By Tim, 8 Asians
This week, Buzzfeed ran an article on a photography project from the photographer Kiyun, where she asked students from the Fordham University Lincoln Center Campus to “write down an instance of racial microagression they have faced.” If you haven’t heard the term “Microagressions”, it is a term used by Columbia professor Derald Sue, referring to “brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults towards people of color”.
No, where are you really from? (nortonism.tumblr.com)
Buzzfeed displayed 21 of the photos taken by Kiyun, each with a person holding the relevant phrase or discussion that they had faced. Phrases ranged from “No, where are you REALLY FROM?” held by an Asian woman to “So, like what are you?” held by a man of ambiguous racial background. Many of these hit home for me as ones I’ve also heard, and some were outside enough of my own experience that they did make me stop and think about what it would have been like to be that person and hear those words.
Today, I’m mostly sheltered in my comfortable life, living in a California liberal enclave, surrounded by my loving friends and family, and mostly just having a regular day-to-day routine. But just this last month I could have been in Kiyun’s project holding a card of my own.
Read the full article by Tim from 8 Asians.
