By Christina Robertson
For a Polynesian student, being the one brown person in class feels strange.
Naati Ika, 18, a freshman from Hemet, California, is a minority in her classes. She said people sometimes stare at her because of her race.
“I don”t know if it is out of curiosity or because we are different. I don”t know if it is a bad bias, but I know it”s there,” she said.
Heritage Week celebrates cultural differences, said Jim Slaughter, assistant director of Multicultural Student Services.
He said the purpose of Heritage Week is to promote education, participation and leadership development among all students.
Slaughter said though most students on campus are good people, everyone has some stereotype because of the way they were raised.
“It”s a process of overcoming that and realizing that those stereotypes don”t hold true for everybody,” he said.
Heritage Week is a good way for students to overcome some of those biases and create positive experiences, he said.
Nita Maile, 20, a junior from Oakland, California, majoring in psychology, said she stands out from most students because of her race.
“You are more afraid to say things because you feel as though everyone is set in the opinion of their white culture,” she said.
Ika said her culture shares their belongings more than the American culture. She said they do not care about ownership. They are concerned with taking care of each other, she said.
“What”s mine is yours, what”s yours is mine,” Ika said.
This culture is engrained from childhood, she said.
“You remember where you come from. You don”t care so much about yourself or forget and become worldly,” Ika said.
Though her cultural heritage is important to her, Ika said her culture is not better, only different.
Slaughter said American culture is also inclusive, but demands some conformity.
“We have a stereotype for an American. Sometimes we forget the variety of Americans there are in our country,” he said.
He said in a small way, Heritage Week could help overcome biases for students who participate. He said commonalities are more important than cultural differences.
“It”s really time to focus on the things we have in common and the good things that we share in common, like the gospel and family values,” he said.
He said he hopes students will see that at Heritage Week.
“Most people in the world want the same things: To be happy and to have a good life. When you look at it that way, you start forgetting about the other stuff,” he said.
