Cal Poly Chinese Student Association Zoom Meeting Gets Infiltrated

By Josh McKinney  | He/Him/His | Bellingham, Washington | Seattle Betsuin

Disclaimer: This article contains inappropriate and derogatory language. The language is important to the story and the decision to leave it in has been made because of this.

SAN LUIS OBISPO -- On Tuesday, May 12th, The California Polytechnic Institute’s Chinese Student Association (CSA) got “Zoom bombed” by a handful of unidentified individuals during their weekly general meeting. A Zoom bombing is the unwanted intrusion of one or more individuals on a conference call, typically held on the video conferencing software, Zoom.

In the case of Cal Poly’s CSA, the Zoom bombing they experienced involved several unidentified individuals drawing swastikas on their screens, shouting derogatory terms for Asian people at the members, spamming the chat board with offensive language and using obscene imagery in general.

Jordan Chew, one of the CSA’s social chairs said that the club was playing “Higher or Lower”, an online group game, when he started hearing different sounds coming from his computer. He said that he heard yelling and screaming shortly after that.

Someone then used the annotate screen function, which allows anyone to draw on the screen being shared, and drew a swastika.

Chew said the Zoom bombers used a lot of obscene imagery and language.

“There were a lot of slurs targeted toward Chinese people in particular,” said Kristy Leung, CSA’s videographer. “For example, we heard someone say, ‘We wouldn’t do this if you weren’t chinks.’ ”

Leung said that the comments made it clear to her the unidentified people knew that the CSA is a Chinese student club.

The CSA responded by shutting down their meeting and starting a new one with higher security, according to Leung.

The members of the CSA don’t know how their call got infiltrated, but CSA Treasurer Sean Quach believes that someone found the public Facebook or Instagram post with the meeting link and used that to gain access to the meeting.

Chew said the reaction of the CSA members was initially shock and confusion, and that he felt frustrated by the situation afterward. Quach said the CSA didn’t respond negatively at all, and instead chose to continue the new meeting as usual.

“For me personally the most challenging thing is figuring out what the reason for it was,” said Quach of the incident.

The Zoom bombing the Cal Poly CSA experienced is one example of the rise in Asian targeted xenophobia that has occurred since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chew said that he personally hadn’t experienced personal attacks during the pandemic before this event, but that he has had a heightened awareness regarding racial incidents. He also talked about one of his Asian American friends getting spat at while they were in a grocery store. Although the motive of the person who did the spitting is unconfirmed.

“People as a whole find ways to blame others and not look at things as they are, and I think that transfers really well in this scenario,”

Quach said, referring to the Zoom bombing while also trying to explain the recent rise in xenophobia.

Hope Maruyama, the co-president of Cal Poly’s Nikkei Student Union (NSU), described a scene in February, before staying at home orders and facemasks became commonplace, while she was with a group of friends who were also Asian American. Maruyama said she and her friends were walking past a restaurant when she noticed a woman who was eating outside covering her mouth and nose with her jacket. “I think at the time when there weren’t any cases in the U.S. yet, I was so taken aback that this woman would so bluntly show that because our group was Asian we have the coronavirus.” The exact reason the woman covered her mouth is unknown, but Maruyama believes it’s because she and her friends are all Asian.

“It’s just kind of sad to see that that’s the reality of these times,” Said Timothy Chuman, the other co-President of Cal Poly’s NSU about the negative treatment and racism that Asians have been facing because of the pandemic.

The Cal Poly CSA is a social and cultural club that seeks to bring students together while celebrating Chinese culture, says Leung. Students of any ethnicity are welcome.

The Nikkei Student Union is a newly formed club started by Maruyama and Chuman. They started the NSU in hopes of giving Japanese Americans as well as non-Japanese Americans, a place to find community and culture. According to Maruyama, their club puts an emphasis on social justice.