Northwestern’s Asian Pacific American Coalition (APAC) held a forum Tuesday evening to discuss racial profiling and discrimination in employment. The event featured four panelists who spoke of their experiences and opened the floor up for questions from the audience in the Multicultural Center.
APAC organized the forum in light of the struggle between Freddie Lee and the Northwestern University Police Department (NUPD). Lee, a Chinese-American, filed a federal complaint last month stating that he faced racial discrimination in his four years with the department. He has threatened to file a lawsuit, but has not yet filed suit.
The panel consisted of Marie Claire Tran-Leung, a 2002 graduate of Northwestern and an APAC alum; Bill Yoshino of the Japanese American Citizens League; Asian-American studies professor Diana Lin; and Jenny Lee, Freddie’s wife, who spoke on his behalf.
The panelists expressed support for Lee and explored both the particular Asian discrimination present in the case, and the way in the officers’ treatment of Lee and the university’s response overlap with other forms of racial discrimination and profiling at Northwestern.
Lee opened the discussion by explaining her husband’s situation over the past two months. Freddie has been on paid leave from NUPD since Sept. 10, she said, right after he filed the claim that, from 2006 until his departure from NUPD in September, colleagues targeted him with racial slurs and derogatory remarks.
Once Freddie Lee filed the claim, NU police banned him from campus, she said. “I’m just so disappointed he’s not allowed to be here to defend himself,” Lee said.
When the Chicago Tribune published Lee’s story Oct. 18, it generated a significant amount of interest from Northwestern students – an interest evident in the room of the forum itself. The small space was overflowing, students crammed into the corners to stand.
Several panelists said they find encouragement in an Asian victim of racial discrimination who has continued his fight despite pressure to give in, and in the visible interest and support that his story has generated.
“When I started with the Japanese American Citizens League, we seemed to be laboring alone, in the dark,” Yoshino said. “It’s been great to see various Asian groups around the country and really get a sense of activism and growth.”
“A lot of people in his situation would sweep it under the rug, not speak up, and apologize to get their job back,” Lin, who gave Freddie Lee a standing ovation, said.
“Students kept asking me what ever happened with the case of Freddie Lee,” said Abby Chu, vice president of APAC. “It was great that Jenny was able to show us that it’s a huge deal and not something to brush off.”
“A lot of students never had a venue to discuss this topic,” she said.
The discussion moved beyond the specific details of Freddie Lee’s case and towards how it fits in to the larger problems of racial profiling and discrimination at Northwestern, especially as played out in the relationship between Northwestern police and students.
“In the past there has been racial profiling of students and faculty, and the last person that victim wants to go to is the police,” said SESP senior Alex Sims.
In response to racial profiling cases raised against NUPD, a new university initiative is underway to establish a Police Advisory Board composed of students and other NU community members, according to Sims. The advisory board will provide “awareness, monitoring, reporting and communication” to the entire community, she said.
“Our goals are to improve communication between the police and students, raise awareness of sexual assault, alcohol, and racial discrimination,” said Sims, who has been working to organize the board. She stressed the inclusion of multicultural students. “And most importantly, it will serve as an advocate for students’ rights.”
“[Lee’s] case is making a statement about people who should be protecting our lives. If this pervading notion among people of NUPD is that Asians are… second-class citizens, this is a problem that directly pertains to us,” said Weinberg and Bienen sophomore and member of APAC Calvin Lee. “You could argue that it’s internal, but it’s really not. The NUPD is interacting with the campus and students all the time.”
Lee closed the forum with an update on her husband’s status. After his story was printed in the Daily Northwestern, NUPD returned Lee’s belongings that had been held for investigation after enacting his administrative leave. He also received a letter notifying him he was terminated as a member of the force as of Oct. 21, she said.
“Even though he’s a good father, person and husband, his career is over,” Lee said. “I truly believe in him and have true faith because he’s standing up against something that is wrong.”