Microaggressions in Everyday Life

Chinese people consist of the majority—Han and other 55 ethnic minorities, such as Hui, also called Muslim Chinese. Han and Hui have different living customs. For example, Hui are forbidden to eat pork while pork is the most common meat consumed by Han. In my high school, there were two dinning rooms: a big one for Han students, and the other small one for Hui students. I had dinner with my friend-Qian, who was Hui, but stayed with me in Han Chinese dinning room on that day. I enjoyed my pork dish, and wanted to share it with her but she refused. Qian explained, “I am Hui people, we do not eat pork.” I did not give up and said, “Come on, I have known you for ages, we are the same, we are all Chinese people. I can not see any differences.” My friend began to keep silent, and I kept persuading her, “just try one slice of the pork, they are really delicious”. However, my friend frowned and said “I can not eat it. The smell of the pork makes me sick”. After hearing her words, I stopped persuading her to eat pork because I did not want to make her uncomfortable. Then we began to talk other topics.

I was unaware that what I committed was a microaggression at that time. Microaggressions are verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional happening in daily life, conveying communicating hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of color (Sue et al., 2007). In this case, I did not see ethnic differences and persuaded my friend to have same food with me, communicating the subtle derogative meaning to my friend. In order to analyze the power issue, the author would like to discuss the status of agent and target first. In China, Hui identify themselves ethnically as Muslim, and most of them are practitioners of Islam (Chuah, 2012). Hui is considered as an ethnic minority, which is the target group, while the author represents as Han—the majority, which is the agent group. Since the distinctions between ethnicity and race are far more from clear-cut, it is more useful to consider ethnic and racial theories of identity formation together rather than as separate parts (Miller & Garran, 2008). So the author considers the ethnicity and race as the same analysis unit. To illustrate easily, an equivalent example given in the United States is color blindness, for example, when a white man says to a black man, “When I look at you, I do not see color. We are the same”. As color blindness tries to deny a person of color’s racial experiences, I committed the same kind of microaggression—microinvalidation, to nullify the experiential reality of an ethnical minority (Sue et al., 2007). When I said “We are the same, we are all Chinese ”, the real message here is “You are as same as me, I am Han— the majority, your culture and eating customs have to assimilate to my eating customs, you should eat pork just like me.” Therefore, though I wanted to share food with Qian, the underlying message was to deny her ethnic experiences with my unconscious majority privilege and power. It is all about power. Agent status denotes power, privilege and the capacity to determine what is “normal” (Miller & Garran, 2008). In this case, only I have the capacity to decide what the normal Chinese food is, and what does “delicious food” mean. In addition, though I was unaware of my privileges, but I was aware of my majority status in China. So the personal belief behind these words is that I was superior to my friend—Qian. It gave me a feeling of proud. On the contrary, Qian’s Muslim customs was nullified, and her feeling toward eating pork was oppressed. What is more, it is interesting that the power can not be reversed between agent and target group. For example, Hui people have never pushed me to try their food no matter they thought their food was delicious or how strongly they wanted to share with me. Because the target group just does not have the power to push or even persuade the agent. Power does not only bring the sense of superiority, but also means the access to resources and then influences a group’s economic position in society (Eriksen, 1996). Just as people of color in the United States do not have the same access to social privileges as white people (Miller & Garran, 2008), so is the status of Hui people in China. Most of Hui people live in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, which is in the Northwestern part of China. Hui people there have less educational resources and job opportunities, and these factors all contribute to diminished economic success of Hui People. Therefore, the economic development of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region is far behind other parts of China. According to National Bureau of Statistics of China, the GDP scale of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region ranked third last in the year of 2012. Another example from daily life may illustrate this point more vividly. Being a civil servant is a dream job for most Chinese students. It is noted that the unspoken rule of civil servant is that being a Communist can work as strength. However, if students are Hui, it is not easy for them to join the Communist Party, for they have religious belief. So Hui are not able to have access to the same job opportunity as Han. What is more, in order to join the ranks of government officials, one has to pass the examination which does not have Islamic contents. Hui people in China are a marginalized group with little influence on political, economical, cultural and social affairs (Chuah, 2012). Besides the power among personal and national level, there is greater power to support these, which is society structure. As Miller and Garran (2008) states, we have durable inequalities not because of the sum of economic and social transactions, but the stability of structures. In the United States, a racial/ethnic hierarchy is with Anglo Saxons at the top, followed by white ethnic groups, then Asian Americans, and finally, African Americans, Native Americans and Mexican Americans. Though Chinese ethnic hierarchy is different from the United States’, it still has its hierarchy, with Han people at the top, followed by other minorities. And the reasons contributing minorities at the bottom of the socioeconomic scale in China are as same as the United States, including Hui People with a history of immigrating from Arab or Persia and conquered by Han people, and having less power and efficacy in their communities (Miller & Garran, 2008).What is more, ethnicity shapes the class position from time to time. Class mobility is blocked further by residential segregation, like Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, they lack the access of good schools, job opportunity and so on. Finally, ethnicity has strongly influenced a group’s socioeconomic position in society (Eriksen, 1996). In conclusion, microagressions happen in everyday life, the formation of microaggessions is influenced by social structure, yet the cumulative effects of microaggressions may help maintain the inequality but stable existing social structure.

After I reflected on this incident and realized I had committed a microaggression, I felt embarrassed. What is more, I found it was not the first time I committed such microaggressions, so I felt guilty as well. In order to avoid committing similar acts in the future, I drew a pie chart to analyze my social identities at first and considered which social identities are my privileges. Then I began to recall my memory of the microaggressions that I committed. After that, I gave myself a chance to stay with the embarrassed and guilty feelings for a while, so that I can have the memory of those feelings, and become more sensitive in the future. In addition, I gave my friend Qian a call to address this incident. I said “Qian, I am sorry that I forced you to eat pork when we were in high school. I did not respect your customs at that time. And I will not do that again”. After my words, Qian laughed and said “Come on, the incident happened ten years ago? I could not remember it at all. But this kind of things happens a lot in my life. It is not a big deal, nobody could force me to eat pork if I did not want to eat”. Then I asked her feeling when this kind of incident happenes, she said “I can understand that your Han people want to share with me if they do not know I am Hui, but if they are aware of that and keep pushing me, that will make me upset and give me a feeling of not being respected. But it is nice for you to be aware of that.” At first during the conversation, I felt awkward since this incident happened ten years ago. At last, I felt relief for at least I had a chance to say sorry. Two months ago, I and other passengers stood in a line waiting for the security check to enter the United States. There were two white men and a black man standing before me. When the two white men received security check, the process went smoothly and quickly. The guard made fun with them, making the atmosphere quite relaxed. The rule there is all the passengers have to unfasten their belts for checking. When the two white men were busy with fastening their belts after security check, the guards helped them put their stuff back into the bags. However, when it was the black man’s turn, it took a longer time to check. What is more, when the black man was fastening his belt, no guards gave him a hand, and rushed to check the next passenger. In my opinion, the guard committed a microaggression to the black man. The message the guards conveyed is “A person of color is presumed to be dangerous”. I felt unfair about this but did not do anything at that time. Because I thought it happened in the security check, the guard has the right to check a person for a longer time, even if I intervene, the guard will give a reasonable explain, like “it is the rule” and thought I was overactive. When I reflected on this incident, I felt helpless, because I do not know what to do in order to help the black people even now. But I will help the black man put his stuff into the bag when he is busy with fastening his belts if I have another chance. Maybe I will try to make fun with him, saying like “oh, you bring everything”, making the atmosphere more friendly.

References
Chuah1, O.A. (2012). The Cultural and Social Interaction between Chinese Muslim Minorities and Chinese Non-Muslim Majority in China: A Sociological Analysis. Asian Social Science, 8 (15), 267-273. doi:10.5539/ass.v8n15p267 or http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ass.v8n15p267
Eriksen, T.H. (1996). Ethnicity, race, class and nation. In J. Hutchinson & A.D. Smith (Eds.), Ethnicity. New York: Oxford University Press.
Miller, J., & Garran, A. M. (2008). Racism in the United States: Implications for the helping Professions. Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks/Cole.
Sue, D. W., Capodilupo, C. M., Torino, G. C., Bucceri, J. M., Holder, A. M. B., Nadal, K. L., & Esquilin, M. (2007). Racial microaggressions in everyday life. American Psychologist, 62(4), 271-286.