Racial Microaggression in the Classroom
It was both intimidating and awkward. The second grade teacher was trying so hard to welcome me to class. I had just recently arrived in America. The teacher used what he thought was the one-size-fits-all communication approach to create rapport with people and he was resolutely abiding by the rules of this sticky approach. He believed that "good eye contact" was important to demonstrate camaraderie so he tried every trick to meet my eye. He called my name, paused, and tried to meet my eye. He asked me direct questions, paused, and tried to meet my eye again.
However, I was not used to the eye contact thing at all and was unknowingly successful in countering my teacher's well-intended altruism. I would divert my eyes away from my teacher's. I would stare at the ceiling, mutter an answer, glare at the ground, at my shoes, out the window, and mumble something inscrutable again.
Non-verbal communication, such as eye contact, is a constituent of the methods we present information using various modalities. Culture-specific differences are both physical and behavioral. The choice of colors and patterns in our clothing, and the inflections in our voice offer manifold layers of meaning and interpretation aside from their culture-specific significance. The color red has positive overtones in some cultures, and considered unlucky in others. Direct eye contact is perceived as showing sincerity in some cultures and deemed disrespectful in others. In order to localize notions of amity with a global friendship circle, we must be open to variations from the "rules" we are used to. We must learn to adjust our comfort zone of what is appropriate and what is right.
The sending and receiving of non-verbal messages usually occur on a subliminal level, which makes intercultural communication even more challenging to master. It is very easy to misinterpret a message simply because we do not understand its meaning outside our cultural context. Coming from China, a culture that views direct eye contact as disrespectful, I did not want to reciprocate my teacher's "rude" behavior. However, in my new environment, America, a culture that associates eye contact with openness and positive engagement, my teacher was sincerely trying to make me feel comfortable and at home in my new setting. When I averted his eye contact, he probably misinterpreted my action as being impolite, that perhaps I am hiding something, did not know how to respond, or most optimistically, that I am shy. He ignored my mutters and interrupted me at his convenience, as similarly re-enacted in the "Talking Athabaskan" video we saw in class in order to get what he wanted: reciprocated eye contact. We cannot assume that a behavior learned in our local environment has the same significance in other cultural settings.
Unfortunately, foreigners often have a less than positive impression regarding Americans. Americans are viewed as arrogant, pushy, insensitive, rude and informal. Americans do tend to be more informal than people from other countries. It is more common for Americans to wear casual clothing to school and greet teachers by their first names. Nevertheless, good manners and courtesy are always stressed in every situation. In the classroom, though I might have misinterpreted direct eye contact as a sign of disrespect ("glaring") by my peers and instructors, most Americans (and Westerners) do not intend to communicate rudeness by their behavior. Instructors not from Western cultures teaching American students need to understand that American students show their respect in different ways. For example, students show respect by having good attendance and by participating actively in classes. Furthermore, punctually completing homework assignments communicates responsibility. When students ask questions, they are demonstrating interest to their teachers. When they look their teachers in the eye during interactions, they are showing dynamic engagement. Most American instructors will interpret these behaviors as signs of respect and will respect their students in return.
Likewise, other cultures that avoid eye contact (e.g. Asian cultures) do not intend to show disrespect by averting eye contact ("lack of attention or interest"). This communication style can give the impression of lack of courtesy, lack of self-esteem, or lack of trustworthiness. The reality is that these students are not demonstrating lack of the knowledge in discussion or hiding other knowledge relevant to the interaction. They do not have an introverted personality. The cultural image of the Asian American model minority student only worsens the classroom intercultural relations. Asian students are viewed as know-it-alls, especially in math and the hard sciences (Sue: "Racial Microaggressions"). Furthermore, they are seen as schemers, often trying to circumvent the conventional institutional rules to boast their academic or social standing. Lastly, these students are perceived as shy and unresponsive, not engaged in the classroom and contributing to the learning dynamics. However, all these cultural stereotypes cannot simply be imposed on nonverbal communication. Students may choose to avert eye contact because this is a sign of respect in their native cultures. Their home culture communication and interaction differ from dominant patterns experienced in American schools. By avoiding eye contact, the students are merely allowing the speaker to feel most comfortable speaking.
In order to remedy the cultural divides in non-verbal communication, we must first become aware of the issue. We must acknowledge that we can send powerful messages non-verbally and that our messages will be interpreted differently in different cultures in various contexts. In addition, we have to become aware of our own behavior patterns and become observant of those in other people. We need to anticipate how others will react to our behavior and vice versa. We must learn to be comfortable with accepting silences and diverted eye contact, adjust our personal space and respond in a similar fashion as our acquaintances. In the classroom, teachers must be culturally accountable. They should know about students' cultural knowledge, convey content-specific/culture-specific knowledge, build on familial cultural experiences, local values, and communicative norms. Our intercultural camaraderie can be improved if we take small steps to strike a balance in communicative competence with our counterparts.
Eye contact is crucial in everyday interactions; after all, it is one of the first things people use to form an impression of you! However, there are many different eye contact styles specific to various cultures and environments. Through eye contact, people are unconsciously signaling to us how they wish us to behave towards them and we are doing the same to them. Our noncompliance to their signals and them to ours will lead to misinterpretation and misjudgments. In order to create positive rapport with our peers, we must learn to adjust our comfort zone of contact. Only when we understand other cultures and how they truly differ can we recognize how misunderstandings can easily result from simple differences in perspectives. At least the second grade teacher acknowledged that I had just emigrated from another country. At least I realized that I was no longer in China.
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