Dialogue: Bigoted students a waste of their university space

By MICHAEL STEVENS*

Asian bashing seems to have come back into fashion, but in a setting supposedly dedicated to tolerance and serious thought - the University of Auckland.

Two recent letters to the Herald have complained about Asian students and their behaviour. One thought their driving and parking was terrible and complained that they drove late-model cars.

How dare the Asian students have nice cars. Did they get them by dishonest means or maybe by working too hard? Probably by doing an 80-hour week instead of the good old Kiwi 40 hours. And they probably have other nasty habits like thrift and saving that give them unfair advantages and allow them to buy these late-model cars.

This sounds like nothing more than pure envy in its ugliest form. It is unbecoming to anyone and says more about the complainer than the target.

Another letter claimed that Asian students were loud, dirty and rude. Just imagine if someone said the same thing about Maori students.

I don't actually think there is such a thing as "Asian students." There are students from Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, China and Japan. There are students of Asian descent whose families have been here for generations. How do these letter-writers tell them apart? Or is there no need to in their mind?

But they are not all the same. They often come from totally different cultures, religions and political systems. A Thai Buddhist, an Indonesian Muslim and an evangelical Christian from Korea do not have much in common. To lump them all together is lazy, sloppy thinking.

As a student, I know the carparking is terrible around campus. I have seen students of all nations waiting for carparks on Symonds St and Princes St. I have watched people rush out and wipe away the traffic wardens' chalk mark so they can stay in their park longer. Their behaviour is selfish. It is also widespread.

On my way to campus recently, I also watched an expensively dressed blond woman in a new four-wheel drive run the red lights at the Symonds St-Grafton Rd intersection. Bad driving in Auckland is not a racial characteristic.

I use the library, the study areas, the cafes and the open spaces. I agree with one of the letter writer's complaint about noise and cellphone use. It is very irritating to be trying to study, only to have some stupid and selfish idiot's cellphone start bleeping.

If I can see who it is, I ask them why they think they are so special that they should be allowed to use their cellphones when they know it is forbidden in the library. I have done this to Korean students - and to Maori, American, Pakeha and Japanese students. And to just about every ethnic group you find on campus.

The problem is not with Asian students but with people who don't understand that what they do for pleasure has a consequence for others. Cellphones are ubiquitous but good manners, unfortunately, are not. People do talk, giggle and gossip in the library and other quiet spaces. They shouldn't but they do. It is a real pain. But they are not all just Asian students.

One of the letters also claimed that it was easy to spot where Asian students had been because they left the place filthy. So do most students. In spite of the Green movement, students have no hesitation about dropping cigarette butts, food wrappers or just about anything on the ground. The high-use areas of campus are often filthy. But it is definitely not just Asians who are to blame.

It is easy to target anyone who is different. The number of students coming from Asia has gone up over the past few years, and they look different, they use different languages. Thus they stand out and people notice them more. That also means any fault they commit stands out.

Those same faults committed by a "typical New Zealander" go unnoticed. People start generalising and making comments such as: "All Asian students are dirty, noisy and rude, as well as having too much money."

Those who complain have two main problems. The first is bad manners, and I sympathise with them. People do tend to get more selfish as cities get bigger. Other people are strangers, not members of a community that you depend on and relate to, so why care if what you do annoys them? You aren't going to live with them, so it doesn't matter if you steal their carpark or disturb their study.

The other is more serious and disturbing. It is racism, pure and simple. It is not hard to understand how it arises. It comes from ignorance and fear. New Zealand society looks different from what it did even a decade ago. It has become more diverse. You hear more languages as you walk down the street. You come across people with different cultures and beliefs.

For many this is unsettling, especially if they have not had much to do with foreign cultures. These changes disturb people who once felt confident about how their society worked and where they fitted into it. A typical response is to blame the outsider, and this can have disastrous and morally abhorrent consequences.

I am saddened that people from a university background cannot see this. Traditionally, the university is a place of exploration, of tolerance, learning and growth. The experience now seems to be wasted on some.

* Michael Stevens is a university student.