As a cis-gendered heteronormative white male, I spend most of my time insanely jealous of those blessed with a victim status. I have longed to experience a microaggression, to join the serried ranks of the offended, and to be able to proclaim my victimhood from the rooftops.
At long last, it has happened, and I can.
I have a lot to learn about microaggressions, admittedly. For example, I only realised in retrospect that I had been the victim of not just one, but a series of assaults. A proper victim would have reacted at the time, tried to make the microaggressor feel small and, if I were really cooking on gas, reported she/him to the relevant authority and insisted they be suspended pending an investigation. But all in good time.
I have just been to China and the microaggressions came so thick and fast that, once I had opened the floodgates in my mind, I realised that it is a wonder I have survived; I may need counselling. The examples follow, and I must issue a trigger warning here to anyone of an offency disposition – they are quite brutal. If you have ever experienced any of these and it brings back memories then, forgive me and seek help.
Where do you come from? This is where it all started. I mean why would anyone ask such a thing? Just because I am six feet tall in a town where few are over five feet, have pale skin, white hair and a generally Caucasian appearance is no excuse.
Do you speak Chinese? Why should I? It’s a load of incomprehensible squiggles and unpronounceable sounds…I told them.
What time is it in your country? OK, I had just fallen asleep in the middle of a conversation and fallen face first into my fried rice – no need to point it out love!
You’re so tall! Admittedly I did not notice who said this to me before I looked down and saw a face looking up at me. It is now sinking in that this microaggression verges on discrimination. I have been reading up on this and, as me being tall is an immutable characteristic, I have suffered one of the worst insults possible. I even told the little fella that I ‘identified as small’, but he continued to insist I was tall. That is a trait of the microaggressor, apparently, they double down on their insults.
Do you like Chinese food? This is a classic. It is meant to ‘other’ you, flush you out and make you a laughing stock if you do not like what they like.
Would you like western food? Just because I am western and spent the whole night on the porcelain ejecting last night’s sweet and sour from both ends, they now want to keep me ‘in my lane’. It is a form of racial stereotyping, nothing more and nothing less.
You are so good with chopsticks! Really? You think I am stupid because I am not Chinese? I think I actually felt a frisson of having been micro-insulted at the time. Next time, I’ll be sure to fire off.
Would you like to use a knife and fork? What happened to me being ‘so good with chopsticks’?
You didn’t get lost? This trope followed every excursion I made on my own to the shops or for a walk. This is up there with the chopsticks!
You drink so much! Initially, I took this as a compliment, but it was only on reflection I realised that I had been insulted, badly. I mean, what gave it away? Was it my tenth bottle of Tsing Tao?
So, there you have it, one microaggression after another. It proves that even someone like me, a winner of life’s lottery sitting at the top of the food chain can be a victim. If this is the way the world is going, I want to get off.
Roger Watson is a retired academic, editor and writer. He is a columnist with Unity News Network and writes regularly for a range of conservative journals including The Salisbury Review and The European Conservative. He has travelled and worked extensively in the Far East and the Middle East. He lives in Kingston upon Hull, UK.
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