So What’s the Big Deal? Autoethnography of Ethnic Microaggressions

One of the main problems in studying oppression is its invisibility. In a rhetorical reality of commitment to diversity, equality, and human rights, mechanisms persist that deny and silence criticism of discrimination, racism, and “othering.” In this paper I trace several everyday moments in which my Mizrahi ethnic identity intersects with my academic identity, and I extract experiences of ethnic otherness that are inherent in these moments.

These episodes involve issues of silence and speech, boundaries of identity, and the crossing of such boundaries. But mostly, these moments illustrate the operation of ethnic microaggressions: subtle, often automatic and nonverbal exchanges – constant offensive mechanisms that operate daily against nonwhite individuals.

Although microaggressions do not seem very harmful, the cumulative weight of their never-ending burden is a major feature in the interactions of those who experience them. Microaggressions are a common part of the lives of students and faculty members of color and have an impact on their academic career paths. One of the major patterns associated with such students and faculty members is a feeling of not belonging in the academic sphere and a sense that their very presence violates the “natural” state on campus.

A central tenet of minority writing on experiences of otherness is the notion of personal voice. It is a discourse that grants a voice to minorities and allows for theoretical writing anchored in experiences of pain and coping with silencing. On the basis of this tenet and critical epistemology that assumes that it is impossible to separate the researcher from the object of her knowledge, the methodology that guides the research is autoethnography, a form of interdisciplinary writing and research that places the self in the social context and provides a way to voice personal experiences in the interest of furthering social understanding.