Racial Ethnic Classifications Used By Public Schools: Fill & Download for Free

Q: Is there any Chinese school in Indonesia?A: No, there is not (officially).Private SchoolIndonesian school classification is not using ethnic-based classification as the government. Government hold education as part of nationalistic education and is resulted in ‘same education for all’ principle. Beside, “Chinese school” presence means ethnic discrimination (as Dutch colonial education segregated and differentiated the quality between First Class European School, Second Class East (Asian) Foreign School included Chinese, and Third Class Native School). Thus, there is no “Chinese school” in Indonesia.However in reality, there are some school with significant or majority of Chinese student. These school is popularly known as “Chinese school”. In general, there are several model of the schoolsPrivate School with Christian (or Catholic) EstablishmentThese schools is affiliated to Christian (or Catholic) Education Establishment. These schools, of course, are using Christian (or Catholic) Educational model. These schools have significant (if not majority) Chinese student.Private School with Chinese Association EstablishmentThese schools is affiliated to Chinese Associations. These schools are designed to accommodate Chinese demand. Of course, majority of students (if not all) are Chinese.Private School with Cooperation of Non-National CurriculumThese schools is beside of national curriculum also adopted (or used) non-national curriculum. The non-national curriculum usually based on developed country. These schools was the “international” school before the restriction for the term.These schools are using national curriculum (the exception is international school which only open to the diplomatic corps). There are some reasons can be used to explain the popular establishment of ethnic Chinese school and not other ethnic schoolDistrust between Chinese and Non-ChineseWell, after incidents of Chinese hunting in 1965 (anti-communist campaign) and 1998 (racial and anti-capitalist riot), some Indonesian Chinese hold distrust to the non-Chinese Indonesian. This led into increase establishment of Chinese gated community. School, as Chinese valued the education, is established in that manner.Beside that, there are several group non-Chinese Indonesia who hold distrust to the Chinese. These groups have similar pattern of religious, pseudo-nationalist, anti-Chinese, anti-Communist, anti-Capitalist and anti-Foreign. This group promote idea of distrust to the public and reinforcing the school identity.Educational QualityChinese hold education in high value. As the result, Chinese is not satisfied with general school quality. Thus, Chinese started their school with better facilities than school in general.Religious EducationSome people, including Chinese, valued religious education for their children. Most schools in Indonesia are created to accommodate the majority of society (that is Islam). Thus, national private school (rather than religious school like madrasah as not aimed into clergy) is born in order to give religious education in Christian (or Catholic) at Christian or Catholic -affiliated Private School or in Chinese traditional religion (Buddhism, Confucianism, and so on) at Chinese Association-affiliated Private School.ConnectionMost Chinese (due to many factors) are trader. However, in (South-East) Asia, connection has significant effect in everyday life. This is known as Guanxi or Guanshi (關係, 关系). School, as Chinese valued, is part to create connection in early life.These factors are reinforcing concept of Chinese school in reality. As long as this happen, the Chinese school idea is going on.Public SchoolPublic schools are owned by government and reflect the government policy. The government policy is there is no racial and religion discrimination in school (and no commercialization). In general, most school has little presence of Chinese student.However, significant Chinese presence can be found in urban ‘elite’ secondary public school (sekolah menengah). The factors that influence Chinese to send their children there areQuality of Tertiary Education and Admission ProcessChinese valued education in high position. In tertiary education, public education institution have better rank than the private counterpart as public tertiary education institution secured fund and facilities better than their private counterpart. These public tertiary education institution is publicly known to prefer elite public school in admission process, however this is not a official position as selection criteria never announced to the public.Quality of Urban ‘Elite’ Public Secondary SchoolThe past government policy was increasing school quality (including facilities) using concept of pilot-project school (sekolah percontohan). Most pilot school are located in urban area. However, if government has limited budget, some school is appointed to be a pilot-project school even in urban area. After several years, the project will be followed by other school as project expanded or included into standard. If the school often appointed to be pilot-project, the school will have better facilities or quality as the project mandated.

Desegregation and Affirmative Action are theoretically entirely different policies but they are two different nameplates on the same idea that race is a “problem” that must be “fixed” in a racially anti-discriminating way based on the dubious idea of “proportional representation” that the correct number of any group in any school or career is exactly the same as the population, excluding fields like sports or entertainment that are dominated by minorities.Anything that De Blasio implements is going to have to be consistent with the settlement in San Francisco’s Lowell High School where judges ruled that school districts can NOT use race quotas as a final reason for school assignment. Race policy always says they fight discrimination which means treating people the same regardless of race, then imposes proportional quotas which actually treats people different because of race. That’s the scam they always get away with. The 1983 consent decree that claimed to stop assignment of students by race REQUIRED assignment by race if they did not meet a racial quota. I’ll bet old Henry Der is still defending anti-Chinese quotas.What’s the correct percentage of black nuclear physicists or Google programmers? About 10 percent. You don’t need to know anything else except US census figures. What’s the correct percentage of female attack helicopter pilots, firefighters, javascript programmers at Amazon or brain surgeons or FAA air controllers? Without knowing anything about the actual qualifications of any population, any ivy league educated judge knows it’s always 50 percent.Any “Diversity and Inclusion Officer TM” worth their $150,000 salary and $2M CEO who hires her and fires people like the hapless Google memo guy knows the MOST IMPORTANT JOB OF ANY CORPORATION IS TO PROMOTE DIVERSITY AND SMASH WHITE MALE CISGENDER PRIVILEGE. If you thought business school teaches that the mission of Ford, Amazon FAA or Waste Management was making cars, software, or making sure airplanes don’t crash into each other, or even collecting garbage you are mistaken. This is not how a totalitarian system that puts politics first is supposed to work.Historically few high schools have tried to implement affirmative action. The most prominent case in the 90s was San Franciso’s Lowell high school which was under a “desegregation” consent decree order. In theory desegregation is supposed to ELIMINATE racial segregation. In the beginning, segregation was simply closing off schools entirely to black students, which is obviously wrong. However it evolved to the idea that any schools with TOO MANY of one race was TOO FEW of another race. Black students would get a better education if they had FEWER Chinese classmates. Does anybody believe that for a moment?Henry Der got way too little recognition for being one of the only Asians WORKING AGAINST THE INTERESTS OF CHINESE STUDENTS AND PARENTS. His organization Chinese For Affirmative Action should have been called Chinese For Affirmative Action Against Chinese because they got paid off to justify the quota set up so that no group was more than 50 percent. Since the Chinese in many neighborhoods WERE AT 50 PERCENT OF THE POPULATION. Lowell was a competitive examination school, and knowing how well Chinese do at test scores, especially math, you can imagine that they got way more than 50% of the best scores.Guess how they fixed the “problem” of too many Chinese? The “desegregation” order fixed this by setting a quota. Now you might wonder didn’t the Bakke case make quotas illegal? Well the courts thought so … in colleges, and affirmative action, but this was “desegregation”, not a quota. Yeah right. I swear I don’t think a single Asian American besides myself ever complained that this policy was stupid, evil or both.Gary Orfield, Ph.D. — The Civil Rights Project at U CLA is the most famous proponent of desegregation consent decrees, any liberal on Quora will sing his praises. His books all prove that every school system that is “segregated” by any number of measures has poorer outcomes than affluent white suburban school districts. However it does not follow that desegregation therefore must be the obvious fix without any evidence that would or ever did work. Who benefits? People like Henry Der whose salary was paid by the court ordered consent decree. Affirmative action really benefits the people who have made a multi million dollar industry about fixing America’s race problems as opposed to the very small number of admission spots at Harvard and Stanford that is only the 0.000001% (I exaggerate but you get the idea it is way less than 1 digit) of the African American population that could possibly benefit from such preferences, the flip side being the 0.001% of Asians who are complaining about it.Orfield and his friends did not and have never proven that any consent decree or throwing any amount of government money at a forcibly “desegregated” school district results in poor minority children that score the same as suburban whites or Asians. The result is always 1) hundreds of millions or billions are poured into some place like Kansas City and 2) test scores for low income minorities are still worse than Whites or Asians and places like Fergeson Missouri still erupt in riots. Seattle blacks lobbied for keeping their children in their communities during desegregation instead of being scattered into places like Ballard where they still make jokes about bad Nordic drivers while in Silicon Valley the black children of East Palo Alto were scattered to the four corners of Santa Clara county with minimal effect on equalizing academic performance compared to white and Asian children of Hewlett Packard or Apple engineers or Stanford professors.What I found in 1990s Seattle area test scores is that blacks in the “terrible segregated” Seattle schools score THE SAME as blacks in mostly white suburbs, and nobody think that’s remarkable. If Seattle schools were so awful, why did Whites (kids of affluent education government and tech workers) in Seattle score HIGHER than in the (Boeing worker) suburbs”. And if Asians are so damn affluent and smart, why did Asians in Seattle [think Chinatown and refugees and Samoan pacific islanders] score WORSE than Seattle whites or suburban Asians? Asian in Renton score as well as whites in Bellevue, Asians in Bellevue scored as well as whites in the next rung up at Mercer Island, etc. I pointed this out in now defunct Asian Week but of course nobody cared. And SAT breakdowns show that Asians score as well as Whites with much higher incomes, who in turn score higher than Blacks with higher incomes, which might be explained that high income blacks are in fields where you can make money without having the same education patterns as whites.These are not things that you can erase with the wave of the Magic Affirmative Action Wand or Vice President Diversity Inclusion (Call 1–800-FIX-RACE Just $2m consent order decree! Order now and you’ll get money for new buildings too!)Some people might wonder how the highest scoring most over-represented group the Asians got that way, but Asian parents have zero interest in adding more Asians to the curriculum, setting race preference goals, hiring more Asians teachers, and making sure Calculus and Physics text books integrate social justice stories and heroes. Of course, Asians are an anomaly as other groups as their experience obviously cannot be expected to lift themselves up by the bootstraps and studying their brains out at the expense of other non-academic pursuits.There is a special place in heaven for people like Der, his website says this is what he is doing now:Senior Program Officer, Four Freedoms FundHenry Der is the son of immigrant parents, and has been associated with Four Freedoms FundTMsince 2006. For more than 22 years, he was the Executive Director of the San Francisco-based, membership-supported Chinese for Affirmative Action, working to promote the civil rights of Asian American and other racial minority groups in employment, education, voting and access to public services. A former Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya, Henry has also served as Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction at the California Department of Education, with oversight responsibilities for programs that address the needs of adult immigrant, at-risk and special needs students. He was appointed by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction to be the State Administrator to bring Emery Unified School District out of fiscal bankruptcy. Active in community and education affairs, Henry has led coalition efforts to promote equal educational opportunities and access for immigrant students at the City College of San Francisco, including the recently-completed construction of the Chinatown/North Beach campus facility serving more than 6,500 adult immigrant students, as well as raising private donations to support education programs at this campus facility. He also currently serves on the University of California President’s Advisory Council on Campus Climate, Culture and Inclusion, as well as the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation Board of Directors.Articles on Lowell case:This left-wing article says Asians should have supported quotas and not right wing racists: On the Wrong Side: Chinese Americans Win Anti-Diversity Settlement and Lose in the End Color Lines May 20, 1999 - By all accounts, San Francisco's Lowell High School is one of the nation's ... The consent decree—the result of a lawsuit filed by the NAACP—allowed no ... for Affirmative Action, argues: “The end of the consent decree may ...February, a small group of Chinese Americans, supported by anti-affirmative action right-wingers, won a settlement in a lawsuit over Lowell’s admissions policies—overturning three decades of integration efforts in San Francisco’s schools. As a result, 50 percent fewer blacks and Latinos will enter Lowell next year—including only a handful of black males in an entering freshman class of over 600. Asian American and other critics call the group’s efforts narrow, selfish, and hypocritical—and bound to inflame racial tensions. “Chinese Americans are being used as a proxy of anti-affirmative action and anti-integration viewpoints, which ultimately increase discrimination against our community,” says Diane Chin of Chinese for Affirmative Action. “This case is a tremendous setback for coalition politics,” says Henry Der, the California State Deputy Superintendent of Education Equity, Access, and Support…. “None of the three plaintiffs ever proved that they were discriminated against. In fact, I don’t believe that they had a case,” says Henry Der.A 1983 federal consent decree, Lowell has also had to ensure integration of its student body. The consent decree—the result of a lawsuit filed by the NAACP—allowed no single ethnic group to constitute more than 45 percent of the student body at neighborhood schools, and 40 percent at magnet schools, and required each San Francisco school to enroll students from at least four of nine defined ethnic/racial groups.“The plan represented our best thinking at the time,” says Albert Cheng, who oversaw integration efforts for the San Francisco Unified School District through the early ‘80s. “We knew that if we did not desegregate Lowell High School, the school would have been dominantly Asian and white.”1992, some Chinese American parents began to argue that the consent decree discriminated against them because it capped Chinese enrollments, thereby forcing them to have higher grades and test scores than whites in order to be admitted to Lowell. Some began to discuss suing the school district. But Asian American civil rights organizations—who could see that Lowell was already over 50 percent ethnic Chinese and 70 percent Asian American—worried that it could be fodder for affirmative action opponents.February, lawyers for the parents and the NAACP unveiled an eleventh-hour settlement which overturned the sixteen-year-old consent decree and ended San Francisco’s use of racial considerations in student assignment. When the settlement was announced, Amy Chang of the Legal Foundation crowed, “The era of racial bean-counting is over.”By 1984, Asian American progressives noticed anti-Asian quotas at many elite universities, including those with strong pro-affirmative action leadership—such as Ira Michael Heyman’s Berkeley, Derek Bok’s Harvard, and Bill Bowen’s Princeton. After white alumni began to complain about increasingly diverse campuses, university leaders seemed to cap Asian admissions at no more than 20 percent of the student body.… At the time of the 1983 consent decree, African American students were the largest ethnic group in the San Francisco school district, and the most racially isolated. Now Chinese Americans are the largest ethnic group, making up a quarter of the district—and over half of Lowell High.San Francisco NAACP v. SAN FRANCISCO UNIF. SCHOOL, 59 F ...San Francisco NAACP v. SAN FRANCISCO UNIF. SCHOOL, 59 F. Supp. 2d 1021 (N.D. Cal. 1999) In 1983, the Court approved a Consent Decree to resolve the NAACP action. ... of Chinese descent of school age who are current residents of San Francisco and ..... behalf of the Coalition to DefendAffirmative Action By Any Means Necessary.In 1978, the San Francisco National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ("NAACP") filed the NAACP action, seeking desegregation of the San Francisco Unified School District ("SFUSD") on behalf of a class of all children of school age who are or may in the future become eligible to attend the public schools of the SFUSD. The suit was brought against the SFUSD, its Board Members, and its Superintendent (collectively the "Local Defendants"), and the California State Board of Education, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the State Department of Education (collectively the "State Defendants").In 1983, the Court approved a Consent Decree to resolve the NAACP action. See San Francisco NAACP v. San Francisco Unified Sch. Dist., 576 F. Supp. 34 (N.D.Cal.1983). Paragraph 13 of the Consent Decree, as amended, sets forth racial and ethnic guidelines for the assignment of *1024 San Francisco schoolchildren to the schools of the SFUSD. Pursuant to paragraph 13, no school may have fewer than four racial/ethnic groups represented in its student body, and no racial/ethnic group may constitute more than forty-five percent of the student enrollment at any regular school, or more than forty percent at any alternative school. Paragraph 12 of the Consent Decree identifies nine racial/ethnic groups for the purpose of defining the racial/ethnic composition of each school: Spanish-surname, Other White, African-American, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, American Indian, and Other Non-White.In 1994, several schoolchildren of Chinese descent filed the Ho action against the State and Local Defendants, alleging that paragraph 13's student assignment plan constitutes race discrimination in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. In January 1995, the Ho plaintiffs filed a first amended complaint adding the NAACP as a defendant.Ninth Circuit affirmed this Court's finding that the assignment of students by race subjects the students to a race-based classification by a state actor. Id. at 862. Such racial classifications are subject to strict scrutiny, and may be used by the government only if necessary to correct the effects of government action of a racist character. Id. at 864 (quoting Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena, 515 U.S. 200, 224, 115 S. Ct. 2097, 132 L. Ed. 2d 158 (1995), and citing Freeman v. Pitts, 503 U.S. 467, 494, 112 S. Ct. 1430, 118 L. Ed. 2d 108 (1992)). The Ninth Circuit found that the burden of justifying the racial classification fell upon the defendants. Id. at 865. It described the issues remaining for trial as follows:As race may permissibly be used by government in the very limited way described, two issues remain for trial: Do vestiges remain of the racism that justified paragraph 13 of the consent decree in 1983? Is paragraph 13 necessary to remove the vestiges if they do remain?Id. at 865.The Ninth Circuit found defendants' evidence to be conclusory. Id. It specifically noted that defendants could not prevail at trial unless they produced more concrete evidence than they submitted in opposition to the Ho plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment. Id. The Ninth Circuit stressed that defendants' evidence must tie the current vestiges of segregation to the discriminating practices and policies that justified the adoption of the Consent Decree in 1983.terms of the settlement are as follows:A. The Consent Decree entered in [the NAACP action] shall be modified to provide (a) that it will terminate no later than December 31, 2002, subject to Court approval; and (b) that any party may move for unitary status prior to that date. The parties anticipate that no later than such time, the state and local governmental defendants will have taken all reasonably practical measures to remedy any vestiges of segregation.B. Pursuant to paragraph 50 of the Consent Decree, the SFUSD and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction shall develop a new student assignment plan consistent with the criteria contained in this agreement. The SFUSD and the State Superintendent shall submit the proposed modifications to the San Francisco NAACP and the Ho plaintiffs for review and comment.C. The parties acknowledge that SFUSD officials have the duty and authority to determine lawful criteria for admission to all schools in the SFUSD. The parties further acknowledge that in setting those criteria, state and federal law provide that district officials may consider many factors, including the desire to promote residential, geographic, economic, racial and ethnic diversity in all SFUSD schools. However, race or ethnicity may not be the primary or predominant consideration in determining such admission criteria. Further, the SFUSD will not assign or admit any student to a particular school, class or program on the basis of the race or ethnicity of that student, except as related to the language needs of the student or otherwise to assure compliance with controlling federal or state law.D. Paragraph 12 of the Consent Decree shall be modified to provide that the SFUSD may request, but not require, that parents and/or students identify themselves by race or ethnicity at the time of actual enrollment.The preliminary injunction shall provide that the SFUSD will not assign or admit any student to a particular school, class or program on the basis of the race or ethnicity of that student, except as related to the language needs of the student or otherwise to assure compliance with controlling federal or state law. The preliminary injunction shall take effect only upon Court approval.Ho by Ho v. San Francisco Unified School Dist., 965 F. Supp. 1316 ...Ho by Ho v. San Francisco Unified School Dist., 965 F. Supp. 1316 (N.D. Cal. 1997)The Consent Decree entered on April 30, 1983, in San Francisco NAACP v. ... because these *1319 schools were "capped out" for students of Chinese descent. ..... purposes in the same manner it would a voluntary affirmative action program.[PDF]Chinese Americans Challenge San Francisco's Desegregation Planhttps://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1050&context...by CM Liu - ‎1998 - ‎Cited by 14 - ‎Related articlesgiven more tailwind to the political maelstrom against affirmative action. The case has ... vancement of Colored People (N.A.A.C.P.), which claimed that the district had promoted .... treatment under the San Francisco consent decree. Brian Ho ...As Courts Flip-Flopped on School Integration, Diversity Has Remained ...https://sfpublicpress.org/.../as-courts-flip-flopped-on-school-integration-diversity-has-...Feb 5, 2015 - San Francisco schools no longer exhibit the level of racial isolation they ... 1978: TheNAACP files a lawsuit seeking resumption of school ... University of California that affirmative action is acceptable in some ... SFUSD, the district agrees to a consent decree barring the use of race in school assignments.Court challenge advances on S.F. school racial caps - SFGatehttps://www.sfgate.com/.../Court-challenge-advances-on-S-F-school-racial-3129604.p...Sep 29, 1995 - he noted that because the consent decree separates Chinese ... 1995-09-29 04:00:00 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- As the wave against affirmative action ... "I'm very disappointed," said Eva Paterson, an NAACP attorney on the ...

Disclaimer: I’m going to reply this by writing a lengthy story of my life that in no way I’m feeling proud of it now, especially when it’s about my childhood years. So I hope this can serve not only as an answer to the question but also to illustrate one of the most important mindset’s transformation processes in my life.Please note that most names here has been changed to protect their owner’s privacy.In the early 1980’s, I grew up in a housing complex neighborhood in South Jakarta where the kids were often thrown insults to the one(s) who they thought were stingy, or cheater, or just looked different than them:“Pelit lo kayak Cina!” (You’re stingy like a Chinese), or“Kayak Cina aja lo, suka nipu!” (You’re just like a Chinese, a swindler!), or“Putih banget sih lu kayak orang Cina…” (You looked so white like a Chinese)…And some other insults still in line to those above.All of those insults and other denigrating and discriminating tones could be said aloud in public and nobody will bat an eyelid.So, all I knew about Chinese Indonesians back then were one-sided projected images such as:They’re stingy.Their skin color’s is whiter than most of us, even to the point where they looked so pale.They talked Indonesian language with funny accent and often mixed with Chinese words.They’re hideous merchants and swindler who will take advantage on us whenever there’s a chance.Many of those merchants and/or store owners still wear traditional Chinese clothing and - for the males - have long kneaded moustaches and beards.In Jakarta, they can be found mostly in and around Glodok (one of the most famous and busiest commercial area in the city).They’re rich. Plenty rich.They were basically aliens to the 6–14 years old me back then.And then I graduated from junior high school. I was strongly against going to the appointed high school nearby and insisted that I want to go to one of the most “elite” state high school in Southern Jakarta. I really wanted to continue my education there even if my grades were just barely enough and if that means I have to take an hour-long bus ride to get there from home.I really had no idea back then, but in retrospect, this was when my transformation process first started.I met Kevin in high school - one of the first Chinese Indonesians that I made friends with - but at that time it didn’t crossed my mind to talk about our differences and similarities and also about Chinese Indonesians in general.Nothing bad happened between me and him in our high school’s years, just some little chats and friendly banters when we happened to meet. We were not particularly close but also not that distant either since we were both often stayed in the student council’s room after school (for different reasons: me, for some siesta routine, while for him, it was for his girlfriend since she was a member of the student council).And then we graduated from high school. Each of us went to different universities: me to the Padjadjaran University in West Java while Kevin went to Trisakti University’s Faculty of Engineering where he later graduated and found job as a supervisor before marrying the same girlfriend he’s been with since high school.As a note, his girlfriend is not a Chinese Indonesian. As far as I can tell, she’s Javanese but we never thought it was strange. Infact we often teased them when they were together in front of us which prompted them to tease us back especially the ones among us who were still single (which practically meant almost all of us back then).There’s still a bit more about him later.Jump forward to 1996 in college, there was a first year’s course that I had to retake. At that time I was already in my third year but, as a guy in his early 20’s, I didn’t really mind to be in the same class as my juniors especially when most of them were girls still fresh out of high school ;)Anyway, as I entered the classroom that day, I couldn’t find an empty seat except one in the second row from the front. On the right side of it, there was this girl: a Chinese Indonesian whose sweet smile caught my eyes. Of course, I still asked her first whether the seat beside her was unoccupied. Lucky me, it was. So I sat down and think about what topics that I can brought forward to catch her attention.Her name was Mei and I was actually pleasantly surprised that she could counter every arguments I made. As the result from that first meeting with her, what was started as a mere attraction to her physical appearance has changed into genuine admiration.In the following few weeks, we went from just knowing each other’s names to became life discussion’s partner. One day, after much deliberation, I finally asked her what she thought about the racist attitude towards Chinese Indonesians and what can we do to change it. It didn’t take her long to answer that racism happened on both sides toward each other. That both sides need to work to solve it together, and that it won’t be easy but it must be done.This was one defining moment in my life where I started to see the need to “build bridges” between “Native Indonesians” and “Chinese Indonesians” to better understand each other and hopefully to eventually drop those attributes and to become just “Indonesians” someday.My relationship with Mei continued and we were still having our discussions once in a while even when we’re not in the same class anymore. All was good until one day in 1997 when the car she rode in with her friends slipped off the road and overturned just outside our campus’ gate.She died in that accident while her friends suffered various scratches and broken bones.I still don’t know how to describe the loss I felt that day. Not only because she was a kind-hearted girl who weren’t picky when choosing friends, but also because I’ve lost a very dear friend that I hoped I can learn much more from her to build those “bridges” that slowly becomes an obsession.And then the anti-Chinese riots happened in 1998 in Jakarta and few other cities. Understandably, most of Chinese Indonesians in my campus were visibly shaken eventhough our campus’ location is more than 150 km away from Jakarta. During the uncertainty regarding the future of Indonesia and the ongoing students’ mass protests in the following months after the riot, various rumors circulated that made all of us worried: Will the same riot happens here in Bandung, the capital of West Java?Thankfully, it didn’t. And for a short while, Bandung served as a sort of safe haven for Chinese Indonesian students.It’s worth to mention that during these turbulent times, we - specifically me and other students who took cameras to the field to record the history - gathered together to form a community where we can share our experiences and knowledge to each other. It eventually evolved into a student’s photography club that facilitated the meeting between me and another Chinese Indonesians - one of whom that really changed me into who I am now.And now it’s about Kevin once more. If my memory serves me right, we met only once or twice when we’re still in college - all unplanned - and I didn’t really have any news about him until one day in the year 2000.September 14th, 2000. That date came as a shock for me and my friends from high school when we learned that Kevin has died. He was one of the victims of a terrorist bombing in the Jakarta Stock Exchange building’s underground parking grounds. He was still a newlywed, and - as I wrote earlier - his wife is also our friend.Another loss. This time with regrets. Mine.Why didn’t I try to talk to him more when we were still in high school? Why did I never think of discussing things that could and should’ve been discussed before? About “building bridges”? About all the discriminations? Was I afraid of hurting his feeling more or talking about things best left unsaid? Was I afraid of his “Chinese-ness”?It’s all in the past now. I know that he was a funny guy that rarely failed to make us laugh in the student council’s room. He was a good friend for all of us there and many of us will still remember him years after his death.It was, perhaps, around the year 2002 when another Chinese Indonesian friend (who is also a photographer like me) finally talked a bit more about himself. We actually have known each other since 1998 but we never discussed anything serious until then.Edward is his name and we almost never saw him with a serious face. A natural born comedian that could turn sarcastic at times, but still very funny. Therefore on one occassion in 2002 I was startled when his expression turned grim and filled with anger during a discussion just between two of us - something that I never saw him like that before.He told me that he felt betrayed by this nation. How, for all his life as far as he can remember, he and his family always tried to blend in with the native Indonesians. He went to public schools, joined the mountain climber’s organization in his high school where he was the only Chinese Indonesian there. And the fact that he’s studying in the state university - not the expensive private colleges that many associated them with wealthy Chinese Indonesians - further served as a proof that he always wanted to blend in.But the 1998 riot changed all that. So many Chinese Indonesians were murdered and the women were abused and raped while their businesses and their livelihoods burned down to the ground. Too many atrocities to mention that even to this day not even the signs of complete closure can be seen - since the “perpetrators” who were caught and tried were only the “small fishes”. He told me that he was one of the lucky few since none of his immediate family were harmed, but still, the terrified eyes of his parents and siblings as they fortified themselves in their house were something that he will never forget.After a brief pause, he added that he’s now fighting his urge to hate native Indonesians and the growing sentiment that it’s useless to try to blend in with them.I couldn’t say anything. No, I’m not that pretentious to say that I could feel his pain but I did felt a sharp pain as if my chest was stabbed when he told me all those above. All I could do was just sat there in silence and listened to him knowing that, by talking to me like this, he was also giving himself one more chance to fight against his own justifiable hatred.And this was the moment when I realized I’ve changed. It was Mei’s words and her death that started to crack my ignorance, Kevin’s death that made me realize how much chance I missed and now it’s Edward’s pain - including his fight against his own hatred to the native Indonesians due to the trauma he’d been through - that finally tore down the walls inside me.It was 15 years ago and now here I am. Always eager to connect and “build bridges” although I must admit I’m still awkward when trying to get my point across to Chinese Indonesians, especially the ones that I recently met. There’s still fear in me that I’ll only make them uncomfortable with this attitude of mine. I know some of my Chinese Indonesian juniors in college might feel that way since they suddenly distanced themselves when I started asking.As a person with journalism as his education background, I’m well aware that they became like that to protect themselves. Some of the Chinese Indonesians that I recently met even went so far to deny that they have Chinese ancestry by saying that they’re from Palembang or Manado instead.This saddens me but I understand. Mei was right, it won’t be easy. And the chains of segregation, social classifications and deliberate discriminations that has been forced on all of us since the Dutch ruled here will not so easy to break at least for a few more generations ahead.The late Gus Dur, the fourth Indonesian president, took a bold first step toward true reconciliation by outlawing the use of words “pribumi” and “non-pribumi” in state departments and official usage. He went further by lifting the prohibition for Chinese Indonesians to practice their own religion, culture and language. He directed this country to recognize Chinese names as their rights, among many other reforms he authorized that the results of those reforms are now already apparent.In purely idealistic view, I want the mindset of many native Indonesians to change and start thinking beyond their “perception of superiority” that is actually “victim mentality” in disguise. This is so they’ll truly accept Chinese Indonesians as a part of themselves - much like the already accepted Arabian Indonesians and Indian Indonesians.Yes, I’m aware that religion also plays a big part in the latter two, but there’s simply no reason to justify the racist attitudes and rejection that are still easily surfaced as can be seen with what happened in Jakarta lately.I know that I’m nowhere near as capable and as respected as Gus Dur. I can only dream of making changes as widespread and as effective like what he has done. But I’m still trying to do whatever I can to achieve my goal to connect and to build as many bridges as I can.With all that has been written above, I should also explain the fears inside many “Native Indonesians” toward “Chinese Indonesians” regardless whether these fears are justified or not. It’s not only the fear of being strangled - economically speaking, but also the fear of a new “colonization” considering the wave of Chinese illegal immigrants that are still coming into this country especially in the last ten years or so.Add those points above with China’s expansionist policy in South and East China Sea, including the recent happening in the seas immediately surrounding Natuna island, where China’s coast guard trespassed the 12 mile territorial sea border to free Chinese fishing boats caught ilegally trawling in Indonesian waters from Indonesian authorities, and those fears easily turned into prejudice or even anger that sees no difference between Chinese Indonesians and China’s Chinese in general.While other fears and prejudices other than those above may still exist, but I think what I’ve written already represent a good portion of all those fears combined. However, the next step that should be taken after identifying and recognizing those fears is finding ways to overcome them, and this is something that’s impossible to do one-sidedly.So here I am, with arms wide open. I want Chinese Indonesians to know that I want to learn about them, their life, their culture, their belief and so on. I want to understand them better, no, I need to understand them better. I won’t deny the atrocities that native Indonesians has done to them in the past. I won’t try to evade the fact that prejudices, discriminations and even hatred still persist toward them.But those are exactly the reasons why I want to get closer to them. To educate myself and other Indonesians who are still ignorant about them. To finally be able to look beyond the race and realize how misguided we were.My motives are clear: I don’t want Indonesia to be destroyed by racial sentiments and prejudices. I want Indonesian school children to learn that many Chinese Indonesians were actively involved in defending this country right from the Indonesian proclamation of independence in 1945. I want them to learn that this is not only about Admiral John Lie, whose name is also given to one of the Indonesian Navy’s corvette in 2014, but also about lesser known heroes like Oei Hok San from Tulung Agung, and Ong Tjin Siong from Comal, Central Java - to name a few.No less important than all that, I also want the Chinese Indonesians to be no longer afraid so they’ll no longer feel the need to hide their ancestry. I want us all to move forward together, hand in hand, to create a better and brighter future for Indonesia. Together.There are so many things I want to learn from, and there are so many questions I want to ask to Chinese Indonesians. How can I start?As an end note, I think it’s appropriate to illustrate the changes of mindset that now reside within me:About being stingy? Everyone can be stingy. Just like many other Arabian Indonesians, Indian Indonesians and Javanese, Sundanese and so on.About being whiter than most? So do many Sundanese, Manadonese and people from Palembang.Funny accent and mixed with their own language? Bataknese also does, as with practically any other ethnics in this archipelago.Hideous and swindling merchants? Regardless of race and ethnicities, they’ll always exist. So find another merchants who are honest and trusted.Whether they still wear traditional dress daily and the men has long moustaches and beards? Uh, hello? What century do you live in?Concentrated in and around Glodok? Well, they still do. But many others don’t.They’re rich? Yes. Many of them. But most other aren’t. Go to the outskirt of Tangerang, for instance, to know that there are also poor Chinese Indonesian farmers.They’re alien? Get to know them better.And so on.