It’s The Little (Racist) Things That Hurt | By Lynelle Tham Hor Yan
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| Illustration by Annette & Jodi. |
We have all been part of the Malaysian community for 64 years and counting. Anyone would think by now we have learnt how to socialise with one another. Yet it turns out some of the things we do or say in our daily lives are racially charged. Most of us aren’t even aware of it.
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| Photo by Thilipen Rave Kumar from Pexels. |
These are called microaggressions. They relate to a person’s membership to a group that’s discriminated against or subject to stereotypes. The problem is, not many know what could be microaggressions because they can be passed as jokes, questions, comments and mindless actions. Seeing as Malaysia will always be a cultural salad bowl, it is worth understanding what they are.
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| Photo mentatdgt from Pexels. |
Here are some Malaysian sayings and doings that are actually racial microaggressions:
#1 You naughty lah, later that Apunene will catch you!
Today, I wince whenever some parent throws this line at their crying, misbehaving 6-year-old in shopping malls. It is bad enough to specifically use the derogatory term Apunene that refers to Indian men, but to constantly portray a particular race as this scary bogeyman is completely unacceptable.No matter how parents justify this as a discipline method, it can leave lasting negative impacts on children as they can assign positive and negative attributes to a certain race. Children can easily act upon such knowledge and continue to do so throughout the rest of their lives. Meaning to say, the fear they have against these people as a child could turn into explicit racial discrimination during adulthood. When this happens, it will be difficult to eradicate the damage done.
#2 Eh, it's so dark I can’t even see you!
Some people see this as friendly banter among good pals when the room lights are turned down in the presence of darker-skinned friends. However, being friends doesn’t mean you can make fun of someone’s complexion.
This is colourism disguised as a distasteful joke. It means to say that dark skin is a shortcoming, that lighter skin is the preferred and privileged, and that the victim of such joke can only blame their skin colour for the situation. Labelling dark skin as a disadvantage simply devalues and dehumanises someone’s identity.
#3 Clutching your belongings when someone of a different race walks by you.
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| Photo by Free-Photos from Pixabay. |
I myself as well as some of my female friends are guilty of doing this before. We become wary at the sight of a man of a different race walking towards us. Suddenly we are walking faster or holding our purses closer to our bodies. There is an irrational fear that we are about to get robbed, which makes this ‘defensive mechanism’ so offensive.
Different women may do this for different reasons and under different circumstances, but they all imply the same thing—that the man is a threat. From a racial context, it shows that one holds a stereotype that classifies people of a certain race as criminals. These perceptions are what result in racial profiling, putting people in dangerous situations as seen in the events leading up to George Floyd’s unlawful death.
#4 You sound so articulate for a [specific race].
While this remark may seem like a compliment, it assumes that people of a certain race are not informed. Therefore, they were not expected to have the capacity to engage in articulate speech. The ‘compliment’ was given out of surprise because they didn’t fit the common stereotype society has about them.
The word ‘articulate’ is supposed to be a positive adjective, but it now carries harmful connotations when applied to groups where racist stereotypes suggest those individuals are typically less eloquent. This so-called compliment could smother the recipient’s confidence towards their communication skills.
It All Adds Up to Bigger Problems
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| Photo by Luke Zhang on Unsplash. |
Research has shown that recipients of microaggressions can experience ongoing psychological distress such as depression, self-doubt, frustration and isolation. Repeatedly dealing with a hostile environment stresses out recipients as they are forced to use substantial mental energy in figuring out how to respond to the situation.
“The experience of having to question whether something happened to you because of your race or constantly being on edge because your environment is hostile can often leave people feeling invisible, silenced, angry, and resentful,” —Dr Joy Bradford in Understanding Racial Microaggression and Its Effect on Mental Health
Recipients may also dismiss the event for being oversensitive to the encounter. They could even feel pressured to “represent’ their group or to suppress their own cultural expression and act like the majority instead.
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| Photo by Jessica Felicio on Unsplash. |
Old Habits Die Hard, But They Do Die Eventually
The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 21 March as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. This day calls for us to end all forms of racial discrimination, including microaggresions. Even if they are barely noticeable, we shouldn’t normalise racism in our daily language and interactions.
So, make an effort to think before you speak, be mindful of your own biases and fears, and drop the defensiveness when someone corrects you.
Above all, ask yourselves: how would you feel if somebody said something so discreetly racist against you?
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