One wouldn’t think they would get tired of being told they are smart, but junior graphic design major Liz Li, who is an Asian born American, is fed up with it.
“It’s really annoying when people assume that I can get A’s and excel in all areas when I’m really just an ordinary person who performs at the level pretty much everyone else does,” Li said.
Teaching assistant in the biology department Catherine Aurah and graduate assistant in business administration Charlotte Nheta have also had their fair share of off-putting questions.
When Aurah told a student that her home country is Kenya, the student asked how she survived because she had to “sleep in the wild with the animals.” Nheta likewise has been asked, “So, you lived with the monkeys and lions?”
“When I told my friends that, they said I should just say yes because it is such a ridiculous question,” Nheta said. “People only know what they see on National Geographic, they think we all live in huts.”
Nheta lived in Zimbabwe in an apartment in a populated city before she moved to Indiana to attend college. Her biggest culture shock when she arrived in Indiana was the cornfields and the ruralness. Nheta’s biggest pet peeve is people’s ideas of Africa being a country, not a continent with 55 countries.
“People think that African women walk around in the skins of lions, but it’s not like we have a national dress,” Nheta said.
Assistant professor in the Department in Anthropology Jennifer Erickson said that there are several misconceptions and stereotypes about African women.
“We just see this singular story of what an African woman looks like,” Erickson said.
Aurah grew up in a village with a semi-permanent house made of mud walls and a metal roof with nine other siblings.
“I would say that I didn’t have many opportunities. Growing up, it was always a bit of a struggle,” Aurah said.
Aurah said the idea that people from Kenya are uneducated and all live in poverty is a misconception, and that the media has been known to misrepresent Africa by focusing only on the negative aspects and at some points exaggerated them.
“College is common where I live, it’s what everyone strives to do,” Aurah said. “It’s very typical.”
Erickson suggests talking to international students is the best way to stop stereotypes. Li attends the International Conversation Hour every Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the L.A. Pittenger Student Center.
“I’ve learned a lot about how other people on the other side of the world live, and what it is like for them to come here to America and experience our culture,” Li said.
Aurah said stereotypes make it difficult to build relationships.
“[Stereotypes] actually have a big impact on how you relate to others,” Aurah said. “Some people build a wall because they think I come from such a bad environment. You have to be open enough to talk about stereotypes.”
