Stereotype threat, coined by Dr. Claude Steele, is the threat of performing something that will confirm or being view as a negative stereotype of one’s social identities.

No matter how ridiculous stereotypes are, they exists in our society and have been very persistent. Being an immigrant myself, I have tasted the bitterness of stereotype first-handed, ranging from an distasteful joke to a racial slur. The first day , in fact the first few years, of school in America wasn’t all that great for me. It planted within me a seed of hatred for racism, for stereotypes. However, with the identification and credentials of being an immigrant, I was able to observe them as an outsider.

It started out as curiosity, really. Why does he call me that? What have I done to make him say that? Had he met any other Chinese immigrants, or Chinese in general? What did they do? What did he do to them? I tried my hardest to understand, but it turns out it could be for no reason at all. He knew not how that hurt, he knew not how stupid it was, and most importantly, he knew nothing about me. It was the most ignorant thing I’ve encountered. Ignorant, possibly the first word I know how to spell that starts with an ‘i’.

I’m sure everyone has encountered someone like ‘him’. The mysterious human ignorance. I give up on understanding him, it will do me no good. To me, solving human ignorance is a waste of time, let the ignorant be ignored. Can education solve it? Absolutely! Is the current form of education able to do just that? Sadly, not even close.

My parents opened up a dry-clean store a year after we came to the states. Right there, in Manhattan, the city of the world. I used to work there. I can say that the majority of the people we’ve met are nice, genuinely nice people. Then, there are the few, the few that has the look, the subtle gestures, and utter words from the book of ignorance. Hello, Ignorant, so you are here too? Curiosity came to me again.

I began to observe again, and what I saw haunts me. My family, my love ones. I can’t see the look, nor those subtle gestures from them since I’ve known them before my observation began, but the words… straight from the pages of Ignorant’s terrible book.

What I’ve discovered is that even the most beloved members of my family can believe in something so ignorance, even the ones who taught me tolerance at some point can voice those stereotypical words to the young, almost in a form of lectures that this is the one truth they’ve found. It gave me headaches. Seeing it might be impossible to rid the world of stereotypes.

I became aware. I kept observing. How well am I prepared for dealing with stereotype threat at a larger and more personal scale? I can’t tell. All I know is this, I’m me. I’m glad to have what I have to be me. I’ll be a better me someday. No one can label me.