Stop Hatin’: Combating Intraethnic Microaggressions to Strengthen Community Organizing

• In Event: Practicing Social Justice in Our Own Communities: Serving Filipina/o American Students

Abstract

Objectives
Racial microaggressions are often represented by subtle verbal or nonverbal racist exchanges that reinforce notions of white dominance, done by whites and targeted toward people of color (Sue, Capodilupo, Torino, Bucceri, Holder, Nadal & Esquilin, 2007). In our paper, we use the concept of racial microaggressions to inform what we name “intraethnic microaggressions,” or how people of color impose practices of dominance between and within minoritized communities. We argue that the reality of intraethnic microaggressions challenges and limits the ability to organize our communities toward social justice.
Theory
In this paper, we apply Critical Race Theory (CRT) to conduct a literature review of scholarship focused on racial microaggressions. CRT asserts the saliency of race and racism in contemporary American society, but also emphasizes the intersectionality of oppression (Crenshaw, Gotanda, Peller & Thomas, 1995). In other words, while people of color are victimized by racism, we also participate in the victimization of others based on socioeconomic status, gender, sexuality, and in this paper, performative practices of racial and ethnic identities. We define intraethnic microaggressions as the negative interactions amongst and between people from the same ethnic or racial group.
Methods/Data Sources
Our working definition is grounded in data from a one-year ethnographic case study of two Filipina/o American student organizations at a large, four-year public university: the oldest Filipina/o student organization in the United States, Pilipino American Collegiate Endeavor (PACE); and Pin@y Educational Partnerships (PEP), a Filipina/o American Studies educational pipeline that serves K-college students. Through participant observations of PACE and PEP activities, we explored: 1) the colonial, imperial, and systematic causes of intraethnic microagressions that occur within racialized groups; 2) how these microaggressions can negatively impact the psychological well-being of youth of color and their engagement in community organizing; and 3) how community-based efforts attempt to combat intraethnic microagressions in their specific context. The examination of the racialized experiences of Filipina/o Americans helped us to better consider the role that colonialism, imperialism, and other forms of systematic oppression have shaped how Filipina/o Americans view race, racism, and how they relate to each other. This systematic approach allows us to be critical of how we negatively judge and treat one another.
Findings and Significance
We found that Filipina/o Americans perpetuate what some have described as colonial mentality or crab mentality, competitiveness and envy amongst people from the same group (Strobel, 2001). We discuss the intricacies of these intraethnic microaggressions and how such ideological leanings divide our community and challenge community organizing efforts. Yet, we also focus on instances of potential within PACE and PEP to show how community organizations have served as spaces to develop strategies that challenge intraethnic microagressions. More specifically, through an examination of how these organizations develop curriculum, we can learn how to replicate their resistance in other contexts that organize and serve youth of color. Ultimately, we hope that through this paper we use CRT to expand notions of microaggressions and in doing so, enhance our ability to strengthen community organizing.

Authors

• Jessica Petalio, San Francisco State University

• Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, San Francisco State University

• Tracy Lachica Buenavista, California State University - Northridge