Anika

As a minority at my school, I have always found connecting with my deeper roots and culture challenging. Specifically, at Hockaday, I feel that sometimes my opinions are overlooked, or I am judged as a stereotypical Indian: perfect grades, boring life, nerd. Some girl in my class even asked me to do their homework as apparently, “I anyways enjoy doing work”. 

I am glad for the new understanding when judging others that has developed in my community as well as the curriculum in classes. 

I was glad to have read the Bhagavad Gita in my classes. I shared a different perspective with the students in my class as I have prior knowledge of these subjects. I felt during these discussions and when reading the novel that I could truly explore my heritage. Also, allowing others to understand specific parts of my culture, for example, holidays or dress attire, allowed me to fit in more as ignorance clouds judgment. Understanding others is the key to a healthy environment.

As an Indian, I find it an inappropriate use of vocabulary for others who are not Indian to call me a “curry muncher”. I have heard the use of this “nickname” numerous times, and I find it insulting to my culture. Furthermore, the phrases “you smell like curry” and “ding a ling a ling a ling'' are also things that have been normalized in today’s world that I don’t find correct. My brother says that everyone in his school says “ding a ling a ling '' as soon as he sees him. Overall, I find that the new Hindu Student Association will be able to tackle these problems at the Hockaday school, but I find it important that this message is spread to other schools to be impacted by this change.