Instead of responding to individual posts, responses will be posted on a second board (see Module 3 Discussion (Reflections) in your Group Discussion Board).  These will not be anonymous and will be the basis for your grade in this module’s discussion.  Please read all of the initial posts before posting.  As you read, take note of the following:  Did something surprise you? Did you relate to a particular experience?  Did you learn something new?  

In your response, please do not focus on any one individual’s post but instead think of this collection as a set of anthropological data.  You may choose any or all of the following prompts that best allow you to convey your reflections:  

I notice…  (observations) — did you discover any commonalities or patterns in the described experiences?

I feel…  (reactions) — what emotions did these posts generate in you and why?

I learned… (insights) — what will you take away from listening to your peers’ stories?

I think…  (analysis) — how does the anthropological process of carefully listening to peoples’ stories and lived experiences inform your understanding of the analyses of race, ethnicity, and nationalism presented in this course?

1.There are a handful of times I have witnessed racist comments or actions. On one occasion I was seeing a musical with my family and there was a scene where an actress playing an elderly black woman was singing about how she endured racism throughout her life. In the audience there was a middle-aged white man scoffing as she sang, saying things like “This is absurd”, “Give me a break”. The theater was small so every could hear him. He eventually walked out with his wife before the song was over. It was very awkward for everyone. The actress continued to sing through it. She was a very good singer and when she was done, she got a huge applause. The events like this that I have experienced were just reminders that racism still exists around me. Its pretty unsettling to encounter people like this.

2. I am an international student from China. There are 56 ethnic groups in China, and each ethnic group is united with each other. I am a member of the Han nationality, which is the most populous nation in China. Facing the sudden COVID-19, this is a big challenge for every country and people. The Chinese nation has concentrated the strength of the whole country to fight the epidemic. It is the great national spirit that brings us together and finally minimizes the impact of the epidemic on people’s lives in a relatively short period of time, including compulsory isolation，vaccine research. In this life-threatening epidemic, there is also something that moves me very much. At that time, the first outbreak site of China’s novel coronavirus was in Wuhan, and medical teams from all over the country rushed to the worst areas to provide relief to the local people. At that time, the news in China reported which medical teams were involved in the support every day. In addition, I was shocked by China’s effectiveness in fighting the epidemic. In order to minimize the rate of virus transmission, Wuhan set up two centralized isolation hospitals, which were built in 9 days and 12 days. This is the result of the cooperation of the people. During this epidemic, I am very proud of the performance of the Chinese people, but also let me have a strong sense of national identity and sense of country.

3. My Great-Grandfather Peter was a Cossack, a group of elite Russian military officers in charge of guarding the Czar of Russia. Peter was stationed at the Czar’s “Summer Palace.” Cossacks at that time were known to be experts in horsemanship and fighting. During the “Bolshevik Revolution” Peter was hit in the leg with a bullet. The communist “Red Army” left him in a mass grave for dead, but he later climbed out and escaped by walking all the way to China. So I am part of an ethnic group known as the “White Russians” – these people established a settlement first in Harbin, China and later in Shanghai. Peter married a Russian girl he met in Harbin named Tina, and they had a daughter, Olga. After World War 2, these “White Russians” were considered refugees with no country. The International Red Cross moved a large group of them, including Olga, to Tubabao Island in the Phillipines. Olga spent her teenage years living in a tent and swimming between the islands. She finally made it on a US warship to San Francisco, California in 1951. My Grandma Olga always says her proudest moment was the day she became a United States citizen. 

4. I am a Chinese international student, and I have been studying in the US for five years since high school. My ethnic group is called Han, which is also the largest ethnic group in China. When the COVID-19 pandemic just started, it has been called the “Chinese Virus,” which is ungrounded and very racist. However, most cities and facilities in China reopened in April. I can not imagine how much effort Chinese people put into the fight against the pandemic. Besides the achievement back in China, the situation in the US was getting more dangerous. I still remembered one day in April while I was walking on the way back to my apartment wearing a mask. Two tall and strong white men started to cough on purpose without a mask when I walked by and laughed loudly after I passed. Although I did not hear clearly what they said, I heard one word, “Asian.” This experience made me scared to go outside and want to return to my own country.

5. Being an Asian American having lived all my life in America, for some reason I can not grasp the idea of belonging and being accepted here. Growing up, it seemed as though Asians had it well because we were called the “model minority” and it seemed as though nothing bad ever happened to Asians because whenever something bad happened, there was no news coverage of it. And that’s the thing, NO ONE ever talks about it, the news does not cover it, and no one stands up for Asians. When the pandemic first started, Asian Americans everywhere were experiencing hate crimes. People of all ages were being attacked, even killed and no one was talking about it. All they did was make jokes and blame it on Asians. Donald Trump even called this virus the “Kung Flu” or the “Chinese Virus”. To be in such a high position with such a great following and make “jokes” like this will definitely influence the way Asians are treated in America. As this pandemic continues on, I fear for my life, but also those of my family members, friends, and even other Asians in America as every day we go out to buy groceries or do simpletasks, we do not know if we will come back safely or at all. It is really disappointing and sad to see racism still exist, and minimal coverage or even help on such big topics like this. 

6. I am white and my ethnicity is mostly Irish. I suppose the Irish were decriminated against in the past, but that is no longer really the case in the United States. I am fortunate enough to have never been descriminated against for the color of my skin or nationality. Since my race is never really pointed out to me I do not think much of it. I don’t really identify with Ireland because my family has been in the United States since the revolutionary war, so I assiciate more with America than I do any other country. I have not personally been descriminated against, but have witnessed other people being judged based off the color of their skin or ethnicity. I’ve seen people make snap judgements on others based purely off the color of their skin which is a form of descrimination. I think overall racism is dwindling because more people are being better educated and are actually interacting with people of a different race more often. I don’t know if racsim will ever truly disappear from society, but it is certainly being villified by in large which is a good first step to be rid of it.

7. Throughout most of the beginning of my life, I grew up with very minimal exposure to ethnicities vastly different from my own. Nearly everyone around me grew up in the same small town, and we all inherited similar origin myths of how our nation came to be. Because of this I had not thought much about the vast importance of ethnic identity until I came to UConn. Here, it helped to uncover the strength and purpose that people found by associating with various ethnic groups. People had arrived from all over the world and were immersing themselves in an entirely new culture and geographic location and as a result of this, ethnicity provided them with something familiar that allowed them to connect with others, and a place of solidarity. Though countless groups mix and combine on a daily basis, ethnicity was still there within groups in the new multicultural environment. In an entirely new situation, ethnicity provides something familiar, whether it is a type of food, a club or a religion, and is a huge piece in defining who each of us is. Because of this, it is incredibly important and something each person should be proud of. 

8. As someone who is white, I have not experienced racism or prejudice. As someone who grew up in a very diverse town, I have seen racism and prejudice first hand. I would say that growing up I was ignorant to the privilege that the color of my skin held until two friends of mine were pulled over. The driver was white and the passenger was black. The cop not only asked for the drivers ID but also asked for the passengers ID as well as asking the driver if they were ok. The cop blatantly stereotyped the passenger based on their race. The reason this is so important is because our justice system is broken. It is important to continue educating everyone about racism and prejudices so instances like this don’t happen. No one should feel scared and unprotected by those who are sworn in to protect because of their race.

10.To start off, I am a white person, and as such, I come from a privileged background. I grew up in a town that had very little diversity, so I wasn’t fully aware of all of the implications that race has on people. Obviously, our school taught us a lot about racism, and I was fully aware of the existence of the inequalities that some people face. When I came to UConn however, I was able to be a member of a much more diverse population. Along with this, I have taken multiple courses that go into more detail about institutional racism, and it has really opened my eyes. Like I said, I was always acutely aware of the existence of racism, but through my coursework, I have learned even more about the racism that still exists in society, and that is when it truly clicked for me. To reiterate, the moment I realized racial identity mattered this much was when I started at UConn.

11. It is difficult to pinpoint one moment that I realized ethnic, racial, and/or national identity mattered, but one moment I always think back to was when I was in middle school. I must have been 12 and we were out for a free period (the moments we had after/during lunch to go out and get some supervised fresh air). I was with 3 other girls and we we’re all just talking about nail polish (all of us South Asian). For context I grew up in Staten Island, NY before I moved to CT and the 9/11 terrorist attacks are a big deal in NY, especially because it affected countless innocent lives in the state. A group of boys in my year had started a game called “Capture the Terrorist” … which is as exactly as horrific as it sounds, and that afternoon my three friends and I who had avoided/ignored those boys successfully for months had decided that today we were the terrorists. So they chased us, for what felt like hours, while the faculty around us just laughed at what seemed like innocent fun. They called us slurs, and curse words, and kept commenting on our brown skin saying we would, “pay for 9/11.” We eventually ducked into the school building once the boys lost interest and my friend Sania was sobbing and inconsolable. After complaining our teachers and our principal did nothing. It was “all in good fun and just an innocent game, maybe the boys thought it was a way to flirt with us.” I went home that day sobbing on the bus, only because I knew these boys would play this game again tomorrow and because of something I could not control… they were allowed to torment me. At 12, I fully knew that my racial and ethnic identity mattered and would influence who I am and how I was perceived.

12. I am a white student, but my family and I are from South America so we are considered to be Latinos. Many people assume that I am not, due to the fact that I look more so to be just your average white American. I am completely aware of how privileged I am to look the way I do, as the world has many disgusting people out there who aren’t afraid to be seen as awful, and I’ve seen it happen way too often this past year, more than I ever had in my whole life. I went to a restaurant a couple of weeks ago that was safely serving customers following covid guidelines. A couple of tables down from me, a white lady and her husband were seated. When the waitress had come over, my attention went immediately towards the table as the wife had been fussing around saying she wanted a new waitress as she “did not like the vibes” from this current waitress, who happened to be black. She continued to throw a fit until the poor waitress gave up and swapped out with a white coworker. The lady ended up immediately changing her attitude and loosened up like nothing had happened. To me, it is crazy that this woman went to this extent to be racist, and I cannot grasp the fact that people of color are still dealing with issues like this in this time of age. 

13. My mom is from Spain and my dad is from Ireland. They met while in college in Holland and eventually moved back to Ireland, where they had me and my sister. I grew up in Ireland for the first half of my life, and when I was nine, we immigrated to the United States. I definitely have a very blended identity, and it’s influenced how I see the world. I notice it the most when I think about the concept of home, I don’t really have one. I used to always consider Europe home, the United States was just a country I lived in at the time, it didn’t represent me. But as the years have gone by, I feel less European by the minute. When I go back to visit, the countries I used to call home feel like a distant memory, I feel out of place in them. Even my parents, with their thick accents, seem out of place now in their native countries, while using American expressions and mannerisms. At the same time though, the U.S still doesn’t feel like much of a home, perhaps one day it will. 

14. Nationally, I’m an American, just like many other students. But racially, I’m Asian, and ethnically, I’m from southern India. This was incredibly hard to grasp at a young age for me because I didn’t realize how vast the Asian diaspora truly extended. Even in what was supposed to be my racial group, I still felt like an outsider, because I looked externally different to the people around me. I didn’t like these parts of me when I was younger, because I wanted to fit in with my peers in a smaller, not-very-diverse town, so I only really identified with the American aspect of me. As I grew older, I experienced bias from the people around me, and felt strange when people would diminish my accomplishments, saying that I was Indian so it made sense that I did well. If I worked hard, I wasn’t recognized, and if I wasn’t academically good at something, it was something to be teased for– I was Indian, I was Asian, so wasn’t I supposed to be smart? It was only later that I learned about the “model minority” myth and how this phenomena was a part of it. The perception that the model minority myth is true only serves to put people of color down, including those who the myth applies to. However, by meeting others like me and being able to talk and bond over all our shared experiences, I was able to come to terms with and fully accept all three of these facets of my identity.

16. While I consider my national identity to be American and my racial identity white, my ethnic identity is Italian as my whole life experiences and the experiences of my family have revolved around being Italian. I recognize a great privilege to have experienced this pandemic as a young white person and did not experience discrimination like others have, however when the pandemic first hit, my family in Italy (and therefore my family here as well) were greatly impacted. Unlike a lot of my peers, I was much more cautious and frightened by the pandemic earlier on because I was seeing and hearing about what was going on in Italy from family members. I lost multiple family members, both state-side and in Italy during this pandemic and not being able to properly grieve with my family due to travel restrictions has been difficult, although I realize the necessity. I remember seeing a friend back in late February/early March of last year and one of the first things they asked me was “you haven’t seen any of your relatives in a while right? Or gone to Italy?”. This made me feel gross and judged even though I know people were just scared. I just want to say that while I in no way shape or form had it anywhere near as bad as other ethnicities, peoples’ reactions, both towards the pandemic in general and targeting people from places that were in trouble, is something that impacted me when things were hard enough already. 

17. I was born in Viet Nam and moved to the U.S. about 7 years ago.While I’d like think that I am an  American myself by having the citizenship and the long time spent in the U.S., events like the COVID-19 pandemic still scares me and signifies that I don’t belong here for some reason. When the pandemic was just starting, Asians hate crime went through the roof and the violence was so gruesome. With the sterotyping and racist ideologies that all Asians come from China, so many so called Americans attacked our elders, children, and families in broad day light. And even now, hate crimes agaisnt Asians have surfaced again, but no news or medias have been covering it in  urgent manners. So many of us took it to the streets and have began protesting across the states. It’s just bizarre that I have to fear for myself and my families whenever we go outside because  our safety is still being threatened in a first world country like the U.S.