“During moments of interracial conflict between students, this stereotype can emerge in full force, such as when non—Asian American students tell Asian American youth to “go back to where they came from” or use fake Asian accents to mock them. Through this kind of behavior, non—Asian American youth send their peers a clear message: they are outsiders in their own schools.” (Lee, 2008, 77)

The type of bullying presented in this chapter is, unfortunately, present in my own classroom today. The school I work at is primarily white with the second highest population of students being Asian-American. Competition in the school is very high, which is where I believe some of the bullying is coming from. For example, when one of my students got a lower grade on an assignment than his desk partner, an Asian-American student, I overheard him mocking an Asian accent saying he didn’t have to try because he’s Asian. Mocking and bullying are centered around grades in my school and I find these situations extremely upsetting. I can only imagine how my student is feeling: staying silent and internalizing these words and jokes from his classmate. I’ve pulled students aside to discuss the seriousness of their behavior in the classroom and I’ve actually written up some students for this behavior.  When I’ve spoken to the students who have been victimized, they don’t have strong reactions. They are used to this type of treatment.

My students who deal with this bullying are American. They were born in the USA and happen to have Asian backgrounds. The fact that they are pushed into this foreigner model is not fair. The chapter suggests some ways to combat this racism in the classroom such as strengthening multicultural learning in the classroom to challenge the idea that Asian culture and American culture are elusive. This would be a step in the right direction, but honestly, I don’t know what a solution could be for this problem right now but it needs to be addressed in our schools.