In day-to-day life, many people of color at Sequoia, including myself, find themselves being mixed up with other people of their race, or facing other forms of subtle racism and microaggressions.
As someone who is Indian, coming into a high school environment where less than 5% of the population is Asian, I have struggled with my own identity because of unintentional racism. Becoming friends with some of the few other Indian girls in my grade has opened up a space to talk about the shared struggles with racism we face, rather than with people who have never experienced it. We realized a lot of the microaggressions we were facing were caused by being mixed up with one another. Being friends made people associate us with each other more, making the mix-ups a common occurrence. For example, me and one of my friends who is also Indian, Riya Hariharan, tend to get mixed up often by teachers and peers.
“I think [being friends is] somewhat the source of the problem, but also being able to talk about it with people who understand is important,” Hariharan said.
One day when I walked into class, my teacher began a conversation with me and started calling me “Riya.” I was shocked that she had not noticed I wasn’t Riya and continued talking. The confidence she had when calling me the wrong name made me feel as if she didn’t truly know me or care enough to try to call me the right name. Even though she eventually realized and apologized, it felt like the only defining aspect of my identity was my race.
“It just made me feel not seen because if you think I’m a different girl just because she has the same skin color as me, then that’s hurtful,” Hariharan said.
When experiences like this happen to people of color, it’s difficult to think of how to respond. It can be very hurtful to be generalized or called the wrong name simply because of your race, but it is also typically a complete accident. While there is often the perception that only white people mix up people of color, other people of color, or people of the same race, can also mix up others.
“I knew it wasn’t intentional, it’s just the culture in America that allows for [mix-ups] to happen and not acknowledge it because people don’t try to work on it,” Hariharan said.
Because there’s less representation of minorities in the dominant American culture, it can be easier to distinguish between white people than people of color, simply because that’s what people have been exposed to while growing up in the United States. This doesn’t necessarily make it less hurtful or upsetting.
“You’re expected to immediately forgive things, because if it wasn’t on purpose then you can’t get mad at someone for it,” Indian junior Meenal Bahl said.
The experience with Riya sadly wasn’t the first time I had experienced being mistaken for another person, and I am not the only student who has. Getting mixed up happens to people of color who are friends, but also between people who don’t even know each other.
“Sometimes it’s just random people in my class who I have no connection to, other than us being Hispanic,” Hispanic junior Hade Curup said.
Other students have also experienced other forms of racial microaggressions, including being seen as outsiders simply because they are people of color.
“In one of my classes, we were talking about where we were from, and I said ‘Redwood City,’ and someone said, ‘No, where are you really from?’” Black freshman Joella Gaddini said. “It was implying that nobody like you would actually be from here.”
Comments like these can be alienating for people of color. Even if it was not intended to be racist or insensitive, the implications of questions about someone’s race can be damaging to someone’s identity and sense of belonging in a community where they are a minority.
“They think it’s a genuine question, but when it’s worded that way it’s not so ‘harmless,’” Gaddini said.