It’s been 10 days since a massive brawl erupted between Asian and

It’s been 10 days since a massive brawl erupted between Asian and Black students at South Philadelphia High School. Since then, little has been done about the racial attack on Asian students by the mostly black student group. The Asian students staged a walk-out since nothing was being done about the situation and it still appears very little has transpired since the incident. Several of the students who are now boycotting the school said that South Philadelphia staff stood by while they were being attacked and, in some cases, taunted them. Unbelievable!

Officials of Philadelphia’s Human Relations Commission are pulling together a meeting for tomorrow morning to mediate racial and ethnic tensions at South Philadelphia High School that erupted Dec. 3 with attacks on about 30 Asian immigrant students.

Commission chairperson Kay Kyungsun Yu (who is Asian) said yesterday that School Superintendent Arlene Ackerman (who is African American) and South Philadelphia High School principal LaGreta Brown (who is African American) had committed to attending the meeting.

Yu said the commission was working with Mayor Nutter’s Commission on Asian American Affairs to contact and get commitments today from parents and students who were victims of the Dec. 3 attacks.

The meeting is to be held at 9 a.m. tomorrow at the commission’s offices in the Curtis Center across from Independence Hall. Yu said the meeting would be private.

“We want to get the superintendent and principal, the students and their parents together and start a dialogue where there is not a lot of attention from outsiders,” Yu said.

Ackerman said last night that besides her and Brown, the commission had agreed to let her bring three outside observers to the meeting: retired U.S. District Judge James T. Giles, whom the school district has asked to investigate the Dec. 3 incident; Pedro A. Ramos, the former city managing director, city solicitor, and school board member; and Patricia A. Coulter, president of the Urban League of Philadelphia.

Ackerman said two observers from the Asian community would attend tomorrow’s meeting, including Helen Gym, a board member of Asian Americans United, the Philadelphia group that worked with the South Philadelphia students.

Although the Dec. 3 incident involved attacks on Asian immigrant students by a group of mostly African American students, Yu said, the situation was more than just a racial conflict and was aggravated by the limited English-speaking skills of some Asian students.

“There are differences in cultural norms and language being a part of this,” Yu said. “There is no one particular cause of this issue, but the inability to effectively communicate makes this a very difficult issue.”

“My hope is that we can facilitate a dialogue and avoid any litigation,” Yu said.

“There are differences in cultural norms and language being a part of this,” Yu said. “There is no one particular cause of this issue, but the inability to effectively communicate makes this a very difficult issue.”

Sure. It’s both racial and culturally biased!

According to the district’s Web site, South Philadelphia High School’s student population today is 1,175: 70 percent African American, 5.6 percent white, 18.3 percent Asian, and 5.2 percent Latino.

Between 1990 and 2000, according to city Planning Commission data, South Philadelphia saw the largest increase – almost doubling – in the number of Asian residents of any Philadelphia neighborhood.

City officials have said that trend accelerated over the last decade with a dramatic influx of immigrants from China, Cambodia, and Vietnam. With the city’s traditional Chinatown in Center City hemmed in by development and a lack of affordable housing, South Philadelphia has become the location of what some call “Chinatown South.”

Yu said the usual neighborhood conflicts between foreign-born and native-born residents were often accentuated when they seep into the schools.

“The violence is caused by a very small minority of kids, but a very small number of bad actors can have a very big impact on the climate of a school,” Yu added.

Keep pushing the issue under the rug

“At this point, it is a time for healing and moving forward,” Ackerman said, “and making sure this is a school where, regardless of race or ethnicity, every student feels safe and is respected.”

Until the next beatdown.

This is the product of overworked, underpaid teachers and faculty, low school budgets, high student to teach ratios, kids get lost, tensions flair. This doesn’t look like it will be resolved anytime soon, even by the explanation alone that “it’s a language problem” and not a race problem is not getting to the root of the actual problem. Question is? Will these race wars ever end?

It’s disheartening to know that the school Superintendent says, “We’re not going to continue to make this an Asian versus African American thing,” said Ackerman. “This is not just about demands of one racial group. It is about the needs of everyone.”

I’m sure the racial slurs against the Asian students were about their “language” problem. What if it was the other way around?

The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund will file a federal civil-rights complaint against the Philadelphia School District after a series of attacks on Asian students at South Philadelphia High School. The organization said that the Dec. 3 assaults were racially motivated and that the school hasn’t done enough to prevent violence.

Will this race war ever end? Regardless, these types of racial/bias attacks should not be tolerated EVER, by any color!!