• By Editorial Team
• December 18, 2023

Here is it, the big ‘R’. Except you’ve been living under a rock, you would have heard a thing or two about racism especially with the ‘black lives matter’ movement. I’ve probably watched hundreds of YouTube videos of police racially profiling blacks, this has even extended into colleges, the story of Lolade Siyonbola stands out in my mind, and she is of Nigerian descent and was studying in Yale University.

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She was studying one night when she slept off in the common room, she was woken by a white student who called the cops on her, telling her she doesn’t belong there, the cops came and the issue was finally resolved. Needless to say it was a horrible experience for her. Studying abroad is stressful enough without having to throw into the mix being treated differently because of the color of your skin. So what is racism, how does it manifest and what can you do if you find yourself a victim of it?

Racism

Racism is simply having a discriminatory or abusive behavior toward members of another race. It’s a belief either expressed or not that members of a particular race are intrinsically superior to another race. Racism could be done unintentionally and sometimes intentionally. It could come in form of an off and ignorant question like “are there book shops in Nigeria?”, and it could be as bad as downright hostility. Here are the forms that racial discrimination could take:

 Racial discrimination could come in the form of accent bullying, other times it’s even the surprise that is expressed about how good your English is, meaning most people expect that your English proficiency would be poor even though you come from a country with English as its official language.

Another form that racism could take is the regular, derogatory comments and insults and other behavioral indignities. These comments could be directed to you personally, it could also be a general comment about your nationality.

Racism could be downright assault. This happened a lot to Chinese residents during the height of Covid-19, a lot of them were attacked physically and accused as the cause of the virus

Whatever form racism may take, I’m sure you would be grateful to learn useful tips on how to handle this issue. 

Important tips on handling racism

• The first thing to note is that it’s not as bad as you might have anticipated, I mean racial discrimination does happen but not with the intensity with which it is painted in the media. Sometimes when offensive off comments are made about your race, it just boils down from the knowledge (or lack of it) the person speaking has about your ethnicity or nationality. International students have expressed surprise that what they experienced largely is acceptance; they are often treated as people who have earned their place in the school. You would also find that what you will encounter would be more of curiosity than judgment and rejection
• Also you might want to do some research and find out the general perception of your ethnic group or race in your host country. Also learn about the culture, customs and history of your host country. For the US for example, we know that for a long time in their history, blacks were treated as slaves as less than humans, in fact the country went through a civil war because Abraham Lincoln attempted to abolish slavery. We would also learn by research the already existing racial dynamics, Knowing this would help you understand why a few whites still have the white superiority complex
• You should also learn about the facilities that the country or your school has put in place to support you if you are ever discriminated again, so that you’d know what options you have if you ever face racial discrimination. It would help to also learn about the legal rights you have as a student studying in the country
• In the event that verbal abuse occurs or derogatory statements are made, you may choose to ignore it or address it immediately. Addressing it immediately should be done as calmly but as firmly as possible, here you are not given room for a back and forth, you are stating clearly that someone is totally wrong or just superbly ignorant about you. Now your choice to ignore or not to ignore is left to your instinct, I’d however suggest that if the statement is made by someone who you are not likely to meet again and who would not have the chance to say the same thing or something worse, you should just ignore. If the statement is however made by a roommate or a lab partner or colleague, you should “clear” the person immediately.
• When it involves serious threats of physical acts of assault or violence, and you start to fear for your life, this is the time to involve the authorities

On a final note, it’s important to note that although racism does occur, the chances of you facing it are actually quite low. Human beings generally are more good than bad and I believe that generally, there is more good in the world than evil, so keep calm and even when you do face it, be willing to give the person, the benefits of the doubt. Being racially discriminated against sucks, it could be frustrating and could affect you mentally and sometimes physically. It is not however your business and agenda to quench racism everywhere, in fact, it is impossible to do that. Besides you didn’t travel abroad to be a crusader, you travelled to study. By all means stand up for yourself, file a report to the authorities, stand up for someone who can’t do that for himself but bear in mind, that you are not in your country and if racism has persisted over hundreds of years, it would definitely take a while before it is completely eradicated. 

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