Advices for Asian students who want to go to Wake next year

Colleges and Universities A-Z Wake Forest University
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<p>I think many of you fail to realize that the demographics of Wake Forest University are not atypical of private universities in the South. The demographics however, are not indicative of racism at Wake Forest. I think the examples I previously cited concerning acts of racial injustice and even violence on other, <em>gasp</em> more liberal universities sheds light on the fact that problems of race are ubiquitous across college campuses. Anyone who thinks otherwise is deluding themselves. </p>

<p>Unfortunately, it is easy to criticize a school in the US South for being a bunch of intolerant, gun-loving, hicks. This could not be farther from the truth.</p>

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<p>This thread has lost its original intention. The long quiet OP should report what in my mind was criminal. Everyone else should bring their complaints to the administration immediately. The people who are in the process of researching all possible colleges should check for racial incidents on campus, and follow up again with administration about such incidents, because they certainly exist. Finally, if you are resigned to being unhappy, transfer asap. There is no reason for any person to be where they do not want to be; there are thousands of universities that would love to have you replace a spot where some other unhappy student vacated at their college. If you are on the fence, contact Lily Proctor for first hand experience about being Asian at Wake. To all the people attending, have a great year.To all posters in general, have a happy and healthy New Year.</p>

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<p>I am still applying to wake and I am asian, but honestly no matter what any minority race will face incidents like that. I go to a private Catholic high school and I face some racial slurs, even though I am probably the “whitest” asian. There are always nice people who look past these racial differences and there are always going to be ignorant people who feel like there is a need to make remarks to make them feel superior. </p>

<p>Yes, I have gotten used to it because i hear “asian jokes” frequently, but I have also said things to people. </p>

<p>Remember, no one can make you feel inferior without your consent. </p>

<p>Don’t let a problem like this discourage you. There are bigger things in the world than our race, like our attitudes and personality. That is what really matters in the end.</p>

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<p>Just to input again – my post was not trying to be harsh on Wake, but I wanted to be honest. The administration knows of some “diversity” issues – broadly understood as socioeconomic, religious, cultural, and racial - - and is trying to deal with this. All groups of people will face a form of discrimination at least one point at their life, let it be a Southerner, an Asian, or Hindu. This by no means is unique to WFU. That said, if one wants a college experience where all aspect of their background will be readily accepted and embraced by the community as a whole – sadly, Wake Forest is not the best choice. Wake is not a bad choice, and I know of schools that this problem is more severe than Wake’s, but Wake is also not the ideal choice either. One can always find a group of people who will be accepting, but at the same time, there is a visible amount of this campus that is not. If you are not comfortable knowing a sizable amount of this campus, even if it is still a minority, might harbor less-than-welcoming feelings for people who are ‘different’ from the “Wake Forest type” student, then you should probably look else where. It is sad to concede this about my school, because I truly appreciate Wake Forest, but I feel that prospective applicants should know what the environment is like.</p>

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<p><a href=“http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1951044,00.html[/url]”>http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1951044,00.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>I’d like to reiterate that even though Wake’s campus is conservative and not as diverse as some, racism is never tolerated by its students, faculty, or administrations. If the allegations made by the OP were given to anyone from an RA to the school paper, Wake would have made a huge deal out of it. </p>

<p>Remember that a conservative college campus is still a more liberal atmosphere than all but a few cities in the US. The racists at Wake are cowards. They only reveal themselves rarely when they feel safe in a group to do so, or by doing cowardly things like anonymously writing on someone’s door in the middle of the night.</p>

<p>I urge anyone who feels they have clearly been prejudiced at Wake to report it. Doing so is not selfish. Not reporting is selfish. It might be easier for you to just have thick skin and let something go, but then you’re complacent in allowing someone else to get hurt down the line.</p>

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<p>Hi. This is the OP. I apologize for the long silence.
I did not want to write on this thread anymore because I was embarrased and scared by so much attention that I did not see coming at the time I opened up this thread. However, reading all the replies igniting one disputes and another, I decided to post a reply to make clear of a few things.</p>

<p>First off, the occasions that I had written on this thread are not lies. Maybe the title was a little sensational, I admit, but these things did really happen during my first couple of weeks at Wake.</p>

<p>Another thing is that not all the “ignorant people” are wake forest students, and not all of them are white people either.
This one time at a party, I saw this guy offending a hispanic student. He was saying some obnoxious stuff about being Mexican and illegal. This racist young man, however, was not a wake forest student. He was a visitor from a nearby school, and I heard he got kicked out of the party by the fraternity brothers.
I think this could have happened a lot more than I initially thought. There are many visitors who come here to party (and only to party) during weekends, especially during the special events like seize the quad. And the fact that I have never seen the same racist twice on campus makes me doubt even more that if they were all wake students afterall.
I have mentioned this before, but I was most offended by the homeless guy in downtown Winston-Salem and he was not a Wake student nor a white man.
What I’m saying is that these things are not limited to white people. It’s not majority vs. minority. It’s about anybody who is disrespectful to other people because of their race. Asians, too, are included.</p>

<p>No, I did not report it. The school’s administration (through the online surveys, and there were a lot towards the end of the semester), the RA’s, my advisors, multicultural mentors, all of them DID ask me if there was any problem related to what I had mentioned on my previous post, but I did not say a word on anything.
Now, let me explain my position before you all get angry with me.
Yes, I am a coward, I am selfish. I did not want to make another mess in my life. Transition from high school to college was confusing and stressful enough.</p>

<p>And there was the identifying problem of the accused. I don’t PERSONALY know these people who have made racist comments in front of my face. I don’t know them. They were in a car or among the crowd at a football game. Some of them were very drunk that they probably wouldn’t remember saying anything racist, and I probably will understand if they say those words were not intentional.
While all my awesome friends were being nice to me, I had no reason to carry bitter feelings with myself all the time. I wanted to forget about the bad things. Actually, later on, I became close to my friends (mostly not Asian) that many of the time they were next to me when I came across the “ignorant people”. They fought back for me, although I am not sure if any of them formally reported such a thing.
I just did not want to make a big deal out of this. Nobody, among those who I am friends with at wake, has said anything close to racist (at least not in my face). I didn’t see how WF would react to this problem. How would WF punish those people if nobody knows who they are?</p>

<p>Then they all disappeared. After the midterm, as parties got less frequent, there appeared to be less cocky guys around. Maybe they all have learned something over the semester or maybe they were just busy studying for finals. I don’t know. but it has been long enough that it is kind of awkward to report at this point. I promise, though, I will do SOMETHING if anything such a kind happens one more time. I will not be silent next time.</p>

<p>By the way, Lily Proctor is a very nice person. I didn’t know she held a position in that club but now I know. I agree with whoever that said something like you cannot make your decision of whether or not to apply to WF blindly based on one person’s experience. Maybe it’s just me, so come and see for yourself what’s really going down.</p>

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<p>Anywhere with any dominant race, there will be discrimination.</p>

<p>As for wake, having >80% white says sometime; that is SOME whites will discriminate the non-whites. We should be now agree that diversity is desirable to homogenous student body.</p>

<p>As for asian experience at wake, asians will not ‘feel at home’ or perfectly blended in at Wake; But this is to be expected. I would believe that most whites at Wake would not discriminate, but SOME will. That is the nature of human. I’m not saying whites are bad, discrimination happens every where with dominant race.</p>

<p>For parents and worried asians, If you worry about discrimination, then you would be better off attending universities with more asians, e.g. UCs. However, if you are open-minded, friendly, and not worry so much (and can tolerant certain degree of discrimination) then Wake would be a good choice.</p>

<p>Bottom line: Debate whether or not there is discrimination at Wake is irrelevant. There WILL BE SOME, at any universities, but universities with larger diversity will have comparatively less discrimination. So if you worry about discrimination, then stay in your country, or attend universities with large population of your race/culture. </p>

<p>It is a matter of choice. I, myself, is also making the decision of which one to attend. Luckily, I have choices.</p>

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<p>Regarding:“for parents and worried asians, If you worry about discrimination, then you would be better off attending universities with more asians, e.g. UCs. However, if you are open-minded, friendly, and not worry so much (and can tolerant certain degree of discrimination) then Wake would be a good choice.”</p>

<p>Being tolerant of discrimination is never a solution, especially at a premier liberal arts university.</p>

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<p>Of course, UCLA had a pretty well-documented case of an anti-asian rant that made the rounds of YouTube recently.</p>

<p>It could happen anywhere, but shouldn’t be tolerated anywhere.</p>

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<p>I visited Wake with my son yesterday. Was surprised I didn’t see more asians/indians. Duke is loaded with asians/indians. I think the best thing about college is meeting people from different back grounds and races. Since students can’t live off campus until after their 3rd year, they certainly need to learn how to get along.</p>