" because it's unclear how much good viewing images of what the Daily News described as a "gang of punks" will do for protecting the student body. These are images that parents back home fear and leave us voicemails about. These are the images that make people feel that rapid, systematic gentrification and displacement is a good thing. They make it hard for otherwise sensible, conscious people to walk north of 120th St.

Minghui Yu didn't die just a few months ago because of one inhumane 13-year old who drove him into oncoming traffic. He was killed by reinforced notions of people of Asian descent as weak, effeminate, and easy game. As complicit are the ideas that inner city black males are urban predators.

These are not things I make up. Look at the comments on any of the sites I linked above. "Asians really need to get their heads out of their books and start acting like a real community instead of just a demographic," one commenter writes. Another writes, "Can't we just shoot these thugs...sick of living in this human cesspool." Some seem harmless, but we should reexamine why "Skinny Asian students always are victims!" is acceptable discourse. What is freedom of speech worth when speech spreads veiled hate?

These comments aren't abstractions in the vacuum of internet space. They're ideas reinforced by almost everything we say and do. It's about time we revisit this system; this is why this blog exists.

What can we do? We can hold more events with community organizations that deal with anti-Asian violence, with collaboration with our closest allies (BSO, BOSS). the way we did last semester to expand our understanding of these events. Who will attend? What will it do?

What can be done? Please give thoughts in the comments.

The Blaaag has yet to write anything about the tragic death of 24-year old international graduate student Minghui Yu, but we feel there's not much to say. As our condolences go out to the family and friends of this guy, we see other international students about campus supporting one another in the recognition that community is the one thing they need to confront such a reality.

We see a heightened alertness in students all across campus, in our classes and commuting between buildings. But most of all, we hear the quiet murmurs about possible intentions of the attack. According to the NYT, a lawyer for the city vaguely called it "predatory in nature" but did not elaborate. The Daily News and Gothamist quoted the boy arrested to have said, "Look what I do to this one," before chasing him. Yu was found with his backpack and wallet, an indication that this altercation was not a robbery.

And so, AAA and its Political Committee struggles to ponder this incident and connect it to the other incidences of anti-Asian violence we have seen. The recent memories of a student attacked at Brooklyn's David Boody Intermediate School ring loudly now. In this month of awareness and community building, we seek to build discussion around this topic, perhaps collaboratively with other student organizations. Please stay tuned for such events.

More from Angry Asian Man, The Spectator...