#microagression

My qualifications for this conversation:

1. I'm a white presenting mixed race POC. I'm exposed to a high amount of white nonsense and caucasity, because people say things to me they wouldn't say to someone more visibly racialized.

2. I'm a 2nd Generation Canadian citizen. I grew up in Canadian culture, filtered through my Dad's post WW2 Dutch and my Mom's Post Independence Trini cultures

Things we must agree upon to have this conversation:

1. Microagressions are real things that cause real damage to marginalized groups.

2. No one can tell another person that the situation they experienced didn't happen. Different people can experience the same situation differently.

3. Microagressions are different for different racialized groups and are different in every country.

I watched BookCon twice. Here is what I found of note:

JT and RR were gently mocking the crowd, themselves, and CS AS WELL AS HW. They actually said the least mocking things about HW. They said CS can't read or write, only learn Russian. JT and RR say they no longer speak to each other. JT says he no longer speaks to any of the actors.

These are obviously jokes. They also speak highly of each other, and they speak highly of HW's portrayal of autism.

When the mod reads HW's comment, they both chuckle because they've received slightly unhinged texts from HW before. RR points out that CS writes eloquent messages and HW responds with short sentences like "Yeah Dawg"

This is... pretty ADHD coded. As you may have noticed, I took go on unhinged rants IN ALL CAPS that actually mean something, and also i often respond to gorgeous, well crafted messages with "So hot." Or "Cool Story."I don't think this is a specific microagression towards HW as an Asian person.

I will not speak to the microagressions experienced by Black Americans, because I can't know them.

But in Canada, we wouldn't use chaotic as a microagression towards someone Asian. That is much more likely to be leveled at Indigenous or Black Canadians. Chaotic implies a lack of control, and that's not something anyone says about Asian Canadians. Much more likely to be called "cold" or "obsessive."I will never tell anyone that the language being used by cis white people isn't inherently upsetting. There is always a lot of privilege when they speak. But a lot of that interview is just... Canada.

I don't really think Canada has been on the International stage like this, and a lot of people are applying their norms to our country.

But we aren't like anyone else. We're self deprecating. We love with teasing. But we know who we are. We know how good we are. We know how good each other are.We're sharp, and snappy, and we chirp ourselves and each other constantly. We love with mockery because we know we're fucking awesome.

The obvious, deep respect this cast, crew and creators have for each other is clear every time I see them interact. The teasing is love.