Microaggressions toward mixed-ethnicity people?
Hello,
I'm posting to learn, not to get hate. I've been seeing a young mixed-ethnicity man from Mindanao for almost two years. He was born in Mindanao and speaks Bisaya. He's never met his father and has never even been to India. To me he just looks like a very dark-skinned Filipino, but maybe that's because I know. He constantly gets questions about his background and language. When he says he's Bisaya, people don't believe him. People often press their palms together, say “namaste,” and laugh. He says it doesn't bother him, that he's used to it, and that the country is homogeneous so people don't understand. But I've met so many mixed people born here. Ten million Filipinos (10%) live and work overseas. Mixed-ethnicity Filipinos are not rare at all.
Why is it okay to point out someone's ethnicity and argue with them about who they are?
I'm asking as a mixed person myself, with Creole, Caribbean and Chinese ancestry.
I was also raised in America by a Filipino family, and their mixed kids are basically my siblings. So I'm very sensitive about this topic too.
Can someone please explain this to me? I'm genuinely trying to understand, because it feels so strange that I get more defensive than the people actually going through it.
Also, as someone with dark skin, people are only ever nice to me and excited to meet me, yet they seem to treat my mixed friends differently right next to me.
And of course I'm sensitive partly because of how older Chinese people treat me over my Chinese heritage.
OP, you must be American to be this bothered about race and ethnicity
