PHS students Mitalee Pasricha ’23, Emily Wu ’23, Katherine Monroe ’23, and Nicole Vassilev ’22 stand in solidarity with the Asian American community at the rally on March 27 Photo courtesy of Katherine Chang

On March 27, members of the Princeton community including PHS students, staff, and alumni held a rally calling for solidarity with Asian American communities in the wake of the Atlanta mass shootings that resulted in the deaths of eight individuals,  six of whom were Asian women. Over 3,000 individuals attended the event at Hinds Plaza while abiding by the mandatory mask and social distancing guidelines.

The rally followed a roughly two-hour schedule, beginning with a brief welcoming speech by Reverend Robert Moore of the Coalition for Peace Action followed by a vigil in honor of the eight victims in the Atlanta shooting, which included a name-reading and a minute of silence. Following the keynote speakers, pre-selected community members were allotted three minutes each to deliver their messages.

Each speaker supplied their own perspective and voice during their allotted time, speaking about personal and historical experiences of discrimination, their racial identity, and the importance of taking action and demanding change. The speakers at the vigil included citizen leaders from the community, professors from Princeton University, and even current students, teachers, and alumni in the Princeton Public Schools, including Yingying Zhao ’20,  Zoey Nuland ’25, PHS teacher Dr. Joy Barnes-Johnson, and PHS Assistant Principal Cecilia Birge.

“It is our dream // That we can live in a world // Without fuss // Where everyone is us, and no one is ‘them,’” recited Nuland, a student at Princeton Unified Middle School, from a self-written poem.

The speeches elicited emotional reactions from the audience and the speakers alike.

“It's just so touching when you see tears rolling down their faces as Zoey Nuland and Yingying [Zhao] read their points, you know that you touched emotion that's so raw, something that has been silenced for too long,” said  Birge.

Xiaobing Li, another community organizer of the event and a PHS parent, echoed Birge’s sentiments, recognizing the universal nature of the lessons that could be taken from the speeches.

“I am Asian American myself, and I learned so much from the speakers. I think that is true for all community members, regardless of their ethnic groups,” Li said.

Birge contacted local organizations and associations in order to plan the event, but she initially had not anticipated how large it would become.

“Frankly, I did not expect to organize a 3,000 [person] rally. It was just going to be a small vigil at Tiger Park, and then once we began to get more and more people asking us about it, we ended up relocating after talking to the police department… it started from a small thought that was supposed to be comforting and healing and evolved into a vigil with the entire community and a rally supported by 18 community organizations,” Birge said.

After news of the rally spread through social media and word of mouth, PHS student turnout was high.

“It spread pretty widely amongst the student body from what I saw. I know some people were able to get some of their friends on board. And I did see some people who I knew at the rally as well… I do know that social media helped spread it amongst the student body significantly,” said Han Li ’23.

Beyond just attending the event, many PHS students and alumni volunteered in various positions. Michaela Guo ’20 and Emily Choi ’22 volunteered as emcees, and Julia Zhang ’21 served as a demonstration marshal.

Although the rally’s aim was to support the Asian American community, many of the attendees and even speakers belonged to different racial and ethnic groups. The concept of “solidarity” was brought up in many speeches as a necessity for meaningful action, which can be defined as a feeling of unity in feeling and action between groups with shared interests.

“We [tried] to get as diversified speakers as possible from different organizations and different ethnic groups to really show that everybody's in this fight, not just Asians, and not just minority groups, but it's really everybody… we have to be one voice to stop the hate,” Xiaobing Li said.

Many PHS students who attended the event also shared similar sentiments emphasizing the importance of uniting various groups together in efforts to tackle racially unjust structures and situations.

“Especially in recent times, I think we've seen a lot of activism from all different racial groups and I think it's really nice to see how all of these movements come together because we're all fighting for the same purpose — we're all fighting for equality… It's really easy to show consistency in your activism by not only supporting one movement but then also showing solidarity with all of the other movements,” said Ayo Lin Ince ’22, who has both Black and Asian heritage and attended the rally.

Organizers like Birge and Xiaobing Li have been involved in the Princeton community even before the recent rally. In early March 2020, they led an effort to gather personal protective equipment and funds for local businesses struck by COVID.

“I believe in homebrew, community participation in community affairs. [The fundraising] was what the community needed during COVID time. And during this time, I've witnessed that pain and suffering in my students in particular. So that's the need that I saw,” Birge said.

Ince believes the rally provided proper grieving and important education for PHS students who attended.

“I think everyone coming together is a learning experience in itself. Seeing how so many students from Princeton High School came to stand in solidarity with the movement was very beneficial and I think it's important to see that showing up and being active is impactful because it's important to use your voice and to remember that your actions have a real impact,” Ince said.

The tragedy in Atlanta kickstarted national outrage over anti-Asian sentiments, providing an opportunity for new voices to speak out against racism. Birge recognizes this shift in attitude, believing it to be a step forward.

“We were trained to be quiet….[to not] stick our heads out when there's an issue. You want to be doing what everybody else is doing, you don't want to be standing out. And I think that we tried that [and] it didn't work. It worked really badly against us. So now is the time to stand up and rise up and own that responsibility,” Birge said.