Students participate in peace walk at USC

Hundreds of students bearing carnations made their way through campus on Tuesday evening.

Chanting, “The people united will never be divided” and “No hate, No KKK, No fascist USA,” they made their way from Hahn Plaza through Trousdale Parkway and Watt Way.

The Peace Walk to Promote Love at USC was assembled by the Undergraduate Student Government and its various cultural assemblies, including the Latino Student Assembly, the Black Student Assembly, the International Student Assembly, the Asian Pacific American Student Assembly and the Student Assembly for Gender Empowerment.

In collaboration with over 200 other campuses across the nation, USG hosted the event in solidarity with those affected by the violence at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Va.

One of the people injured was a USC student, Aubtin Heydari, who is currently recovering from his injuries after being struck by a vehicle at a counter protest to the white nationalist rally ten days ago.

USG President Austin Dunn had been in contact with other college student body presidents to prepare for the rally, according to Daniel Zhu, the senior director of communications for USG.

“[USG and the assemblies] really want to show support, mainly to show that our campus is not a place where we will tolerate hate,” Zhu said. “We want to show the community and other college campuses that we are here to support the students.”

Saphia Jackson, co-director of the Black Student Assembly, opened the event with a message of peace and unity to USC students.

”We are all here for each other, and this is one of the platforms to show that,” Jackson said.

USG provided carnations for students to hold as a symbol of peace against the torches that KKK supporters and neo-Nazis carried at UVA during the “Unite the Right” rally that where much of the violence in Virginia began.

In an effort to increase USG’s activism and presence on campus, the organization has created a diversity branch that now includes a liaison for each student assembly, said Cindy Pineda, USG’s Co-Chief Diversity Officer.

“I think that something that we did not have was USG as an activist with a lot of issues or incidents that have occurred in the past years,” Pineda said. “So what [we] found was that we needed an actual platform where individuals that did not have that power, could [now] utilize and feel more comfortable to speak out.”

During the event, Karen Garcia, Executive Director for the Latino Student Assembly led a farmers clap that she said was a symbol of unity and peace. The United Farm Workers created the clap to unify Filipino and the Mexican workers during the farm workers’ rights movement of the 1960s. It represented the beating of the human heart and how all hearts sound in unity regardless of barriers.

“We wanted students to know that there is a place for anyone that wanted to discuss any fears or any negative associations that they may have for the events occurred in Charlottesville,” Pineda said. “[We wanted to] recognize that a fellow Trojan has been injured, and if we don’t address it, it is something that goes ignored.”

El Centro Chicano Director Billy Vela said there are many emotions surrounding the events that occurred and expressed how students may feel scared by the displays of hate and racism on a college campus.

”I am really proud of our campus and [how] our students are out here on their second day of class,” Vela said. “To me, it indicated how important these issues are to them. Charlottesville and situations that have happened all this summer … continues to be a very challenging subject for our country.”

Eloisa Campuzano, a junior studying creative writing, participated in the peace walk because she believes that without the participation of other students of color, racism on college campuses will continue to persist.

“The events in Charlottesville were really disheartening, especially as a student of color trying to pursue higher education,” Campuzano said. “You would think everyone at these institutions are educated but it shows that that is not enough, ignorance is really complex. As a person of color you are automatically political because our existence is pretty much a resistance. We really cannot move forward unless there is a collective push.”