Photo: Durham Convention and Visitor’s Bureau
Several Asian students have come forward with stories of harassment and racism at Duke University of late, reports the Duke Chronicle.
In a December 2 post on Duke’s Facebook page, first year Joyce Gu reported students chanted “ching chong ching chong” as she and her friends walked passed a residence hall.
Another first year student Sam Kim reported a campus store employee began asking a series of questions that raised several disturbing stereotypes.
“I bet you’re from California, I am 100 percent sure,” “I bet you play piano, too” and “No no, where are you really from?”
Kim said the comments at the Durham, North Carolina campus left him a bit stunned.
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“Many of the staff assume right off the bat that I don’t speak English (lived here for 10 years, thank you very much) and treat me accordingly, which is humiliating, to say the least.” “After all the talk of diversity and inclusivity, this is not what I expected when I came to Duke.”
Yet another incident happened at a Duke basketball game.
First-year Greta Chen noticed student reporter John Stansberry who was sitting in front of her had made her the subject of several tweets.
“I haven’t been this scrunched up with Asian chicks since I came out of my Korean mother’s womb,” read the tweet.
“We were just kind of shocked,” Chen said. “We didn’t know what to do, we didn’t want to make a big deal in the middle of the game.”
Stansberry’s Twitter account has since been deleted.
According to College Factual, Duke is 46 percent White, 21 percent Asian, and about 10 percent Black and 10 percent Hispanic/Latino. The Chronicle, Duke’s campus paper, lists the Asian and Asian American population at 30 percent.
Duke’s Asian Student Association says while some on campus are dedicated to improving the student experience, others don’t care.
“One example would be that of the perpetual foreigner concept,” they said. “This is still very prevalent, even at this university. There have been several occasions that students, staff, faculty and administration have made certain assumptions about Asian American students and ASA based off of this concept, often taking from Orientalist stereotypes as well.”
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