What Are Microaggressions?
Microaggressions can be verbal or nonverbal and are often automatic and unconscious, according to research.
), led to anti-Chinese immigration bans that lasted in some form until 1943.
Koh Sze Kiat / Getty Images
Recognizing Microaggressions Toward AAPI
Microaggressions can take many different forms toward AAPI.
Examples: Wow, you speak English so well!
and “Where are you really from?”
Example: Oh, can you help me with this?
You seem like youre good at math.
Example: I dont see color.
Example: Youll get the job, regardless of your race.
This makes microaggressions occur, even if the person in question does not mean to commit one.
No response is also a perfectly acceptable reaction.
Then, be gentle with yourself and your emotions, as they will be heightened: Self-care iskey.
How to Recognize Microaggressions
A microaggression truly is anything that suggests bias, no matter how implicitly.
If something has made you uncomfortable or other, those feelings are valid and should be recognized as such.
And if youre the one delivering the microaggression?
By naturally displaying empathy and understanding, you canbe a better allyto the community when they experience microaggressions.
A Word From Verywell
Microaggressions happen in many different ways to AAPI and all people of color.
This may include speaking with a mental health care professional to process any feelings that come up.
2022;28(1):S3-S8.
doi:10.1097/PHH.0000000000001411
UCSC.Tool: Recognizing Microaggressions and the Messages They Send.
Williams MT.Causes of Microaggressions.
Lui PP, Quezada L.Associations between microaggression and adjustment outcomes: A meta-analytic and narrative review.Psychological Bulletin.
2019;145(1):45-78. doi:10.1037/bul0000172
