Fight racism, define micro-aggressions and change culture through dialogue

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There is a pandemic affecting our nation that has lasted much longer than COVID-19: racism.

Recently my dad gave me a book called “So You Wanna Talk About Race” because he knew I had questions, and he knew there were no easy answers. Especially about the times when it’s hard to identify what is happening to you.

I spoke with a few peers about their early experiences with microaggressions. Kiana McKnight, another WUNC youth reporter, told me, “One of my teachers asked me if my hair would be a distraction. And I was a little confused.

Sonia Shah added: “There was a white boy in my class, and he told me I was pretty for an Indian girl. I don’t know why he had to add ‘For an Indian’.”

Hamza Adnan said, “A while back in the fourth grade, someone said I was in ISIS or something. There have been a lot of stereotypes about Muslims for that.

There is a word for comments like these: microaggressions.

Think of them as subtle and indirect discrimination. My first experience was in the fourth year. I brought Indian food for lunch and there were a few white kids that were like: Eww, what are you eating?

I remember how I felt at that time hurt, embarrassed, but above all confused. At the time, I didn’t have the vocabulary to express what I heard. I learned the term microaggression later in grade seven, but the comments didn’t stop as my education grew. And they don’t stop when you leave school. My mother works in the health field and explained her experiences with microaggressions.

“I’ve had patients with a rebel flag who don’t really want me to take care of them,” she says. “And (they) will ask, is there anyone else on call? And the answer is,” Well, either I can take care of you or there’s really no one else. here to do it. It’s up to you to decide. “”

My mom was born in India, but she grew up here in the United States in Sterling, Virginia. Unlike me, she didn’t have the terminology for the micro-attacks she suffered when she was younger.

The intent behind such comments is not necessarily racist. And the wildest part is that sometimes people take them as compliments. But they sting and can eventually have a serious impact on a person’s mental health. To cope, my mother compartmentalized the racism she experienced.

Having the language to name a microaggression didn’t change what I experienced, but it gave me the confidence to call them. I wanted other students of color to have the words to describe what was happening to them. I also wanted my white peers to understand the subtle ways in which they can perpetuate racism without realizing it. So, I got involved in a group at my school, Cary Academy, called Dialogue Across Differences Initiative.

Shah is one of the group’s co-leaders. And although she has suffered micro-attacks, she still doesn’t feel able to speak out against them all the time.

Well I would say I don’t have a lot of self-confidence, ”Shah says. “I mean, not a lot of confidence to call everyone. I admit that there are people, that I just don’t have the courage to go to them and correct them.

That is why Shah wishes to explore different topics through dialogue this year. She wants to give our school’s community of color the tools to advocate against injustice.

“I really think some interesting topics that we could explore (are) like women’s rights, race, gender in more depth,” Shah said. “But I really want to try to do dialogues on the different facets of gender equality and gender equity.”

To be honest, I still haven’t finished with the book my dad gave me. But I’m here anyway, talking about race and doing my best to be well informed and better informed about the power of dialogue to fight racism.

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