Racism in Berkeley

At times, I find racism prevalent in the Berkeley area. I believe it is still an issue to be raised and be resolved in Berkeley, but I admit that creating a racist-free campus is a huge challenge. One day, I bought myself a panini from the Melt and was walking towards my room in unit 2. As I was walking by Bank of America, a homeless calls me "Hey could I have a bite?", but I ignored and just walked on. Then, the homeless calls me once again stating "Alright, Chinese." This is the most obvious moment when I got to face racism in California so far, but it tells a lot. First of all, I'm Korean, not Chinese. I find it offensive to justify every Asian looking people as Chinese. It shows that blatant racism is still prevalent in the Berkeley area that the educated population failed to address. However, more instances of subtle racism do exist. People are full of racist jokes when they chat, many people find it very interesting that I, as an Asian, is not majoring in any STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) fields or econ/stat/business related fields. People still hold prejudices based upon skin color and fail to assess their inner thoughts. 

I believe that the educated population of Berkeley should step up and try to create a new social norm free of prejudices and race, so that people do not judge someone by looking at their skin. We, as Berkeley students, should raise awareness among both the student population and the locals to raise awareness and fight racism.

Here is a link to a very interesting and much related article on the Daily Californian that all should read, http://www.dailycal.org/2013/10/14/racism-berkeley-never-left/

Thanks, Geon Woo Lee