From: WireTap

A summit organized by Richmond’s South East Asian Young Leaders (SEAYL) program recently brought together over 300 local youth to talk about violence in their communities and ways to confront it.
The Youth Stopping Violence Summit usually focuses on confronting violence within South East Asian youth, particularly between the Khmu, indigenous people from Laos, and Mien, a marginalized ethnic group from China. This year’s summit was in honor and memory of 19-year-old Alan Lee, a member of SEAYL who was recently shot and killed.
One speaker, Phon Chanthanasak, a member of SEAYL and a student at San Francisco State University, said:

”(Before I was in SEAYL) I would think what they did was wrong, so the only thing we can do for ourselves to feel better is to go back and just get him—that would be my mentality. And that’s every human being, you know. Anger—it takes over us. It makes us think that way. This really opened my eyes to see if what I learned through SEAYL… would I put it to the test? Would I go out here and retaliate or would I make a second thought about that?
There are other ways to retaliate than harming another person, things like this—speaking on it.”

Read more about the summit here and check out SEAYL’s myspace page for more information on how to support or get involved with the organization.