How should I respond to race-based exclusion in my lab?

The problem Dear Nature, I am an early-career researcher of Asian heritage working in an engineering research group in western Europe. Some laboratory members who grew up in Western Europe, including ones in senior positions, seem to have higher expectations of me and my Asian colleagues than they have of others. We’re expected to perform better academically and we have to follow strict rules to receive the same level of respect as other team members. The general sense is that we should clean the lab more, and achieve more, than others. International lab members are routinely referred to as “a problem”. For instance, when I make a mistake, it’s common to hear someone say that people from my country “don’t understand the rules”. I find that occasional comments such as these have now become normalized. And the people making these comments don’t seem to see the problem. More subtly, informal lab communication, chitchat and support tend to be conducted in the local language, rather than in English, which makes it difficult for international researchers to participate in conversations and access information. I feel separated and distant from those on the team who speak the local language. This has been happening for years; it’s not a few isolated incidents. Inclusion policies exist at the university, but in practice, they are not always followed. Unequal treatment and race-based comments feel like needles. …