Practicing Awareness of Microagressions

Robin C. Miller                                                                                              EDUC 6164

Blog Week 4

            This week we are asked to identify a microaggression that we either recently witnessed or were a target of. I have witnessed the all three racial microaggressions, the microassault, microinsult, and microinvalidation. I witnessed a woman who seemed very frustrated and upset ordering Chinese food at a Chinese food take out restaurant in my neighborhood. The woman behind the counter who spoke very little English did not understand the woman’s order and asked her to repeat it. The woman became very hostile and agitated and began fussing and using profanity. The woman behind the counter apologized but the very irritated woman didn't want an apology and called the woman a, “stupid chink.” This is a form of microassault.

            The woman continued on her rampage with the lady behind the counter saying, “this is America you need to speak English or you need to leave. That’s what’s wrong with society today, we let you chinks in and you take over everything but can’t understand a lick of English.” This is a form of both microinsult and microinvalidation. I consider this a form of microinsult, because the upset woman made the lady behind the counter feel as if her native language is inferior to the English language. I believe that it is also a form of microinvalidation because she made the woman also feel as if her existence in American was meaningless because she did not speak the native tongue of the Americans.

This experience is a form of cultural racism, “cultural racism can be defined as societal beliefs and customs that promote the assumption that the products of a given culture, including the language and traditions of that culture are superior to those of other cultures”( American Psychological Association., 2013). The woman at the store felt as if her cultural language was more superior than hers because of the society she lives in. America is diverse for a reason; it isn't called the melting pot because we are all the same. Natives to our land see it as an opportunity for freedom and new life. Americans need to be open and begin respecting the variety of cultures in which makes our homeland unique.

References

American Psychological Association. (2013). Cultural racism: Conceptualization. Retrieved from                         http://www.health-psych.org/Cultural.cfm

Laureate Education, Inc. (2011). "microaggressions in everyday life" [Course Media]. Available from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=/webapps/blackboard/execute/launcher?type=Course&id=_3397499_1&url=