Two weekends ago, I was headed home in the wee hours of the morning after hanging out with friends on campus. Walking to my car in the Bryan lot, I heard a raucous group of people. As I warily approached them, one of the members of the group, a white male, rowdily hailed me. Sort of. “Hey, watch out!” he said to his female companion. “It’s Chinese dude! How’s it going, Chinese dude?”

Taken aback by this rude address, I responded coolly in kind. “What’s up? Keep walking.”

The student seemed confused by my response. “Why would he say that .why would he say something like that?”

I found my car and left.

Hardly a harrowing experience.

However, although at first glance the incident seems like it went rather swimmingly, I was sorely disappointed in my new friend. Sure, he was sensitive enough to recognize my love of fried rice and Jay Chou, and therefore accordingly address me as “Chinese dude!” but I didn’t feel like he got me.

But since a dark parking lot is no place to have a nice pot-luck and roundtable discussion about racial insensitivity, let me break down exactly why I responded so negatively to his obviously well-intentioned overture of friendship.

I am ethnically Vietnamese, not Chinese. There was no way this guy could’ve known his error or differentiated the nuances of these ethnicities, but that’s not really the problem. Apparently to him, all Asians and Asian Americans are suitably “Chinese” enough to all fit under that ill-suited label.

Don’t get me wrong; the Chinese people dominate at gymnastics and kung fu. They make a fine shoe, and who doesn’t absolutely love Jackie Chan?

Unfortunately, I can’t lay claim to that glorious legacy. But hey, we all tend to favor anyway, so why not lump us all into one, bajillion-sized ethnic group?

But wait a second. Why would he even bother mentioning my ethnicity in his drunken attempt at “being diverse?” Well, I guess it’s because Asians are inherently foreign and exotic to him. I wasn’t just that dude, I was specifically that Chinese dude! Confucius say, “When make new friends, be sure to qualify flowering lotus’ identity with racial descriptor!” BWANGGG.

I know I look all Oriental and everything, but I’ve actually lived my entire life here, in this very city. Go figure, right? So he didn’t even need to appeal to my nationalistic pride because I’m already American! Ca-dazzzy, huh?

What’s even crazier is the fact that he didn’t understand why I wouldn’t love him long time after receiving such a warm and well-intentioned greeting.

You have to remember that we Asians are demure and delicate. It’s a shame, but I suppose I’m simply jaded after a youth filled with racial taunting and ridicule.

Although I know this guy meant nothing but the best, there are others who aren’t nearly as kind towards me and people who look like me.

Whether it’s John McCain’s open hatred of the gooks (a swell ethnic slur name that American soldiers game the Vietnamese during the Vietnam War), the loving racial caricature that is MAD tv’s Ms. Swan, or Rosie O’Donnell’s near perfect imitation of the Chinese language, there are people who intend harm to Asian and Asian American people and their identity.

Of course, my new friend has no idea what he’s wrought with just a single, poorly conceived, even more poorly articulated thought.

Make no mistake; I know you’re not like those guys. Unlike McCain, you probably love the gooks. And you probably only resort to ching-chong Chinese when you feel it’s absolutely necessary and appropriate for communicating your Laundromat frustrations.

Forgive me for being rather stern and unforgiving (Chinese, again!), but it’s come to my attention that there have been a slew of these kinds of incidents on campus lately. In the first month of school, it’s been my displeasure to hear several accounts of racial insensitivity on campus. We’re all adults, and this is hardly the thing I’d expect from students pursuing a college education. Is it too na’ve of me to assume better from Guilford students?

And while I can now consider parking-lot-guy a fast friend after relieving this burden of conscience, if there are others out there who feel that they’re having trouble being “understood” or are just plain irritated with how they’ve been treated on campus, I encourage you to make it known.

Whether it’s in The Guilfordian, via a professor or advisor, or simply through conversation with friends, your opinions and concerns are important and should be made apparent to both faculty and the student body.

So thank you, “Chinese dude!” dude, for edifying me and illustrating that even at Guilford, there is always work to be done in addressing issues of race and cultural understanding.