This may be the proof of concept of the master status at play in this scenario. As Irene explained in our first class of the semester, master's status is the first thing people notice in others, which on average is race. The first thing the teacher saw was that the student looked Asian and therefore must be from Asia, and even more, must have or be able to speak with an “Asian” accent. As Evelyn Alsultany explains in her essay “Los Intersticios,” people tend to automatically choose a part of someone's identity to focus on when they first meet them. This is a natural human reaction, but it can be dangerous if people continue to focus on one part of someone else's identity and don't try to understand the complexity of that person's identity. Alsultany explains this phenomenon by incorporating his own personal experience of both Iraqi and Cuban backgrounds. It interestingly shows how being “othered” or identifying with can both be a problem. He explains that “those who otherize me fail to see a shared humanity and those who identify with me fail to see the difference; my Arab or Muslim identity denies my Cuban heritage” (236). This shows how master status can trump the reality of the complexity of