What happens when you raise concerns over celebrating the Year of the Monkey on the first day of Black History Month? A lot of t-shirts being pulled, a debate about political correctness, and a feature on the Daily Show.
The 15th annual South Asian Heritage Week officially kicked off Monday morning on Bruin Walk with the Pakistani Student Association (PSA), Bengali Student Association (BSA), and Indus Bruins.
The city, located in the San Gabriel Valley, provides the opportunity for the majority Asian American community to ring in the year of the monkey with family and friends.
The charity event, called “Remembering the Refugees,” aimed to increase the awareness toward the Syrian refugee in the UCLA community and to fundraise for building a classroom for the refugees in Lebanon.
Despite the success of the movement, Nguyen pointed out that data about the demographics on AAPI communities are still oversimplified and difficult to obtain, if not impossible to do so. He also argued that the California State University (CSU) and University of California systems “collect, but does not utilize data,” which further marginalizes underrepresented ethnic minorities in the UC system.
The night market raised concerns on the public Facebook event about how the student groups involved were chosen and whether it erased the presence of other cultures and communities on campus.