Prejudice and racism are inevitable experiences for almost all people, which is extremely unfortunate. I have seen this and experienced this firsthand as well. For example, asian-americans were coined the term “Model minority” which has been nothing more than a myth from my experiences. Almost all my south asian friends and I have been victim to the same stereotypes, such as being technology experts or smelling like curry. These stereotypes are dangerous as you create fake beliefs on people you know nothing about, and it also puts a fake idea in the mind of the victim as well. Though we live in such a large asian community, this injustice frequently occurs which is not something anyone should be able to stand by. A prevailing example of how negative this can be has been shown with the current asian hate crimes going on right now. Asians here are a target for violence for something that they had zero involvement in. Being a bystander to something as violent as this is swallowing tyrannies, which is something I cannot stand by.

My personal experiences and from witnessing the experiences of those around me has solidified my stance on this issue and has made me a strong advocate for this issue. Seeing this injustice occur in such a large community has further shown me how deeply rooted and bad this problem is. If it is that bad here, I can’t even imagine how bad it is for those who are actually minorities in their communities. This has made me stop swallowing the day to day tyrannies I face and speak up about these issues. This issue should not be one that you have to experience personally to be an advocate for, you should be ready to stand by those around you in times of need regardless of whether you are directly impacted or not.