How significant is your racial or ethnic background as part of your identity? How would you describe yourself in regard to being an “American?” Is such a distinction meaningful, offensive, or irrelevant?

These were some of the questions addressed by a group of foreign-born Moravian College faculty members and an administrator at a recent panel discussion. Political Science Professor John Reynolds, who moderated the discussion, explained that its purpose was to explore our tendency to put people in boxes and to understand why we do it in order to get beyond it.

Have you ever felt that you were being unfairly judged or subject to stereotyping? Professor Christina Haddad, who was born in Lebanon, noted that her last name could be Muslim, Christian or Jewish. With a smile, she observed that, inasmuch as she is a progressive feminist, any assumption people might make about her based on her country of origin would be all wrong.

The parents of Liliana Madrid, assistant director of intercultural advancement at Moravian, immigrated to the United States from El Salvador and settled in Los Angeles. When Madrid was a high school senior, she was asked by her calculus teacher why she was applying to college. Reflecting the stereotype about Hispanics, her teacher told her, “You’ll get pregnant and drop out.” Later, she tried to prove people wrong by getting a master’s degree, “an accomplishment not associated with a Latina woman.”

Another question addressed was whether or not panel members were self-conscious about their racial origins or heritage. Assistant Professor Yayoi Kato grew up in Japan and has been in the United States since the 1990s. In Southern California, where she lived for a time, there were so many Asians she didn’t feel different. However, at Hamilton College in upstate New York, the population is 99 percent white. As a result, she was seen as exotic, “like when you see an animal you don’t see often,” she said. Being greeted in Chinese added to her discomfort. In addition, as a Japanese woman she was stereotyped as submissive, obedient, and quiet. This left her conflicted, not wanting to live up to others’ unreasonable expectations.

In contemporary America, valuing diversity gets a great deal of attention, but how does that play out in the lives of those whose national or ethnic origins differ from the majority white communities in which they live? Born in Mexico, Professor Sandra Aguilar-Rodriguez grew up in Los Angeles. In an apartment complex in Bethlehem where she lived for a time as an adult, she was told to go home by a 3-year-old. This, she realized, reflected what the child’s parents were saying.

She is concerned that her two children would suffer discrimination. When she and her husband bought a house, the attitude of people who would be their neighbors was an issue they needed to consider. For her part, Aguilar-Rodriguez feels it’s advantageous to speak more than one language and finds it puzzling that some Americans feel threatened when people speak other languages.

After Faramarz Farbod, a visiting political science instructor at Moravian, was conceived in the United States, his parents returned to Iran where he was born. He spent the next 15 years there and two years in Turkey before returning to the United States, where he chose to stay. He was an undergraduate at Moravian at the time when a group of Americans were being held hostage in Iran. He recalled how students would congregate outside his door in the dorm and sing “America the Beautiful.” Other students taunted him and his brother. Someone threw a rock at his dorm and broke a window. One day, when Farbod and his brother were surrounded by a group of baseball players, they got a chance to explain the reason for the hostage situation. Some students got bored and left. Others stayed and became friends of the two brothers, even offering to protect them.

Professor Akbar Keshodkar, calls himself a Muslim of Indian heritage. He says that the majority creates categories. “When I’m in a Mosque, I’m Muslin,” but, he added, “I’m also a father, husband, professor.”

Born in Columbia, Professor Claudia Mesa has lived in the United States since 1993. For years she was ineligible for citizenship because she was in the United States on a student visa. She wanted to vote and to be a participant in American democracy, so once she began teaching, she initiated the process of becoming an American citizen, which recently concluded. She sees citizenship as a privilege that Americans take for granted. Shortly after becoming a citizen, she received a recording of “This Land Is Your Land,” sung by Woodie Guthrie, from the dean at Moravian. He called her attention to one stanza in particular:

As I went walking I saw a sign there

And on the sign it said “No Trespassing.”

But on the other side it didn’t say nothing,

That side was made for you and me.