It’s been an amazing experience interning in Prague for the past two months but if I’m being completely honest, there were times when being an outsider in the Czech Republic was difficult for me and I found myself worn down, exhausted, and homesick. I don’t have a very thick skin, and I still bristle every time someone stares at me, I still get angry when … Continue reading Keep Fighting the Good Fight

Our time in Prague has really flown by after seven weeks of never having a normal day. I’ve experienced things in the past two months that I hadn’t after living in America for twenty years, like how it feels to be stared at because of my ethnicity, or because we’re smiling too happily (because “Czech smiles” are a thing apparently). When I first applied for … Continue reading What’s Your Story?

On Tuesday and Wednesday we took a field trip to Bohumín and Ostrava to visit various NGOs and discuss their work, and one of the most memorable parts of the trip was when Kumar Vishwanathan from The Life Together (Vzájemné soužití) gave us a tour of the neighborhood. We visited an integrated community where Romas and non-Romas live together in harmony, the only living arrangement … Continue reading Love Thy Neighbor

My parents raised me in a Buddhist household, teaching me that no one life was worth more than another and that everyone is deserving of compassion. I was taught to be grateful for what I had and to use my privilege to help others in need. I spent my childhood squatting on the sidewalk on rainy days, relocating worms so they wouldn’t get stepped on, … Continue reading We’re All In This Together

America is known for being a “melting pot,” an ominous metaphor suggesting that the assimilation of immigrants into the existing mainstream society is more important than the presence of multiculturalism and tolerance. Our history has many examples of immigrants changing their last names to hide a heritage that would have subjected them to discrimination, with studies showing that immigrants who changed their names earned up … Continue reading Freedom is not Enough

From my parents, I learned to be soft-spoken and to do what I was told in order to be “ladylike.” From my peers, I learned that to get any grade but an ‘A’ was to be an “Asian Failure.” From the media, I learned that to be beautiful was to be white, and that Asians will never be anything more than the nerdy sidekick. From … Continue reading You Can Go Your Own Way

Adjusting to life in Prague has been quite the adventure. We’ve learned Czech greetings, gotten lost, wandered the city looking for coffee shops, visited countless museums and national landmarks, and a bird pooped on me while I was sitting under a tree. After a busy week of orientation and figuring out public transportation (and washing bird poop out of my sweater), I was excited to … Continue reading You Can’t Sit with Us

As we entered the Roma Cultural Museum in Brno on Wednesday, I was curious as to why the Romani, of all nationalities, was the most discriminated group in not just one country, but across all of Europe. I wandered through the exhibits detailing the Romani’s origin and migration patterns, and learned that they were ostracized starting as early as the 15th century because of their … Continue reading Discrimination and Resistance