When my son was a freshman in high school, he would tell me about situations that had started occurring with the treatment of several students from Asian descent who were attending the school as part of a student exchange program. The school where he attends is multi-culturally diverse. My son continued to tell me that the Asian students would often be laughed at and made fun of by the American students primarily regarding their race. When his English teacher found out about their bad behavior, she decided to do something about it.

The teacher decided to do a classroom project to teach students how to identify and dispell stereotypes. Before the project began, the teacher sent home a note to all parents explaining what she wanted to do. She stated that if a parent did not want his or her child to be apart of the project, then he or she would be allowed to go to the school's library to work on another class project.

At the beginning of the project, which had been designed to encourage the exploration of what it feels like to be in someone else's shoes the student's asked how they would like to be labeled. The teacher decided through majority vote by the student's to be labeled "non-eastern" because America is located in the Western Hemisphere. The teacher then asked the white and Asian student's if they would prefer to be labeled "nonblack," in the same manner by which African Americans and Asian Americans are categorized as "non white."

Through this experiment, the teacher was able to establish dichotomy used in categorizations of racially diverse groups. These striking differences led to a discussion of the social construction or definition of racial categories; students enjoyed the opportunity to research the history and derivation of these definitions. As the students began to investigate, they were amazed to found out so much information that they didn't know had existed about the rich culture and history of Asia. My son stated that after the classroom project was over the student's developed a new found respect and admiration for the Asian student's and some student's indicated that they learned something about themselves that they did not like and had told their teacher they did not want to act in such a manner anymore.