That month, a group of Asian American students painted a message that read "Asian American Studies Now!" The original message was not the problem: it was how it was defaced during the night. Sometime that evening, the letters were painted over and the text was altered so the painting read "Asian Americans die Now!"
As Timothy Wong states in The Contemporary Asian American Experience, "this message of hate shook the tiny campus and, in one swift move, undermined six years of work by Asian American students to bring an Asian American perspective to the college community and into the general curriculum." Because of the fact that the message threatened an ethnic group, the FBI investigated it as a potential hate crime.
Unfortunately, the Walker Wall incident was not an isolated case. Instead, it was indicative of the general backlash that was occurring against Asian American students in the universities and the hurdles that Asian Americans had to clear before gaining the respect that they deserved, both in and out of the classroom.
Ironically, however, this violent backlash ended up benefiting the AAS program: not only did it cause a greater awareness about Asian American concerns and issues, but many of the colleges--especially Pomona--became sympathetic towards Asian American students and their demands. In fact, in the aftermath of the Walker Wall incident, Pomona donated more resources to the AARC than it had ever in the past.