That girl is Asian, she must be smart. That guy is Mexican, he must be illegal.
That guy is African; he must be fantastic at sports. You know what we call these assumptions? Stereotypes. There is nothing I hate more than stereotypes. I do not understand how you can take one look at someone and assume something so shallow about that particular race/person. One advice: don’t ever judge a person based on the outside looks. Everyone expects Asians to be highly intelligent, so when I fail a test or do not understand a certain topic, people ask me whether I’m actually Asian. I cannot believe human beings like that actually exist. They disgust me. Just because someone is Asian does not immediately give them ‘smart powers.’ There are smart Asians and there are some who are not as smart. We’re like everyone else in the world.


Being a high schooler should make them realize that Asians are not "special". We aren't treated differently, nor do we act different. I guess high school has not brought them to the epiphany yet. Even now, my classmates request for me to criticize their essays, explain the concepts they don’t understand and let them copy off my homework. Of course I don’t let them copy my homework, but my point is that they come to me for help because I’m Asian, and I supposedly know everything about the ‘world mysteries’ and whatnot. There was a time when someone asked me for help, and I told them I did not understand what we were learning about, and she had the audacity to say to me, “You’re Asian. Aren’t you supposed to know everything?” I was expecting a laugh around the end to indicate what she just said was a joke. The laugh never came. Sadly, the universe does not give me super smart powers because I’m Asian,or otherwise I constantly would use them.


As a sixth grader, I experienced stereotyping and racism for the first time. Since I’m a dark Asian, some of my other peers did not see me as a full Asian because I was a different color than the Vietnamese, Chinese and Koreans, who attended school. The other Asians made a joke calling me a dirty Asian and repeatedly criticizing me by telling me our kind resembled the Mexican versions of Asians. Although they tell me it’s a joke, and I tried brush it off without thinking about the horrid words they spoke to me.I cannot. Those words haunt me. Those words are forever embedded into my mind, and I can never seem to forget them. What those kids that used to taunt me don’t realize is that, Asians are people from the continent of Asia. I wish people retained information from geography class before insulting another’s race. The thought of people who sprout racist jokes on a daily basis sickens me to the pits of my stomach. The fact that racism is nonexistent anymore is plain wrong. Racism can still be found anywhere and everywhere. Equality is a myth we all are forced to believe. We are never going to all be treated exactly the same. The more intelligent will be treated differently from the others. The wealthier will be treated differently from the others.

Although racism transitioned from the old days, we are not near a future where people will not be judged by their skin color or where they are from. Maybe around the three-thousands, we will be at a point where we have evolved so much, our inner beauty will shine and others will be able to see who we really are. As of the world now, if we saw a Mexican or a black guy on the street randomly somewhere, we automatically assume the worst scenarios and run the other direction. We do this because of rumors and words we have heard that come out of other people’s mouth. We automatically think they are bad people who are trying to harm us. Just as how not all Asians are smart, not all Mexicans or black people are related in gangs or are involved in drugs. Judging someone from their origin or their skin color is such a dumb idea. Humans are like onions. We are to peeled layer from layer until you get to the core, and that is when you know whether we’re rotten or not. We are not bananas. You can tell if a banana is rotten from how it looks on the outside. We are not like that. Some people look nice on the outside, but they are rotten on the inside. Even if you are rotten on the outside, you have the ability to possess something precious on the inside, but I will never know unless I open the top layer. Writing this paper brings me to an epiphany that the worst thing you could do to someone is judge them based on their outer appearance. Because you lost the opportunity to meet someone new and you took that opportunity from them too. Now let that sink in.