Whether it’s being asked if I speak “China,” constantly being known as the “Asian friend,” being asked if I can translate the Chinese text for my English class, even though I am Korean, or being called the name of another girl in my class for the entirety of the year, I unfortunately know this is not a unique struggle that I face. When I started freshman year, I joined the Asian Student Alliance (ASA), but never advertised that to my peers because I thought it was super embarrassing that I had chosen to spend my Tuesday lunches in 207 with ten other Asians instead of my friends. Being Asian wasn’t cool, and ASA definitely did not have the respect that BSU had. I never wanted to be different than my fellow white peers, and I tried so hard to not be associated with my culture. After my freshman year, I was the only Asian student in my class who was not an international student. Somehow, it became even more embarrassing to be in ASA. However, that year we started to discuss some of the struggles going on in the real world that Asians had faced. I realized that the jokes I had laughed off or the sly comments from my classmates were things that all of the other Asians in our school had experienced. After COVID-19 took over everyone’s lives, I realized that what I was hearing was not okay. Chinese restaurants were closing just because of racism toward the owners or because people were scared their food would be contaminated. People outright attacked Asians or stopped being friends with them. I have heard many, many stories from people in ASA about how after COVID struck, the small microaggressions they used to face weren’t small anymore.
ASA has taught me the differences between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation, what microaggressions are, how to address certain topics, how to embrace your own culture, and so much more. In the past few years ASA has hosted countless workshops and celebrations of different Asian holidays, movie nights, discussions, and even presentations for the lower schoolers. The mission of ASA is to create a safe and open space for Asian students to come together to talk about anything and everything related to Asians, to spread awareness about Asian culture, to work towards being acknowledged more as a part of the AIS community, and to celebrate Asian holidays! We meet every Tuesday during lunch and we are always looking for new members. The heads of our organization are Olivia Peng and Shreya Kalra. If you want to join you should totally reach out to them or me!
