Part 5 - Microaggressions and gaslighting in today's America

Author

Kat C.
January 05, 2025

Microaggressions and racial gaslighting

Festivals, monuments and the names of institutions: Why our choices matter

Cultural appropriation

"What would America be like if we loved Black people as much as we love Black culture?" ~Amandla Stenberg
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Cultural appropriation is a long-standing tradition in Western white culture. For an overview — pro and con — see Cultural appropriation, a Wikipedia entry. (on a personal note, the con side seems solidly rooted in our equally long-standing privilege. I say this despite the article's reliance on a John McWhorter quote. McWhorter has an extensive history as an apologist for white privilege, with no apparent regard for the Black voices on the other side of racial debates.)

What is 'woke'? — the history of an appropriated concept

Regarding Black hair

Juneteenth

  • Juneteenth 1865-2022: The Pursuit of Economic Equality, a 55-minute video uploaded to YouTube's KHOU 11 channel, Jun. 16, 2022. (This video covers Texas' history of enslavement, the Juneteenth proclamation, and the hurdles faced by Black Texans, continuing to this day. Among the topics covered: "40 acres and a mule," the impact of systemic racism on housing, Black business owners, generational wealth, segregation, and more.)
    NOTE: The video opens with these words: "This program contains powerful and sensitive material. Please be advised." Most of the troubling images and information occur within the first seven minutes.

  • About Juneteenth, by Kat, C., Jun. 23, 2022. This compilation of resources includes links for the following topics:

    • A history of Juneteenth and the alleged end of enslavement in America

    • Keeping the meaning alive

    • White cluelessness and the impact of commercialization — or, watermelon salad? REALLY?

    • How can White people participate in Juneteenth without taking it over and destroying its meaning?

AAVE

Romani culture

Asian culture, especially ahegao

  • We Can't Talk About MSG Without Talking About Racism, by Frankie Huang, Men's Health, Nov. 11, 2021. (A discussion of the history of MSG, “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome," and why the racist myth continues to endure.)

  • How MSG Got A Bad Rap: Flawed Science And Xenophobia, by Anna Maria Barry-Jester, FiveThirtyEight, Jan. 8, 2016. *(This article includes information about the nocebo effect, which is thought to be the more likely culprit.)

  • How purity culture and anti-Asian racism intersect in some white evangelical circles, by Sarah Ngu, NBC News, May 16, 2021. ("The intersection of purity culture and anti-Asian racism is familiar to many Asian American Christian women, who say there’s long been a connection between the two among white, conservative Christians.")
    RELATED: The linked article refers to "Open letter to Evangelical church" from Asian-American Christians. ("Over the past decade, Christian evangelicalism has been the source of repeated and offensive racial stereotyping.... From [vacation bible school] curriculum to youth skits, to general Christian trade books, Asians have been caricatured, mocked, or otherwise treated as foreigners outside the typical accepted realm of white evangelicalism.")

  • Several Anime Conventions Announce New Ban on Attendees Wearing ‘Ahegao’ Clothing, by Spencer Baculi, Bounding Into Comics, Jan. 23, 2020. (According to Media Bias/Fact Check, Bounding Into Comics is a right-wing publication with mixed factuality, so it's not surprising that coverage of this ban is limited to vague explanations. According to the author, the conventions cite "reasons such as 'feedback from staff, attendees, guests, and the industry' and [changes in] the 'social climate' for the ban." In that vein, the author limited counterarguments to vague comparisons with other forms of "sexy" cosplay items. The overt racism of ahegao is not mentioned. Still, the bans are worth noting.)

America's indigenous cultures

Correct terminology is one of the great difficulties of writing about other cultures, mainly because of the continuing debate over the most appropriate word to use. As a practicing journalist, the question could be resolved (albeit inadequately) with a quick look at the AP Style Guide. But that was two decades ago, and in the years since, the matter has only gotten more complicated. So.... For the moment, and for the specific purposes of this section, I’ll be using "indigenous," primarily because it seems most inclusive.

  • While successfully reporting a "whimsical" Thanksgiving picture of a dog in a faux war bonnet, I was reminded yet again of how far we still have to go in order to make people understand why cultural appropriation is wrong. As part of my research for my report, I found the following articles:

    • The Untold Truth Of Native American War Bonnets, by Jean Mendoza, Grunge, updated Jan. 25, 2023. (This well-written, illustrated history includes a discussion of how much it takes to earn the right to wear a war bonnet.)

    • This means war: why the fashion headdress must be stopped, by Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian, Jul. 30, 2014. (Almost a decade after this article was written, "the war" continues. For me, it's most relevant in the ongoing fight to get the Kansas City Chiefs to change their name — or at the very least, to stop using their stupid tomahawk chant. TW: I find the use of the drum particularly egregious and disturbing. I included this video because it is, hands down, the worst example. Yes, it’s seven years old, but there are plenty of more recent “tomahawk chop” videos. )

Regarding 'Two Spirit'

"The term two-spirited was chosen to emphasize our difference in our experiences of multiple, interlocking oppressions as queer Aboriginal people. When non-Aboriginal people decide to 'take up' the term two-spirit, it detracts from its original meaning and diffuses its power as a label of resistance for Aboriginal people. Already there is so much of First Nations culture that has been exploited and appropriated in this country; must our terms of resistance also be targeted for mainstream appropriation and consumption? Two-spirited is a reclaimed term designed by Aboriginals to define our unique cultural context, histories, and legacy. When people do not see the harm in 'sharing' the term, they are missing the point and refusing to recognize that by appropriating the term they will inevitably alter its cultural context." ~Michelle Cameron, "Two-spirited Aboriginal people: Continuing cultural appropriation by non-Aboriginal society," Canadian Women Studies/Les Cahiers de la Femme, Vol. 24, Nos. 2,3.

  • Rethinking Gender and Sexuality: Case Study of the Native American “Two Spirit” People, a detailed exploration by sociologist Dr. Zuleyka Zevallos in her website "Other Sociologist" (Sept. 9, 2013). ("Colonialism dislodged the social status and rights of the Two Spirit people. In trying to find solidarity for social movements in the West, such as LGBTQI politics, academics and activists are unwittingly perpetuating colonialist practices. By misappropriating Native American culture, by not seeking to see their practices within their own cultural context, activists subsume the historical struggles of Native Americans.")
    RELATED: The author links to a 2011 PBS documentary, "Two Spirits." The original YouTube link is broken, and i've been unable to find any other uploads. However, googling "Two Spirits Fred Martinez" will turn up a wealth of information about Martinez, who was 16 at the time of his murder.

  • 5 Things Queer and Questioning Indigenous Folks Should Consider About Claiming Two Spirit Identity, by Mahealani Joy, EveryDay Feminism, Oct. 28, 2015. (In this a nuanced discussion directed at queer and questioning indigenous people, the author adds: "[I]f your only tie to an Indigenous community is a family story about how your great, great, great grandmother was a Cherokee princess, I’m going to need you to do some critical reflection on whether you should claim this identity. If the concept of two spirits residing in one body resonates with you, but you’re not Native, I would encourage you to either do some research or come up with language of your own to describe what that identity means to you instead of appropriating Two Spirit identity.")

  • Exploring Two Spirit Gender: A Journey of Identity and Affirmation, a page of the Toby Barron Therapy website, Jul. 24, 2024. ("While two spirit identities share some similarities with other LGBTQIA identities, such as non-binary or transgender, they are distinct in their cultural and spiritual contexts. Unlike Western terms that primarily focus on sexual orientation or gender identity, the two spirit concept is deeply intertwined with Indigenous worldview and cultural identity. Two spirited folks often navigate a complex intersection of gender, culture, and spirituality. This intersectionality is crucial in understanding their unique experiences and challenges. For instance, while a non-binary person in mainstream culture may focus on breaking away from the gender binary, a two spirit person is often reconnecting with traditional understandings of gender that predate colonial influences.")

  • A Letter to White People Using the Term “Two Spirit”, a page of the White Noise Collective website.

  • On Gender and Two Spirit Identity, also from the White Noise Collective's website. (This list of articles includes a section called "Cultural Appropriation: suggested reading.")

  • Two-spirit, a Wikipedia entry. (This is a detailed, thorough explanation and history of the term "two-spirit.")

  • Native American and Two-Spirit Resource Guide, a PDF offered by the University of Arizona LGBTQ Affairs. (Includes a list of articles, videos, and books)

  • Two-Spirited People Web Resources, a list of 20 publications collected by the Univeristy of Winnipeg.

  • In the articles listed above this subsection, you'll find a wealth of information about what cultural appropriation is, and what makes it so wrong. In those articles — if you listen — the authors themselves will tell you how it feels when a white person appropriates aspects of their various cultures. That information also applies to the use of "Two Spirit" by non-indigenous persons.

Hispanic culture

With regard to other minority groups

See also "Regarding 'Two Spirits," a subsection of "Cultural Appropriation" (above).

Immigrants

  • Truth matters: Remembering the Mariel boatlift, by Kat C., May 14, 2024. (Although this article focuses on the importance of truth in politics, it also addresses anti-immigrant prejudice during the 1980s Mariel boatlift of Cuban refugees. In addition, it exposes the current GOP's use of the boatlift as an excuse to cut immigration.)

Romani culture, history, and issues

  • “I’ve had enough of you othering me”, by Mohamed Amjahid, Zeitgeister, October 2021. (This article touches on the deadly history of the word "Zigeuner" {"g-psy"}, as well as its continued use.)

  • In Search of History: Curse On The Gypsies, The History Channel, 1998, uploaded to the FOLKS AND TALES channel on YouTube. (As so often happens on YouTube, this link has changed at least twice in the four years that I’ve been working on this list, and likewise, this upload is likely to disappear. If this happens before I can fix it, do a quick search for the title. I can almost guarantee you’ll find another upload.)

  • The The Forgotten Victims Of World War II - Europe's Gypsies in World War II, uploaded Nov. 11, 2021, to the I Love Docs channel on YouTube. (Includes a computer-generated transcript.)

  • The impact of anti-Romani bigotry in the U.S. and Europe, an extended status by Kat.

Asian culture and issues

See also: "Ahegao," under "Cultural appropriation."

America's indigenous cultures: their histories and current issues

Regarding my decision to use "indigenous," see above.

  • Indigenous Massacres in the US, a map from The Decolonial Atlas website. ("…it began to come clear to me why so often we do not commemorate the slaughters of indigenous peoples: There are too many sites from too many massacres, and to commemorate them all – even with an action so simple as that of a Catholic who reflexively makes the sign of the cross each time she encounters a cemetery – would afford little time for us to enjoy the comforts and elegancies civilization affords. I would wager every county in the United States has hosted at least one massacre, recorded or forgotten.” ~Derrick Jensen, The Culture of Make Believe.")

  • Colonial America Is a Myth, by Pekka Hämäläinen, Time, Oct. 10, 2022. (A detailed history of indigenous resistance in the U.S.)

  • ‘This is real’: First steps taken to count missing, murdered Yakama women and girls, by Tammy Ayer, Yakima Herald, Sept. 15, 2018. (Justice is in short supply for women of color in America. This particular story of missing and murdered Yakama women is repeated across the country, as law enforcement fails to follow up on missing person reports, not to mention the high percentage of unsolved murder cases. As a fan of true crime stories, I'm struck by the minimal attention given by documentarians to crimes against victims whose skin is not white. Perhaps the most egregious example is the Bloodline Detective series, in which 40-year-old murders are solved through familial DNA; each episode concludes with detectives and prosecutors patting themselves on the back for a job well done. But I have yet to hear a case in which the victims and survivors are people of color. Thousands of man hours are devoted to solving these cases, not to mention the money involved in identifying perpetrators. Why aren't some of these resources being devoted to POC, as well?)
    Related: A newspaper shines a light on missing Indigenous women with the help of technology, by Susanna Ray, microsoft.com Mar. 24, 2022.

  • Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls, by Annita Lucchesi PhD-c and Abigail Echo-Hawk MA; Urban Indian Health Institute, a division of the Seattle Indian Health Board; 2021. ("A snapshot of data from 71 urban cities in the United States")
    Related: FBI releases list of 192 missing Indigenous persons in New Mexico, Navajo Nation, Native News Online, Oct. 15, 2022.

  • American Experience's 2009 series, "We Shall Remain" starts here on archive.org. (From the Wikipedia entry: ("We Shall Remain ... is a five-part, 6-hour documentary series about the history of Native Americans in the United States, from the 17th century into the 20th century." For episode descriptions, see the PBS web page.)

  • Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World, Rezolution Pictures, (If you can find a streaming version of Rumble, watch it — as I did — because you love music. But don't stop there. Let it draw you in, as it explores the extent and depth of American racism.)
    Segments of this feature-length documentary are available on YouTube.
    For related articles, see the Rumble home page, on PBS.

  • Report: Native Hawaiians hit by missing and murdered scourge, by Jennifer Sinco Kelleher, Yahoo! News, Dec. 14, 2022. (The report "vindicates and validates what Native Hawaiians, sex trafficking and gender-based violence service providers and feminist activists have been saying all along and have been told that they were exaggerating or manipulating facts or just simply providing an anecdote,” said Khara Jabola-Carolus, executive director of the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women.)

Transgender issues

  • Trans Day of Vanishing, uploaded Apr. 30, 2025 to the Lily Alexandre channel on YouTube. (This is a beautifully filmed, evocative reflection on trans existence amid today's conservative backlash. Alexandre builds her essay around 75 Shots Cinema Feast, "a streaming platform for marginalized LGBTQ+ people of colour.")

  • The trans population is far smaller than the right would have you believe, uploaded Jan. 8, 2025 to the MSNBC channel on YouTube. ("There are far, far fewer transgender Americans than the far right wants you to think there are. They want you to think the numbers are inflated, because they need the fuel of real, actionable human beings to be fed into the engine of their cynical culture wars." For links to the articles under discussion, see related links.)
    RELATED: 'A very, very small number' of teens receive gender-affirming care, study finds, by Selena Simmons-Duffin, NPR, Jan. 6, 2025. (Includes a two-minute audio.) 

    RELATED: ​​From millionaires to Muslims, small subgroups of the population seem much larger to many Americans, by Taylor Orth, YouGov, Mar. 15, 2022.

  • Sex and Sensibility, uploaded Jan. 21, 2021 to Forrest Valkai's channel on YouTube (a computer-generated transcript is available). (Forrest Valkai is one of my favorite scientist/YouTubers. In this video, he delivers complicated scientific information in clear, concise and accessible terms — and, as always, he's fun to listen to. At 20:17 minutes, he explains one of the most important points: differences in trans people's brain structure. He closes by scrolling through a list of the 233 studies and peer-reviewed scientific papers he consulted for this video.)

  • YouTuber Viced Rhino frequently addresses LGBTQ+ issues, backing up his words with science- and data-based research. To access his documentation, see Rhino’s link tree. There, you’ll find articles on a variety of topics, including "Evidence that Being Trans is Real," "Trans isn't a Social Contagion," and "Sex is a Bimodal Spectrum." For what it’s worth, he speaks from the heart; one of his young children is trans.

  • The Biggest-Ever Survey of Transgender Americans Shows We Need to Fight Much Harder, by Samantha Michaels, Mother Jones, Dec. 8, 2016. (It's unlikely that there's been any improvement during the last seven years. If anything, conditions for transgender people have only gotten worse.)

  • Supporting the Transgender People in Your Life: A Guide to Being a Good Ally, The National Center for Gender Equality, Jan. 27, 2023. (This extensive document should be required reading for all cisgendered Americans.)

Hispanic culture, history and current issues

  • At 91, he’s one of the last surviving participants in a US program some described as ‘legalized slavery’, by Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN, May 21, 2024. ("Even within former braceros’ families ... sometimes the history has been hidden. 'What they have told me is that they didn’t want to share their experiences with their families, because it was too painful, and they didn’t want their children and grandchildren to know what they had gone through,' said Yolanda Chávez Leyva, who has collected hundreds of oral histories from participants in the bracero program.)
    On a personal note, my friends in Kansas City used to talk about parents and grandparents who came here during World War II. I was told they were here to make up for the wartime labor shortages, and that after the war, many were unceremoniously sent back to Mexico. None of my friends seemed aware of the horrors related in the article linked above, which lends credence to Chávez's findings.
    RELATED: In Kansas and Missouri, Immigrants are Rooted in the Agriculture Workforce, by Vicky Diaz-Camacho and Cody Boston, Flatland, Oct. 7, 2019.
    RELATED: Migrant Farm Workers: Our Nation's Invisible Population, by Eduardo González, Jr., DEICoP, Jun. 6, 2019. (This is article is valuable for its discussion of the loneliness and uncertainty of migrant life.)

Muslims in America

  • The U.S. Immigration System: Challenges for Immigrants from Muslim-Majority Countries and Islamophobia, by Mohammad A Syed, American Bar Association (Civil Rights & Social Justice Section), Nov. 25, 2024. (Islamophobia plays a significant role in shaping the experiences of Muslim immigrants in the U.S. immigration system. Fear, prejudice, and hatred against Islam and Muslims have been fueled by political rhetoric, media portrayals, and public misconceptions, especially after 9/11. ... The U.S. government’s focus on counterterrorism has unfairly targeted Muslim communities at home and abroad. ... Political rhetoric and media portrayals have often framed Muslim immigrants as security threats. Media outlets disproportionately focus on stories linking Muslims to terrorism, perpetuating harmful stereotypes and creating an environment of fear. This climate of Islamophobia affects public opinion and decision-making processes in the immigration system. Immigration officers, judges, and officials may unknowingly harbor biases that lead to discriminatory treatment of Muslim visa applicants, refugees, and asylum seekers. Muslim immigrants also face social and economic challenges due to Islamophobia. Discriminatory hiring practices, housing inequality, and social alienation are common. Visible Muslim women, particularly those who wear hijabs, are often targets of harassment and hate crimes, creating an environment of fear and exclusion.")

  • American Muslims are successful, optimistic and patriotic: But Islamophobia is worse than ever, by Sophia A. McClennen, Salon, Aug. 29, 2022.