Experiencing Microaggression: A Conversation with Danika Enad

CDLI'S Community Development Storyteller Lionel Migrino caught up with Danika Enad about what anti-racism and decolonization work means to her and her microaggressions experiences. Note, the interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Danika was asked, "What does this work mean to you?" Here is what she had to say: It means everything like it has to be! Individuals shouldn't have to question their belonging in their own community. A community is somewhere that every member should feel safe, and people should not doubt whether they belong there. For example, Black Lives Matter is a critical movement because people shouldn't have to fight for their right to exist or stay alive and not be killed. So we can't treat it with anything less than the weight that it deserves because people's lives are on the line.

Even those little microaggressions weigh on any person. In my experience, moving to Ireland, there is diversity, but it is still very much Eurocentric. When I first got there, I had a lot of people staring at me. Even when I go out to the bar or visit small towns, people will stare at me. When I think people stare at me because they might not be used to seeing an individual who looks like me, it gets very uncomfortable. People ask questions that might not be malicious in intent, but they always ask, where are you from? I always answer Canada, and then they always go, that's funny, you don't look Canadian. I remember one guy asking me this microaggression, and when I gave my usual response, he replied, 'really, you look Asian,’ as if being Asian and Canadian at the same time isn’t possible. I think it weighs more on people of colour because microaggressions make us feel that we do not belong here.