April 30 marked the 40th anniversary of what many of those in the Vietnamese diaspora refer to as the Fall of Saigon, or Black April as my generations tends to call it, recognizing that there was much more than one day, or one month of the hells of war. Every year, the Vietnamese Student Union’s Black April Commemoration seeks to commemorate the Vietnamese diaspora’s decision to leave the Vietnamese homeland in search of a better life.

Though the Vietnam War ended in the 1970s, even today, being accused as a communist or a communist sympathizer is still enough to start up a controversy with protests and rallies. Individuals who have been targeted in the past generally tried to merely tolerate the accusations. But now,…