Asian Culture Center program responds to instances of harassment

A group of female students waits on the curb for a campus bus to pick them up. A car drives past and the passengers yell embarrassing and demeaning remarks at the women. Before they have a chance to respond and refute “How much do you ladies cost?,” the car is long gone, as is the group’s hope of an explanation.\nThe women are Asian and therefore prime targets of ridicule and degradation that many minority students face. Although the women were unable to speak directly to the students in the car, Melanie Castillo-Cullather, director of the Asian Culture Center, helped them to contact the authorities with the car’s license-plate number.\n“This way the students were made aware that what they did was not acceptable,” Castillo-Cullather said.\nAccording to Asian-Nation.org, Asian-Americans have become the fastest-growing targets of hate crimes and violence in the last 20 years. \nEven though Castillo-Cullather said IU does not see a considerable amount of serious violence, a program sponsored by the Asian Culture Center called Responding to Incidents of Casual and Everyday Racism, or RICER, is trying to give students the chance to talk about the discrimination they frequently face on IU’s campus.\nCastillo-Cullather believes that talking about racism in everyday life is the first step to fighting it.\n“Students experience a place where they can talk about and share their incidents without feeling like they are being judged,” Castillo-Cullather said. \nWhen it first started, the program was a weekly group meeting made possible by funding from a grant. After the funding decreased each semester and ultimately ran out, the program no longer had the resources to meet as a group.\nBut RICER was so effective that the Asian Culture Center decided to continue it as a one-on-one session between students and Castillo-Cullather, she said. Most of these meetings are arranged by a friend of the student who is experiencing racism but is either too afraid or too unconcerned to talk about it.\nCastillo-Cullather believes that students become more comfortable addressing racism once they realize they are not the only ones who experience it. \n“Some of the students feel like they brought the racism upon themselves, so that is who they blame,” she said. “They ask themselves, ‘Did I say something or do something to deserve this?’”\nSome of the different kinds of racism reported include, but are not limited to, name-calling, taunts, making fun of physical characteristics and repeating racist comments heard on TV. All of these derogatory remarks can leave a student feeling uncomfortable, and anything that makes a person feel uncomfortable is a form of injustice, Castillo-Cullather said.\nSince racism happens every day, many victims choose not to report it and, as a result, racism goes unaddressed, Castillo-Cullather said.\n“The most important thing is to make people aware that incidents of racism are occurring on campus,” Castillo-Cullather said. “If this is not done, it will lead to a false impression that everything is going right when it is not.”\nA racism report may be filed confidentially with the Racial Incidents Team at reportit@indiana.edu. To schedule an appointment, e-mail Melanie Castillo-Cullather at the Asian Culture Center.\n“We can’t completely eliminate racism,” Castillo-Cullather said. “But that doesn’t mean that individually we can’t contribute to a better place for everyone.”