The abuse that Chun Hsien Deng suffered is heart-wrenching.
If you haven’t heard about the case, a 19-year-old Asian American student died approximately two years ago due to hazing at Baruch College in New York.
Deng was 19, studious, a competitive handball player, and he was an International Business major at Baruch College. His parents were first-generation immigrants. He seemed to be an over-achiever and was looking for community in his education.
He joined a fraternity at the college, “Pi Delta Psi.”
According to the New York Times, “Pi Delta Psi’s Baruch colony…was designed to help Asian American students…find a place in the pecking order of a school buzzing with aspiring business people. “
The students who fatally assailed him during a weekend are now going through the trial process. He was forced to run blindfolded with a 30-pound backpack in winter cold and was assailed by the fraternity members—an apparently destructive rite of passage. Since his death, there seems to be a jumble of confusion and regret. It doesn’t look good for the fraternity members or anyone involved in the hazing.
What is defense on this horrific situation?
Initiation rituals?
Power struggle?
The Asian American community has been dumbfounded by our own, or what our brothers would want to do to us.
Does American behavior propone this behavior, the animalistic traditions?
The court will soon decide what qualifies as intent, possible homicide, and the general public will have their opinions about the Asian American youth in the U.S..
And the scenario does not look pretty for the fraternity.
In the Asian American community, “fraternity” should have good connotation and focus on support for our fellow brothers and sisters.
Deng’s death and controversial case resonates in its violence in how your “brothers” perhaps might not be the brothers you expect. (end)