power, privilege, and everyday life.
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“I’m probably such a racist, but a black man dressed as Santa is just wrong.”
(via microaggressions)
Teacher:: what do they look like? (referring to a picture of Middle Eastern women in hijabs)
Student:: Terrorists.
Teacher:: I was looking for “religious, traditional, or worried.” But yes, that too. Good, Tyler!
“Yeah, but you’re not that kind of Native.”
This has happened more than once. A person complains about the lazy “Natives” downtown, suggesting they are all a bunch of ‘huffers’ exploiting the system. I respond by pointing out that I’m Metis (I have pale skin).
I patiently waited after class to ask my professor a question. He then began making sexual comments such as that I made him aware of his age because he could never get with me because I was out of his league. I felt uncomfortable so I left, with my question unanswered. I could not believe that my college professor prioritized his inappropriate comment over my question and ultimately the quality of my education, as I am no longer comfortable going to him for questions.
“CAN YOU HEAR ME?”
The “joking” reaction of various friends, coworkers and bosses when I tell them that I’m hearing-impaired and used to have to wear aids. They then tell me “it’s not like it’s a big deal or anything, it’s not like you’re actually deaf”. Makes me feel like my problems don’t matter.
It angers me when people measure my race by the way I talk, dress, and carry myself. It’s as if black women can’t possibly be educated and come from a family with both parents. What sucks the most is that my close friends still say comments like “you’re not really black,” or “but they’re the other kind of black girls.” Can someone please tell me what other black there is?
“All immigrants should go back to their own countries!”
My white American gay classmate to another fellow classmate, who was an immigrant from Poland. It made me, another immigrant, feel shocked because he himself was ridiculed all the time, and I did not expect him to stoop down to the level of his prejudiced, homophobic peers. It made me feel worried, marginalized, unwelcome, nauseous and rejected.
“Whenever black people come to the beach I start saying ‘It got so dark over here’ and they never know what I’m talking about because they’re dumb.”
A prejudiced girl in front of me in line, on the way to our high school graduation ceremony. Three years later she is with a non-white person and they have a baby. It made me feel sick, sad, and worried for her boyfriend and their baby girl.
A meme blog posted a meme saying “If deaf people can’t talk, how do they think?” My sister is deaf. She told one of the moderators about why this was offensive and they took it down, but I read through the notes and was just saddened about how people were like “I always wondered that.” It makes me very upset.
“I think black girls with short hair are ugly.”
My ex after I told him that I was going to cut my hair to go natural.
It Girl, a game on Facebook, requires that the players get a virtual boyfriend to get certain bonuses. They don’t realize that some girls don’t fit into this heteronormative mold.
“She’s SO Bipolar, haha!”
Comments I usually hear regarding women who seem to have rapid mood changes. (usually made about women, but it’s been made about men, too)
1. Can’t people have legit reasons for being happy one minute and being angry the next?
2. Totally misses the fact that Bipolar people actually have a medical condition.
Makes me feel like I’ve got a fake illness. I’ve had Bipolar I for over 10 years. It’s not something to pretend to have, joke about, or think is funny. Honestly it’s a pain in the butt.
-white, Muslim, 25ish trans-man with Bipolar I
Old woman:: “Schools shouldn’t offer free lunches to kids, since that means their parents just take advantage, and don’t bother trying to find jobs to support their kids.”
Me:: “So you think we should allow kids to starve?!”
Woman’s husband:: “You see [myname], if you give them handouts, these people don’t work. When I got out of high school, if you wanted to eat, you had to find a job. Nobody has any work ethic anymore.”
At a party. Made me feel like I was talking to a compassion-less brick wall.
“You’ve been married for two weeks! When are you changing your facebook name to Mrs. [Husband’s name]?? People are going to think you’re a feminist.”
My best friend in a public facebook post. I’m not going to change my name, and my husband encouraged me in that decision. And by the way, I am a feminist. Made me feel unimportant, and not my own person.
At the office. Three Jamaican men with dreadlocks are in a meeting in a conference room. The "comedian" white coworker walks by and sticks his head in::
COMEDIAN:: What are you guys, some kind of a club?
ATTENDEE:: Yeah, that's it, we're a club.
(everyone else rolls their eyes)