I'm an Asian/Malaysia student. How am I going to socialize with US students?
Hi guys! I'm 18 now and I'm about to go to Houston, US for my undergraduate study next year spring! It was pretty excited for me. It will be a new life, new adventure to me! Erhem... but the question is about friends. I was also excited to meet new friends there, especially the local people! That will be awesome! However, my mum told me most probably I will only hang out with the asians because some white and black people doesn't like asian. My classmates said the same as well. I surf around youtube most of the time and sometime I found some serious racist comments. :( Is racism really that serious in US? I'm quite scared because I'm kinda soft-hearted (even though I don't look like that)... I wonder how am I going to socialize with all of them... I'm sorry if my mum offended you... :(
Other - Society & Culture - 4 Answers
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1 :
I'm not gonna lie...people WILL be racist towards you. For the most part though, you shouldn't have a problem as most people really aren't that lame. If anything, you might have an easier time finding friends since people will be curious and might ask you what it was like to live in another country.
2 :
Although I'm not a student anymore, as an immigrant from Hong Kong, I can tell you that there are some racist people in the US, but you won't find many of them in Houston. This city is full of immigrants from all over including Asia, Latin America. When you first arrive in America, it's only natural that you will hang out first with people who share your own culture, they can help you with many things and ease you into the American life. But since you go to school, you will be able to meet all kinds of people and soon you will be able to mingle and make friends with people of all ethnicity. The best way to do so is to forget about who you are, and you yourself should not be aware of what the other person is, be it white, black, Asians. If you join some clubs and interest groups, you can make friends much easily with people who share your same interests and goals.
3 :
Don't be scared! You're clearly a brave person to go to school so far from home, and that alone will qualify you to deal with any of the typical snide adolescent-esque comments that may or may not come your way. All the asian people I know from university have TONS of friends, because they're unusual and interesting people to us primarily white americans. You will come across some racism, particularly from young men who still have too many hormones to behave appropriately, but I'm confident you won't come across anything aggresive or violent. At my university, a Korean student got in a car accident two years ago and literaly half the school attended a candle vigil for her at the university center. She received so many flowers and cards that the hospital had to stop accepting them. Cowardly hateful people get on the internet to spread around the disgusting views they would never say if they weren't anonymous - I wouldn't worry to much about what you see on youtube.
4 :
I would not worry about racism if you are going to the US. The internet is probably the worst place that you can look to get the opinions of an average American, because the extremes tend to love posting ridiculous comments that are in no way indicative of the country in general. Im white and have tons of asian friends. Quite frankly, color does not matter in this nation generally, especially among the younger generation. Yes there are crazies, but you will have white friends, black friends, asian friends, and latino friends. Our nation is full of people from everywhere, and racism shrinks year after year. I would not worry about racism going to the US.
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