Karisma Vang helps promote cultural awareness

Racial bullying is one of the most common types of bullying in schools nationwide. Senior Karisma Vang has been one of the victims of racial and cultural bullying throughout her life and she did not really feel like she fit in until she joined culture awareness club.

Vang is now the president of the school’s cultural awareness club (SPCA). She first heard of the club when she was a freshman though one of her friends, Justin, who was a senior at the time. When she heard of the club she thought it was a great fit for her, somewhere where she could feel comfortable with her race and her culture.

The club focuses on sending a message to the student body about how important cultural awareness is in society today. They like to embrace their differences, while also talking about the importance of racial equality. She talked about some of the goals and activities they do at their meetings.

Vang said, “We like to do activities that involve bullying because I guess, people with different ethnicities have been bullied in the past by people that say comments like ‘hey where is your rice’ and people that say ‘ew you have Asian eyes.'”

SPCA also focuses on attracting students that are interested in knowing more about different cultures at their school, and also having the opportunity to share their own culture with others. Vang explains that people that are passionate about the topic make the club possible and going.

Vang said, “When we first started, it was just friends or people of the same race as me, for me it was a club where I was more comfortable and wasn’t as stressed out as I am in every class, I think that since we are opening up the community up in this club, we are attracting more people who want to know more about it.”

Vang explained that in the past she has had people say racist comments to her by students she thought were her friends. She explained that at first she did not take those comments personally, that it was more like a joke to her because the other people would always laugh afterwards. Which made her feel like they were not serious.

Vang said, “He used to be very rude to me and I guess I didn’t see it that way I just thought of it as a joke because he would always laugh at it, but when I look back, it was really just bullying,” she added, “It really angers me that I couldn’t see it when I was younger, but know I don’t really give a -”.

Though Vang never really discussed any of these comments with anyone but her friends, she was always conscious of them and the harm they were causing.

The importance of cultural awareness may not  be a priority in many different school districts throughout the country, but in other schools they do take it seriously and as a community try to enforce it so that students and staff can be more aware of the cultures that surrounds them. As far as for the Stillwater district goes, Vang had some comments of her own.

Regarding Stillwater Vang said, “I don’t want to say anything negative, but I think the Stillwater district need to be more diverse. I guess, the Stillwater district is very Caucasian populated and it’s like, other schools refer to Stillwater as the rich white kids school, clearly it’s all white kids, but there is other diversities in here and I wish that we could bring the diverse background so that say could go away.”

“Join SPCA, it’s great.” Vang added.