Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

Picture from The Wall Street Journal (Aug. 9, 2020)

     In the summer of 2017, my two sons and I were returning to the US together. We were confused during the New York JFK airport passport, and security transition noticed and decided to seek help from an employee. I asked my questions to the security guard, who African-American woman, and I added that I am still learning English and sometimes have difficulty understanding. The guards made a different facial gesture, then turned to me and said, "You don't know English, so why are you coming here?" said. It was a long question for me, and no needed to answer it. My children and I were able to look at each other and just said okay. Then, without changing her tone, she said something to me with some gestures and turned away without even looking back. When I asked what she said to us, my son said that I felt very distressed. We never talked about that issue again with my children, and frankly, we pretended not to have lived and continued to look for the domestic flight. When I look back now, I think that we are experiencing micro-aggressions. 

    "Micro-aggression is stereotypical, summary, derogatory verbal or behavioral messages conveyed to a target group such as religious and ethnic minorities, people of different races, women, disabled people, LGBTQI individuals during daily interactions. It is an act of humiliation, hostility, and contempt, whether done intentionally or not (Sue, 2010). The employee that I wanted to focus on was maybe exasperated that day. She was exposed to tens, maybe 100s of questions like me, or did not like her job. However, with her answer, she gave us microaggression. This shows that everyone is a potential perpetrator. Sometimes, your therapist or people you don't know at all, anyone from your deary friends, or the people you hate the most can be microaggressive. These attacks were a reaction of a tired employee at a time when she was exhausted at the moment, so it's a minor incident, there may be some who say no exaggeration, but research suggests that the results of these little experiences are not very minor because of its underlying assumptions and implicit messages to the other.

Sue, D. W. (2010). Microaggressions and marginality: Manifestation, dynamics, and impact: John Wiley & Sons.