Why racial incidents in school are no surprise to me
It was a new building. New people. A new life started when I came to high school. Biology, geometry, everything’s a blur to me but this all changes when I go to my next class: Spanish.
I’m taking non-accelerated Spanish, unlike everyone I know from my middle school. In my class, there are no friends. There are seniors, juniors, kids from my history class that I don’t know. Although there is diversity throughout the school, in this class, I am the only Asian student.
Class starts, ends, and nothing eventful happen. A few weeks later, things change. Everyone’s somehow noticed that I always do my homework and before class starts, they come over and ask if they can copy my work. I let them. Then things change even more. If I leave my binder in class to go to the bathroom, people just grab my homework. They don’t say thanks, and I only exist when they need my homework.
Then a whole new level of frustration. They call me “chink”. According to Urbandictionary.com, a chink is “A term that originated during the Korean War and latter took on the flavor of a racist slur… A conjunction of a Chinese North Korean.”
They say things like: “The chink always does her homework; the chink is the teacher’s pet, I want to be in a group with the chink because she’ll do all the work.” It’s already bad enough that I’m being seriously offended, but I hate myself for not saying anything about it and that no one else is telling me to ignore the others. Everyone just sits, listens, and sometimes even laughs. I feel publicly humiliated and shocked that people would openly refer to me in a racial slur at school. I hate being in that class, but the drop/add deadline has passed, and we all know you need a foreign language to get into college. So I decide to stay even though I came to hate the class as well as Spanish.
As the year goes by, I change too. I stick my binder in my backpack and when someone asks if I’ve done my homework, I lie. I feel bad about lying, but at the same time I don’t. I don’t want to help anyone who calls me names and laughs at me. As immature and lame as I sound, this is the only thing I can do as payback. As the end of the year approaches, I go from someone who took racial comments lightly to a person who is sensitive toward racial comments especially when they apply to me. I can't watch a single Russell Peters clip about Koreans or any videos that parody Koreans without getting upset.
Three years later, I’m a high school senior and I’m sharing with the whole community a story I never even shared with my closest friends. For those of you who want to know what happened later, I switched to accelerated Spanish my sophomore year.
At first, my grades suffered. I struggled to keep up with my classmates, but I was lucky enough to catch up and learn and practice and love the language with the help of my teacher Senora Bares. What happened to me, although it was not a physical attack, was an attack nonetheless. Maybe I wouldn’t be able to apply to colleges that I am now applying to if I had dropped out of Spanish. Although I don’t hold the things that I was called to my heart, through the experience, I have lost all respect for some, and I learned that people often take things past ignorance and more toward hate.
I am sharing my experience now because I understand that people are shocked by what happened at Skyline, but I’m not that surprised. Although it's not clear whether the attack was racially motivated, my conclusion is that open racism isn't rare. Maybe it's because I’ve experienced it or maybe it's because I personally believe that little stereotypes and racial insults pile up to become a hate toward a race. None of us can deny that high school kids have heard and then told others the racist jokes they’ve heard, so although they might not be to a hate crime level, none of us should be surprised that these sorts of events happen.
Alisa Lee is a senior at Huron High School in Ann Arbor.
Comments
matt
Mon, Dec 21, 2009 : 12:53 p.m.
Nice article Alisa! I'm glad you rose to the challenge and took AC Spanish rather than dropping Spanish completely. You probably ended up learning more anyways. =P I have a very similar outlook regarding the Skyline attacks. I also go to Huron and have seen racist things happen, it was only a matter of time before an incident got physical.
Ray
Sat, Sep 26, 2009 : 6:46 p.m.
Alisa - great article!! Longfellow- relax. Sean Eldon was just giving his view, and then you come out charging and calling him dumb and ignorant. I would hope you could respect other people's rights to share their viewpoint without shooting them down and calling them names.
bellhelmet
Thu, Sep 24, 2009 : 11:52 a.m.
Jeez, I went through the same thing in the 70's at Slauson and Pioneer. I thought it had gotten better. Sounds like it got worse.
Bill Wilson
Thu, Sep 24, 2009 : 10:01 a.m.
Limmy, You're exactly right. Whether it's the perception that certain races are more intelligent, or more financially able, or are inclined to certain behaviors, it's a problem that individuals of all races experience. It's unfortunate that some in our socity use this problem for their own gain, under the guise of "helping" the victims.
limmy
Thu, Sep 24, 2009 : 9:50 a.m.
Obviously, using a racial slur is inexcusable. But, I see a deeper topic in this. That is the very prevalent stereotype of which racial/cultural groups are smart and which are not. My observation is that stereotypes are perpetuated by people of all races, including students, teachers, and parents. If there is the belief that one group is smarter, then the reverse is the belief that one or more other groups are dumber.
Bill Wilson
Thu, Sep 24, 2009 : 9:16 a.m.
Sean, That's just dumb. Lady justice is blindfolded for a reason. The framers did not envision justice to be a system used to extract as much money as possible from defendants based on their race, and thus, greater ability to pay. Sean's ignorance is a good example of the root problem: many minorities and those trying to manipulate the system for their own gain wish to frame minorities as the sole victims of discrimination, when in fact, dicrimination occurs to individuals of all races on a daily basis.
Sean Eldon
Thu, Sep 24, 2009 : 5:45 a.m.
@Longfellow. There's a pretty big difference between having racial slurs used against you and having a judge punish you for an infraction you made, don't you think? To compare the two is naive at best.
Bill Wilson
Wed, Sep 23, 2009 : 10:14 p.m.
Alisa, In fact, most everyone, no matter what your race, will find themselves in situations such as you have experienced. I recall getting a ticket once in Plymouth, and I didn't feel that I deserved it, so I went to Court. While sitting in the Court room before the judge arrived, a black man about my age started chatting with me. It turned out that he was cited for the very same traffic offense. His case was called first, and it turned out that he had a long history of traffic related offenses. As he stood there in shorts and a t-shirt, the judge fined him $45. Now, I had only one prior ticket, and thus a very good driving record. I respected the Court, and dressed properly. So I'm thinking thay'll hit me for $25. WRONG! The judge fined me $125. The judge racially profiled me. He saw a young caucasion male, properly dressed, and felt that I, in his mind, had more money than the young black man. So in essence, he stole it from me. And things like this have happened many, many times to me in my life. So remember, those who have done this to you will have their turn, one day.
aataxpayer
Wed, Sep 23, 2009 : 5:45 p.m.
Alisa, Thank you for your story. It very accurately reflects what I observed at Huron. Racism in a serious problem that we have had a problem discussing in our community. In my opinion the Ann Arbor News handled race issues very poorly. I hope AA.com does a better job.
dzuck
Wed, Sep 23, 2009 : 3:55 p.m.
To all the youngsters commenting here, I feel for you and your unfortunate experiences. The bottom line is this: diversity training, celebrating holidays in school, multicultural events, etc will never replace what is being or not being taught in the home. Real simple, kids get their values from from home. If parents don't teach respect, and value diversity, our kids won't live a life free of stereotypes, racism and prejudice.. Schools are full of opportunities for development and maturity but can't do it alone. Parent's need to step up.
A2K
Wed, Sep 23, 2009 : 2 p.m.
I was a student at Pioneer high school (and later Community) in the early 90s and racism was rampant. I was a non-sporty/preppy student and was ruthlessly bullied and harassed by the black students at Pioneer, i.e., honkey, white-bitch, ho, etc - then, when some of the students saw my mother (an Armenian woman) I got camel-jockey and towel-head added to the usual taunts which was, I assume, based solely on her dark hair and skin. Racism in A2 public schools is nothing new despite weeks spent learning about this topic in both grade and junior-high schools.
Jim Toy
Wed, Sep 23, 2009 : 11:39 a.m.
Thank you, Alisa, for sharing the story of your painful experience. As a bi-racial (Chinese-White) student in middle school during WW II, I was harassed to the point that my stepmother made a cardboard sign for me to wear to school: "I AM NOT 'A JAP'". I too was labeled "Teacher's Pet" and harassed accordingly. I hope that the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti School Districts are supplying diversity trainings for all students, staff, instructors and administrators. Such training will not prevent all harassment, discrimination, and assault. It will provide encouragement for the acceptance and support of diversity. All of our schools, public and private, must adopt and enforce nondiscrimination and anti-bullying policies, enumerating all protected classes (groups). Intervention in and the reporting of incidents of bullying, harassment, discrimination, and assault must be mandatory for school administrators, instuctors and staff, and encouraged for students. Respect for all must be taught at home and in our religious and spiritual institutions. "The readiness is all". Let's move from readiness to action. Jim Toy MSW Trainer for diversity concerns and "Peace-Making Dialogue"
Brent Lofgren
Wed, Sep 23, 2009 : 10:47 a.m.
Well put, Alisa. It looks to me like part of what is going on here is a cultural divide between the non-accelerated and accelerated classes, which is part of a rift that runs deep in America. It sounds like they initially used you and attacked you for being conscientious and hard-working, and subsequently started pulling ethnic stereotypes into the picture. Racism and academic performance can really have strange interactions.
foreigner
Wed, Sep 23, 2009 : 9:57 a.m.
Nice article, and glad someone decided to speak up about their experience at an AA high school. It would be nice to look in one of our cafeterias one day and find a diverse group of students at each table. There is such a large culture bridge between different ethnicities right now...
DagnyJ
Wed, Sep 23, 2009 : 9:33 a.m.
I so appreciate this story. Thank you for sharing it. It illuminates the conversation. And good for you for being bold enough to stick with the Spanish class, and for writing about this now. You are impressive.
dotdash
Wed, Sep 23, 2009 : 9:24 a.m.
Good for you for sticking it out. You should be very very proud because it is not an easy thing to endure enmity day after day and not be dissuaded from going back. I also feel for other kids who do get derailed by this kind of treatment -- it's very destructive. Your essay will echo in my mind every time I hear a kid say, "that's so gay" or any the other toss-off lines that they don't seem to realize can hurt so much.
Peipei
Wed, Sep 23, 2009 : 8:57 a.m.
Stereotype exists everywhere (skin colors, body types,..). Only close minded people judge a book by it's cover. It is important you do not trap yourself in it. No one can lable you unless you labled yourself alreay.
Valeria Islas
Tue, Sep 22, 2009 : 11:27 p.m.
Its almost impossible to not let the derogatory things people can say get to you. I used to get mad at myself for not defending myself and my culture but I figured that if they seriously thought what they said was true anything I said would got over their lil' ignorant heads;). Great article Alisa, I bet many people can relate to this type of experience!
Charlie Zhang
Tue, Sep 22, 2009 : 10:56 p.m.
Very nice article. Racism is a truth that everyone has to face, sooner or later. While Ann Arbor is better than most other cities, we still have prejudices like anyone else.
Trisha Paul
Tue, Sep 22, 2009 : 10:30 p.m.
Good job Alisa! This is an amazingly honest article, and you brought up an interesting new point about the Skyline incident.