Hurriyet Daily News
American minority students defy ‘typical American’ cliches in Turkey
By MELISSA J.L. CRAWFORD
African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic-American and Native American students who come to Turkey have had a hard time getting Turks to believe that they're really American – and some have an even harder time trying to blend in.
Alicia Hanks was on the receiving end of curious stares when she first arrived in Turkey nearly a year ago.
“Once I told people I was American, they usually gave me a confused look and asked where my grandparents were from,” Hanks told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review in a recent interview. “They were shocked when I told them my ancestors have always been in America since time immemorial.”
Hanks is a member of the Chippewa Tribe, one of the many Native American groups that first inhabited North America. “It was fascinating how little people [outside of the U.S.] are told about my people,” said Hanks, who studies at Bahçeşehir University.
African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic-American and Native American students who come to Turkey have had a hard time getting Turks to believe that they're really American – and some have an even harder time trying to blend in.
Turkey's multiracial diversity lags far behind that of bigger cosmopolitan hubs, such as New York or London, which have embraced their "melting pot" identities. This lack of physical diversity results in Turks greeting American racial and ethnic minorities with curiosity instead of contempt, marking a stark difference in how the students are treated as minorities in their own country.
“Being a minority in the U.S, especially when you are in college, makes you feel like you have something more to prove, more so than Turkey,” said Giannina Luisi, a Hispanic-American student whose parents are originally from Spain and Uruguay. “Turkish people are more understanding to the notion of being from a different country. There is not as much prejudice like in the U.S.”
Luisi recalled that many of the Turkish people she met were surprised at the diversity of her group of American students.
African-American student Salem Tsegaye recalls receiving stares everywhere she went but did not feel too uncomfortable because of the growing African immigrant community in Istanbul. To Tsegaye “the stares stemmed from curiosity. I never felt discriminated against when I was in Turkey [due to skin color] but unfortunately I cannot say the same for the U.S. – which is pretty disheartening considering I’m an American.”
While in Turkey, Tsegaye studied cultural anthropology for a semester at Boğaziçi University. Traveling to İzmir, Bodrum, Çanakkale, Nevşehir, Kayseri, Trabzon, Doğubeyazit, Van and Kars, she was able to see more places in Turkey than most of her classmates.
“Turks are very kind and students at Boğaziçi were extremely open-minded,” she said. “A strong element of my study abroad experience in Turkey was cultural exchange.”
Difficulties as visible foreigners
Even though many American students of color were able to enjoy the rich culture, food, and history unique to Turkey, they also experienced many difficulties and differences.
African-American student Aquiera Halsey, who studied during the fall at Koç University, said she did not like being stared at and had difficulties making friends with Turkish students. “I stuck out. ... I was seen to my peers as a commodity. People would pick fights with me just because I was an outsider.”
Morgan Hinton, another African-American student who studied at Bahçeşehir University during the fall, felt that the most difficult thing for her was adapting to the structures of male-dominance that she felt were present within a predominantly Muslim society.
“I realized that traditionally Muslim women are expected to be chaste and moral individuals," she said. "For this and other reasons, it’s no surprise that the men in Turkey felt more inclined to approach foreigners. I found that everywhere I went I was viewed as a sexual object. ... I feared for my safety at times."
Promoting knowledge, education between cultures
African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and Native Americans are largely underrepresented among the students who choose to participate in educational study abroad programs. To remedy this lack of opportunity and representation, the Turkish Coalition of America, or TCA, established a scholarship program in 2008 to encourage college students from these groups to study for a summer, semester or year in Turkey and lessen their financial burden.
“The number-one factor is money. It is a scary thing to apply to a study-abroad program not knowing if you are going to be able to afford it, especially when the scholarship decision is not until later,” said former exchange student and TCA scholarship recipient Cesar Sandoval, a Nicaraguan-American.
To strengthen the relationship with these groups, the TCA initially partnered with the United Negro College Fund Special Programs Corporation, or UNCFSP, to bring professors and administrators from educational institutions serving different American racial and ethnic minority groups to Istanbul for 11 days in 2009. They met with a number of universities in Turkey and had the chance to learn about Turkish culture.
Nicholas Bassey, director of UNCFSP’s Institute for International Public Policy, helped to plan the trip to Turkey and has since been able to financially support students studying abroad in Turkey through the fellowship program he directs.
“Institutional relationships, study abroad programs, scholar and cultural events will foster curiosity and intercultural connections,” he said. “Short-term programs are a great and relatively inexpensive option, but longer-term exchange programs will result in deeper relationships.”
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=american-minority-students-defying-8216typical-american8217-stereotypes-in-turkey-2011-03-22
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