I was the ‘model minority,’ but now I have to speak up

I was the model minority. I’m a Chinese-Canadian woman that is smart, studious, hardworking and polite. I don’t have an accent, I am non-threatening and as a result I haven’t experienced much racism in my life.

So when I did experience racism, I didn’t realize it until it was too late. I didn’t realize I was being discriminated against because I thought the model minority reputation protected me. Racism wasn’t supposed to happen to me, I thought. White people don’t discriminate and harass people like me. White people are supposed to see me as a peer.

But it happened, and I experienced daily microaggressions for a year which caused extreme anxiety and health issues. I am sharing my story so that other young women of colour can see the signs and know that we do not need to tolerate toxic and oppressive workplaces. I am also a living example that the model minority myth doesn’t protect us, it traps us. While the world finally has its spotlight on anti-Asian racism, I want to shine the light on the verbal violence that happens to us in our workplaces not just the violence that happens to us on the streets.

I started working for a charity a few years ago and was drawn to it because I believed in its mission. The first year was great and I felt valued as a team player. I was one of two women of colour in a medium sized organization that is mainly composed of white staff but I never felt like I was treated any differently.

Then things began to take a turn when our executive director went on maternity leave. To everyone’s surprised, she later announced she wasn’t returning. Instead of doing a lengthy search to replace the position, the board of directors promoted another director to the role. But the promotion did not come with additional training to help the new director transition into her role. This would end up leading to a toxic and hostile work environment, defined by micromanagement and discrimination toward women of colour on staff.

It was during this time when I suffered the workplace phenomenon “pet to threat,” a concept used to describe how women of colour are often supported in the learning and development stages of their jobs until they become more competent and are perceived as threatening by employers. In the beginning, this director commonly asked me for my input on projects and sent opportunities my way, but in the second year of my job, I felt oppressed and unwelcomed.

In addition, this director began to harshly criticize me in front of others and scream at me in our one-on-ones. I felt the most targeted when she would openly correct my spelling. As an immigrant, English is my second language so on the odd occasion I misspell words. On several occasions, she openly corrected my spelling of someone’s name — a Sara versus Sarah situation. Scared of being harassed, I wrote a Post-it note of the person’s name and stuck it on my desk. While my white colleagues got documents with track-changes, I got targeted with open, verbal corrections in our open office. The only other colleague that got called out in the same way was the other woman of colour.

Things became worse when I announced I was pregnant. While the former director’s pregnancy was marked by regular questions about what foods she was craving (so the staff could buy them for her) mine was anything but glamorous. I started having morning sickness at six weeks but didn’t want to disclose my pregnancy early, in case I had a miscarriage. Week 9, I was feeling really unwell and asked for a sick day. She replied that I was needed at work. This type of pressure forced me to disclose my pregnancy early so I could legitimately ask for sick days. Little did I know that such disclosure was going to bring me nearly daily harassment and commentary about my pregnancy.

Article From: The Star

Author: Yvonne S.Contributor