Microaggressions Hurt Chinese Americans (and Future Chinese Americans)

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Microaggressions. If you don’t already know this word, add it to your vocabulary. It is well documented that anti-Asian assaults, harassment, and hate crimes are on the rise in America. Yet this is only the surface, while you may not have personally experienced any assaults, harassment, or even a hate crime, you likely have experienced microaggressions.

In the popular (but sometimes banned) dystopian novel 1984 by George Orwell there is an effort to limit the words of the language of the people. The purpose of which is to prevent the people from thinking and communicating problems that could lead to changes in government. Social scientists have been known to create new words to identify social phenomenon (much in the way that biologists, chemists, and other scientists might do to name new discoveries), thus facilitating conversation on the topic and leading to deeper thought about it. In Orwell’s 1984, this might be considered a “thoughtcrime”.

Thankfully, we don’t live in a dystopian novel. So, I hope you will use this word to describe your experiences or to confide in people that you trust.

What is a microaggression? Here is a dictionary definition:

mi·cro·ag·gres·sion

/?mīkrō??ɡreSH?n/

noun

plural noun: microaggressions

1.   a statement, action, or incident regarded as an instance of indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination against members of a marginalized group such as a racial or ethnic minority.

"students posed with dry-erase boards documenting their experiences with microaggressions on campus"

o  indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination against members of a marginalized group.

"they are not subject to daily acts of microaggression"

What are some examples of this that Chinese Americans have reported?

“Wow, you speak perfect English!” (From a teacher of an American-Born and raised Chinese American.)

“Stay away!” (Spoken specifically to a Chinese American man at a supermarket with many others also around him during the COVID-19 pandemic.)

“Never come back,” a gas station attendant said to a man of Korean descent. When later confronted by police, the gas station attendant stated, “anyone of Chinese descent was not allowed in the store”.

The use of the phrases “Chinese Virus”, “Kung Flu”, and so on are also examples.

There are often foolish assumptions and errors of judgement related to cognitive bias in the mind of the aggressor. For instance, stereotyping Asians broadly—even going as far as to include Asian Americans as the “cause” of COVID-19, is an error of judgement.

Besides committing this cognitive error psychologists refer to as the ultimate attribution error, there is the total failure to realize that they are far more likely to catch COVID-19 from someone in their own family or social circle. This is especially noticeable when the number of Americans willing to wear a mask in public every day is compared to the number of people in other Asian countries willing to wear a mask in public. Asian countries have seen far lower numbers of infections when compared with the United States. For more about errors of judgement please read my other article on COVID-19.

Additionally, the spread of the disease in the beginning was linked to a geographic location, not to a race or national origin as assistant professor of counseling psychology at Santa Clara University Sherry Wang, Ph.D. states in this American Psychological Association (APA) article.

The present article however, is rather about the everyday microaggressions that you may have been facing in your life. What can you do? What should be done?

·     Stand Together (Realize you are not alone.)

·     Be aware of the common microaggressions against Chinese Americans and think of how you might address them. This article might inspire you with a starting point.

·     Realize that microaggressions are experienced by a variety of social, ethnic, or racial groups and that other marginalized people will likely be prepared to empathize with you about them.

·     Learn about your own bias or fears. What microaggressions might you be guilty of yourself?

·     Review the resources available to you for free from Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC)

o  COVID-19 Resources for Immigrant Workers

o  Stand Against Hatred

·     Contact me to schedule a FREE strategy session to discuss your concerns.

I hope you found this helpful! My gratitude goes to my current, present, and future students for allowing me to ally with them before, during, and (expectantly) after this difficult time of pandemic and crisis.

Thank you for reading! I hope to hear from you soon!