I am deeply, deeply Midwestern. I often forget how much of an Ohioan I am until, of course, I leave Ohio. Then, wherever I go, it becomes painfully obvious that I am, indeed, from the Midwest, the Rust Belt, the Corn Belt. Not everyone knows what this implies, but as with any stereotype, the word comes with a myriad of associated traits. UrbanDictionary says that Midwesterners are: considered a different breed. the good: they're nice outgoing people with morals. the bad: they're nice outgoing…

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Once again, my university makes a splash in the Asian blogosphere and is highlighted in the metropolitan newspaper for having overtly racist students. Angry Asian Man, Colorlines, and the Columbus Dispatch all covered a new tumblr called OSU Haters, which highlights outrageous tweets by students of my beloved place of higher education, The Ohio State University, some of them by the afore mentioned OSU Asian twitter account. It seems that my first post about racial encounters in social media was only…

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We all know when someone says something about race that just isn’t quite right. When you feel a twinge of repulsion, a flick of alarm, a feeling of disgruntlement. When you are not quite sure whether to be offended or not, or can’t decide if you should call that someone out, or what exactly you should say in response. This is what we call a “microaggression.” It is commonly defined as “brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional,…

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