One Asian-American Syracuse University student spoke of a time a classmate was surprised that she could speak English. Another mentioned a time when a fellow student assumed that he wasn’t able to understand an English reading. A third said he’s been asked where “he’s really from” when he’s told people he’s from the United States.

A small group of SU students and faculty gathered Monday evening in Bird Library’s Peter Graham Scholarly Commons room for a discussion about microaggressions against Asian- Americans on campus and why they occur. Harjot Kaur, the community development manager for the New York City-based Sikh Coalition, led the discussion, which was co-sponsored by SU’s Office of Multicultural Affairs and South Asia Center.

Kaur defined microaggressions as incidents of everyday discrimination. Microaggressions often consist of comments that are unintentionally offensive, said Emera Wilson, the associate director of the South Asia Center, who attended the event.

The issue of microaggressions on college campuses is rooted in bullying during grade school and high school, Kaur said. She said when bullying against Asian-Americans occurs during those years, it sets the norm and funnels into microaggressions later in life.

Kaur thus said for microaggressions to be more easily prevented, incidents of bullying must be ended in grade school and high school, where she said it is easier to detect and intervene during such instances.

“If this happens in a school hallway, you can see that,” she said. “You can report it immediately. You can get someone to step in and document it. … But if this happens on a college campus, there’s nothing that you can really do.”

Kaur added that another issue pertaining to microaggressions against Asian-Americans is that they are made against an “entire wide-casted net.” People believe Asian-Americans all have the same religions, values and dialects, Kaur said.

“But there is no single Asian-American experience,” she said.

Monday evening’s discussion was followed by the unveiling of the Anti-Asian Hate Crime Exhibit, located in Bird.

Published on April 11, 2016 at 10:30 pm

Contact Michael: mdburk01@syr.edu