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South Asian American Vignette #1 Written by a first generation South Asian American, born a year after his parents immigrated to the United States from India. Part AI work at a non-profit agency where we had a three-day mandatory Diversity Training. Our entire staff, around 130 people, was present. After watching a film about racism, we were asked to break into discussion groups. All the people of color were asked to be in one group so that we could support each other while discussing this topic. The white community had a strong negative reaction to this, stating that they felt as if a huge rift had been opened between us. The following day we addressed these sentiments. We moved our chairs to form concentric circles, with the people of color occupying the innermost circle. A number of people of color spoke, and when it came my turn, I shared one particular story of overt discrimination that happened while I was working and how I was and was not supported afterwards. Question for the reader: Why would people of color Part B After the training a colleague approached me and asked if we could talk. He said, "Y'know, I used to have an Indian girlfriend, she actually looked a lot like you...and people would always assume that she was good at math and intelligent. Does that happen to you too? Isn't that a good thing?" Question for the reader: The colleague seems to View commentary of South Asian American Vignette #1,
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