Another Day, Another Microaggression

It was a normal Saturday: horrible weather combined with the typical stress versus relaxation warfare occurring in my brain. My life was finally turning for the better because all the stress from March was almost gone, and I survived an eight-day power outage (although this accomplishment would seem a little pretentious to people living in developing nations who lack electricity, clean drinking water, and other common luxuries I take advantage of). Today was the day to celebrate my birthday, which was actually on March 12th but I had too much going on that weekend.

Fast forward to going inside the restaurant, and my family and I are about to face an experience already commonplace for us. As we opened the door, the waitress’s face immediately changed from one that was warm and friendly to one that was cold. We stood there for a few seconds before she decided to acknowledge our presence and ask grumpily, “how many?” We replied accordingly to which she simply rolled her eyes and grabbed the menus. She eventually led us to this booth that was extremely gross—not only was it very dimly lit, but it also had visible crumbs all over it. We immediately asked if we could go to another booth, preferably one by the windows. This infuriated the waitress who spoke into her microphone to another waitress saying loudly, “they want to sit at a table near a window… do we even have any available?” Eventually she led us to a new table and left the three menus there and quickly left.

At first I did not think much about it. What if the waitress was just having a bad day? We all have those days where we do not feel like doing anything. However, this was not the case. My mom was the first to notice. When greeting a white family, she obliged to their every request. She did not even offer the horrible table to them. When we paid the bill and left, an African-American family was just getting seated in which they were offered the deplorable table that we were offered before. It is as if they reserved that set area just to torment anyone of a different race.

This microaggression we faced is only one of many we have faced in our lives. As Dr. Sue said, “microaggressions for people of color are constant, continual, and cumulative. They occur to people of color from the moment of birth to when they die.” The ones that have occurred to me the most are: where are you actually from? Where are you from from? So if you’re Asian, you’re supposed to be good at math right? Why can’t you solve this math problem, you’re Asian? However, there is some sense of hope. These microaggressions are definitely less frequent today than when my parents first came to America. It is a continuous process to change people’s perception to solve these racial issues.