I’ve Never

I have never encountered racial and ethnic insensitivity in my graduate program. . .

. . . except when a professor talked about how Asian students are not fit for philosophy.
. . . except when students have asked me (more than once) to please tell them where I am from, because they “just cannot figure it out.”
. . . except when a student joked in the middle of class about me not having immigration papers.
. . . except when I had faculty member in a private meeting bluntly say that if I want to get a job I needed to specialize in Latin American philosophy. I do nothing of the sort. I work within M&E.

I love philosophy, but sometimes these little things are really, really annoying.JANUARY 19, 2015PHILSTRUGGLEASIAN AMERICAN, GRAD SCHOOL, LATINA/O AMERICAN

Sorry- Having great difficulty traversing the two editors. The above originally appeared in the 2015 beingaphilosopherofcolor@wordpress,com

I want to ask a question: While eating at a church free luncheon on a university campus I found myself sharing a table with two black men who were presumably students. I did not want to insult them but I was curious what country they were from. Now, that could have been taken as rude and prejudiced, whereas I just hoped for a little friendly dialogue. They told the country and we ended up by them proudly showing a smart phone photo collection of their family back home. What should I say or not have said to start the conversation?