In “The New York Times” last Friday, a groundbreaking article by Tanzina Vega was published detailing the “avalanche of blogs, student discourse, campus theater and academic papers” that have recently swept across college campuses, concerning “the social justice word du jour — microaggressions.”
College campuses are not the only places where a conversation is occurring in which students examine and question the subtle ways in which stereotypes can hurtfully manifest themselves. The Andover community participated in campus-wide discussion in response to the issues raised by Commentary articles written by “More Than Just A Number,” a new campus organization that aims to expose the challenges that black and Latino students face at Andover.
Thus far, the conversation has centered primarily on black and Latino students, missing a critical voice under the topic of diversity at Andover. This week, the conversation is extending to include Asian and Asian-American students and their experiences. Once again, The Phillipian did not solicit these articles.
Asian and Asian-American students do not suffer from the same under-representation on campus as other minorities, as they constitute nearly 30 percent of the student body, yet their voice is of equal importance in the ongoing discussion of racism and microaggressions at Andover.
