I am half Indian and half Austrian, and I often get confused as another race. One instance I remember specifically happened two summers ago. I went to a summer program at Oxford University, when another boy from Jordan approached me, thinking I was also middle eastern, and started speaking to me in Arabic. I didn't understand, so I made a joke about it, and we became fast friends. I had been speaking to other people earlier, and after this instance, they started to give me the cold shoulder. I didn't understand why until I cleared up my ethnicity, and I saw a look of relief go through they're faces as they now saw me as one of them. This whole time I had been speaking my native tongue of english and telling people about my native state of Connecticut, but it didn't matter because I was, to them, middle eastern. I feel like people shouldn't have to undergo this kind of judgement based on where they come from. And that is my long-winded explanation of why I joined SAX.
top of page
Hopkins School
968 Forest Road, New Haven, CT 06515
S A X
Curing Severe Social Myopia Since 2018
Non-partisan, unbiased, 100% legal
bottom of page
That’s so annoying that people treat you differently depending on what they THINK your ethnicity is. I’m glad you were able to befriend someone who you could laugh about it with!
You're not alone! Many times our ethnicity gets confused with another. If we can still take a light heart and joke about it, it is still positive. However, if certain negative or caustic remarks come up as a result of this confusion, then unnecessary grief and harm could be done to very innocent people. At SAX, we aim to share as much culture and positivity in our Hopkins community as possible. Welcome to our Leadership!