Episode #166: Common Microaggressions and How To Avoid Them!
Grace and Alvina talk about common microagressions while acknowledging their own pitfalls.
“How have you been?”
Alvina is getting ready for her two week trip to Europe with Stephen! She is mostly looking forward to the food and being in new places and old places (that she hasn’t been too in so long.)
Grace is so happy that Hazel has been in camp. She was really busy getting in her revisions stage of her project. She felt so accomplished! When Hazel does not have camp, she and Alex will split their time with her but it’s not the same focus time. She could not focus today because she was distracted by Instagram. Lisa Yee posted an interview with Katie Zhao. Katie gave a shout out to Lisa’s work for books that aren’t as well known because it came out before publishing realized “oh we should invest in books by people of color”. Recently Grace has been seeing lot’s of Asian American authors saying “there was no other Asian American books until mine came along”. Alvina says, “I think there is a difference between saying they grew up not seeing those books or reading them vs. there were no books.” Grace talks about her feelings regarding this.
Microaggressions!
The book friends define what the term means. How can we avoid them? Being knowledgable about them and talking about them helps. Microagressions are not done out of malice, it doesn’t meant that they’re not hurtful. It’s not an unforgivable crime. One is no big deal but the receiver of these microaggressions deals with so many of them over time. The book friends talk about different kinds of microaggressions involving race, name pronunciation, misgendering, etc…and the ones that bother them the most personally.
Fortune Cookie Segment
Things that we have collected!
Grace never had a major collection but she wanted to collect things that had a variety of something. Alvina collected stamps and coins but mostly stickers, stuffed animals, and soda cans. “Do you collect anything now?” Grace: books! Also this summer, she has been picking up bluejay feathers and robin eggs. Alvina: Books! Alvina collects journals and for the past three years, “wisher washers”, any metal thing that you find on the ground. She keeps them in a vase but hasn’t done anything with them yet.
GRATEFULS!
Alvina is so grateful for getting a good night asleep recently. Hoping she will asleep with her new ear pods.
Grace is grateful that her project was submitted for revisions. She is also grateful for tomatoes! They’re doing great this summer in her yard!
Don’t forget! You can now order Grace’s limited edition autographed 12" x 18" double-sided poster featuring artwork by Grace Lin commemorating the Newbery Award Centennial for The Horn Book Magazine. You can purchase them at the Eric Carle Museum and help support Everylibrary.org! Order HERE!
Thank You!
Thank you for tuning in! Thank you to Hachette Audio, Little Brown Books for Young Readers, and Alex at Pacyworks Studio for producing and editing this podcast. Be sure to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and tell a friend about us. (Use the hashtag #bookfriendsforever.)
You can find Alvina @Planetalvina on Twitter and TikTok and @Alvinaling on Instagram
You can find Grace @Pacylin on Twitter and Instagram and @gracelinauthor on TikTok and @authorgracelin on Facebook
