When I began to interview sources for The Post, I was doing all right. I learned from the best, I struggled sometimes and in the end, I thought my journalism career was off to a great start.
I learned more about myself and I was on my way.
Then, something happened.
While I called a source sophomore year and interviewed him, I figured the interview was going well. As I was about to hang up the phone, my source interrupted me.
“Ms. Yang, I can’t help but notice your last name; are you of Chinese descent? Your English is quite good, how long have you been in this country for?”
My breath quickened and I felt heat rise to my face. In my interview, I never mentioned my ethnicity. I only had introduced myself to him and conducted the interview. Where did these assumptions come from?
“I was born here, sir. I am not Chinese.”
After the conversation, I was told by others to get tougher skin. I took the advice, but the anger still pounded against my head with only one word: Why, why, why?
I have experienced prejudiced remarks and acts of racism against me during my time here on campus. I’ve been called a gook or chink. I get comments about my eyes, my English and my exclusion to the “smart” Asian stereotype whenever I get a bad mark on my exams.
I never expected this from the professional world I’m trying to get into, until the last few years I’ve started my career in the news industry. Now, I was made to accept the fact that I am, indeed, different than my co-workers and colleagues. My race is not something that I can change.
Conversations grow numerous, more than I am admittedly willing to discuss unless I initiate it. My pride for my culture still exists; however, whenever I work I feel that it becomes the forefront of my identity as a journalist. I’m never “just Hannah.”
A couple weeks ago, I overheard some of my friends refer to one of our classmates “Asian Joe.” We had multiple peers with the same name, but why differentiate them by race? Why alienate and make someone feel like they’re an outsider? Comments like those encourage how I feel.
My question to you, my fellow peers, is why? Why divide me and your other culturally diverse classmates from yourselves by putting up that racial divide? Why do we not interact with one another? That goes toward the international student side as well. Why do we not reach out to one another or put up more effort?
I walk around campus and see no effort from both sides of international students to get to know each other. I only see flocks of birds sticking together. Why has this campus become “us and them?” When will we stop referring to another person as a race? When will we see each other?
Hannah Yang is a junior studying journalism and a staff writer for The Post.
