Emma Li

At Harker, where the majority of the student body identifies as Asian — East Asian, Southeast Asian, Central Asian, South Asian or Pacific Islander descent or ancestry, casual racism is especially relevant.

“Not to be racist, but your eyes are really big for an Asian.”

Despite being worded like compliments, statements like these reduce people to stereotypes — and that’s exactly what racism does, even when disguised in well-intentioned comments or jokes. These remarks prove that racism still permeates our casual conversations, no matter how “anti-racist” people claim to be.

At Harker, where the majority of the student body identifies as Asian — East Asian, Southeast Asian, Central Asian, South Asian or Pacific Islander descent or ancestry, casual racism is especially relevant. In fact, an online survey of 141 Harker students revealed 70.3% of respondents have made a casually racist joke.

The most common racism we see today doesn’t look like outward hatred or aggression. In high school communities, racism often shows up in more casual forms: reels on Instagram, accent impressions or jokes laced with innuendos circulating in our school community. 99.3% of survey respondents said that racism frequently manifests as jokes, and 62.7% named mocking accents as another manifestation of racism.

Many of these instances of casual racism at our school are instigated by the very victims of these comments: Asians. 60.6% of respondents said that they often hear casually racist comments made by people of the race that are being stereotyped in the joke. Even if they are mocking others in their own community and by extension themselves, it is still detrimental and contributes to harmful stereotypes. 

Online culture has amplified this trend, especially on YouTube. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, East and Southeast Asian content creators Steven He and Uncle Roger built their platforms on social media around stereotypes of their cultures. These portrayals have only exacerbated existing racial caricatures. Although exaggerated portrayals of Asian stereotypes  like “Tiger moms” or “Chinese uncles” may garner instant media attention due to their absurdity, they perpetuate an overgeneralization that gives people false impressions of Asians. 

The same pattern shows up in how people talk about South Asians, sometimes coming up as viral short-form content on the internet. You might have heard people online, as well as students in our own community, mock the way Indian people maintain their hygiene, for instance. 

Anti-Asian racism is frequently overlooked due to the “model minority myth,” which falsely frames Asians as uniformly successful and therefore immune to racism. We dismiss blatantly racist acts as seemingly individual incidents rather than the reality: a pattern that we’ve seen on social media over the years. 44.4% of respondents chose “not often” and 23.2% chose “never” when asked how often they feel uncomfortable because of racial comments, either at school or online. Normalization of these comments with racial undertones pushes us further and further away from the tide of equal treatment. 

Casual racism remains socially acceptable only when we allow it to be. 50.4% of survey respondents said they do not intervene when they hear racist jokes directed toward any race, and only 4.4% of respondents said they always point them out or confront the speaker. 

When someone makes a casually racist joke or remark, say something. Don’t stay silent or turn a blind eye in fear of upsetting a friend. Even statements as simple as “that’s racist” or “that’s not okay” can help others realize their insensitivity. If you encounter casually racist remarks online, don’t give the writers the engagement they want by liking or replying. 

This is not to ignore racism that affects communities beyond Asians. On the contrary, these observations can be applied to how we address all kinds of casually racist and insensitive jokes. 

May 1 is the first day of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, a time to reflect on diversity, the historical contributions of AAPI individuals and the systemic barriers that remain. Without awareness and confrontation of casual stereotyping and racist comments, racism will continue to persist.