When I applied to this school I didn’t know what race I was.
It sounds absurd, but between “white,” “Asian,” and “other,” I didn’t have any options to identify with as an Afghan student.
This doesn’t just apply to Afghan students, but a majority of other South, West Asian and North African students, or SWANA students.
This means that SWANA students don’t have any accurate statistics reflecting their ethnic backgrounds, as they’re scattered and sorted between other inaccurate labels.
In other words, we’re four steps behind other minority groups, because we do not exist on paper.
There is no way to calculate how many of us are on campus, therefore students with cultural backgrounds ranging from Morocco to Bangladesh are neglected.
SWANA is a term often used interchangeably with MENASA, which stands for Middle Eastern, North African and South Asian.
So why are there two different phrases?
Southwest and West Asian is the same thing as Middle Eastern, but a less problematic variation of the term.
The term Middle Eastern stems from a Eurocentric (specifically an Anglocentric) position and promotes a heavy sense of exoticism and orientalism.
It’s the “West,” “Middle East,” “Near East,” “Far East,” etc, all in juxtaposition to Europe.
Palestinian-American author Edward Said defines orientalism as, “A political vision of reality whose structure promotes the difference between the familiar (Europe, West, ‘us’) and the strange (the Orient, the East, ‘them’).”
The concept is essentially looking at “Easterners” with a patronizing gaze, as if we’re uncivilized, foreign creatures.
Meanwhile, Southwest Asian or West Asian is a term properly addressing the region in reference to what they actually are.
They’re not being referred to as being in relation to another location, but as to what they are; a region in Southwest/Western Asia, instead of “slightly middle east of Europe.”
The name “Middle East” has been excessively tarnished with time, no thanks to Western media and ideologies.
Whether it’s an entire region between two continents being condensed and stereotyped as a singular, dusty, war-torn region in the media, or completely fetishized to cater to Western audiences, the term “Middle East” does more harm than good.
By the end of the day, it’s a lazy term clumping a diverse group of people, completely erasing their identities in order to feed into the white-savior complex.
Healthline defines white-savior complex as, “A term that’s used to describe white people who consider themselves wonderful helpers to Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) — but they “help” for the wrong reasons (and sometimes end up doing more to hurt than help).”
Another great example of the school neglecting the region would be the Halal Shack on our campus.
The restaurant opened in the beginning of April 2022, according to a Facebook post. Ironically enough, the restaurant is supposed to represent cuisines from Islamic nations, but its grand opening was during Ramadan, an Islamic month when Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset for 30 days.
SWANA students are nonexistent in the eyes of the institution, and because of that, our school doesn’t recognize us or our cultures. Although San Jose State hosts Asian events every now and then, they’re mostly catered towards East Asian students, with a token South Asian reference tossed in if we’re lucky.
I didn’t realize how much representation mattered until I attended UC Riverside’s SWANACON, a convention for students identifying within the SWANA demographic, this January.
I never understood true representation and empowerment until I was in a room full of other people who looked just like me.
For once I wasn’t the minority amongst minorities. I didn’t realize how much I needed to see other curly haired, aquiline-nosed women standing on stage, thriving in their careers. That was the first moment in 21 years of my life where I didn’t feel like an outsider.
I felt like it was realistic and actually possible for someone like me to succeed as an Afghan, and not just as an “other” label.
Representation truly matters, and research has proven that it stems deeper than superficial purposes. According to a Nov. 19, 2018 Diverse Magazine article, “Research has shown that having role-models and mentors who share racial/ethnic identities can contribute to an individual’s self-concept of pursuing similar careers. Too often, people from underrepresented racial or ethnic communities hear about the struggles their community faces, rather than their increasing growth and success in this country.”
The article continues, expressing a deeply rooted issue of imposter’s syndrome restricting minorities and serving as additional obstacles in their careers and personal lives.
A Nov. 17, 2022 article from Very Well Mind defines imposter’s syndrome as “the internal psychological experience of feeling like a phony in some area of your life, despite any success that you have achieved in that area.”
That experience was what motivated me to initiate a movement with Jinni Pradhan, the Program Director of the Center for Asian Pacific Islander Student Empowerment (or CAPISE) on our campus.
We’ve been working towards building and establishing a SWANA department, because seeing other minorities thrive in their respective departments served as further inspiration to lead our own movement.
The vision is for the department to serve as a cultural sanctuary, an opportunity for social justice support and as a professional networking opportunity.
Ideally, each recognized student organization would have a representative to serve as a part of the “coalition” on behalf of their clubs.
Additionally, it would serve as a strengthening network for other recognized student organizations as well. A majority of these groups are recently established and/or do not have enough members and exposure. It’d be the only space that these students would have to feel culturally represented, and a large number of them remain at risk for essentially going extinct.
This issue doesn’t only exist on campus.
Northern California used to have Afghan Student Associations scattered all around, but the number has drastically decreased. Today, there are only four; SJSU, University of California Davis, University of California Berkeley, and California State University Sacramento.
Last semester was the first time I’ve felt seen at an event on campus.
We hosted a SWANA Social/Cultural Mixer through the Cesar Chavez Community Action Center, where I work. It's safe to say it was a hit. Students loved it, and even asked for the event to be held annually.
Some of the attendees even expressed how homesick they were, and how they didn’t realize how much they needed to be in an environment that felt culturally familiar to them.
But what they didn’t know was that it was hosted by us SWANA students and not the school.
Unfortunately, if we want any representation as SWANA students, the burden is on us to show our school that we exist and are willing to fight for a space on campus. It’s definitely not a quick and easy process, but a consistent and long term battle is needed for consistent and long term results.
That’s why we urge SWANA students at our school to advocate for their own space on campus by filling out the SWANA Coalition Sign Up form in order to compensate for the lack of statistics and voices. SWANA students can also contact Saugher Nojan, assistant professor of sociology and Asian American Studies, for more information.
