The other day while in the car with a group of friends, I got into a conversation about why it was hard for domestic and international students to integrate on campus. So many of us are a part of organizations dedicated toward making MSU’s already diverse campus more incorporated. As we were trying to define the causes of why the students aren’t able to approach one another, some of the statements that people made ended up coming out a bit offensive.

One of students recounted on an experience where he was trying to hang out with a group of Chinese international students. While they were socializing, the Chinese students would oftentimes begin switching from English to Chinese to describe a really funny joke.

Unfortunately for him, he only knew Japanese. He felt that the students were unintentionally excluding him from the conversation with their language and that they should have spoken more English to include him and other domestic students into their conversations.

Another friend replied with a mutual understanding of that feeling of exclusion, even though she is an international Chinese student. She said that some of the Chinese students she encountered seemed too wealthy for her to interact with. It was hard to become friends with them since she felt they flaunted their wealth.

Imagine after twelve years in school, you decide to delve into another country for higher education.

Sure, your native school taught you that country’s language, but you never practiced it in a scenario where you’d have to use it all of the time.

For many international students, that is very much the case. The constant pressure to speak English can be so great that whenever they meet someone else who also speaks their language, it’s a relief for them to be able to share in something common and intimate as language.

Now imagine, in that moment, someone approaches them and asks them to speak English because they are leaving other people out.

You can probably see what I’m getting at.

In regard to the other comments about the international students flaunting their wealth, there are many domestic students that drive around campus in nice cars to show off their status. Some students have a problem with international students driving a Mercedes or a Porsche.

In a society so ingrained with the idea of white privilege, there seems to be this notion that wealth can’t be something that transcends international borders.

Why is it difficult to approach an international student when they display their wealth, but not a white person who flaunts their wealth? I’m absolutely sure that they were not trying to be prejudiced. After all, what they were describing were observations and their feelings toward them.

However, I feel that the statements they made were in a way contributing to the bigger problem.

Many of us carry biases on others based on only a few experiences. But because we’re sometimes overwhelmed with the amount of information we encounter on a daily basis, we don’t take the precautions to avoid making assumptions.

If we all could just take the time to reevaluate our experiences just a little harder and prevent ourselves from stereotyping, we could all be more prepared to deal with segregation that occurs both on and off campus.

Henry Pan is a chemical engineering sophomore. Reach him at panhenry@msu.edu.