Constructive Response:

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Racial microaggressions are defined as communicative verbal or behavioral statements or actions, regardless of the person's intent, that demonstrates a hostile, derogatory, or negative approach towards a person's or group of individuals' racial background (Sue et al., 2007).  Individuals who are responsible for making such statements are often unaware that such actions or communications are seen as unfavorable towards people of different racial or ethnic minorities (Sue et al., 2007).  Incidents of microaggressions are very common and often take place in one of three different forms: as a microassault, a microinsult, or a microinvalidation (Sue, 2010).  When asking a person of mixed racial background or even of a clear and evident ethnic background "what are you?" is demeaning to their character and devalues them as people (Wang, Leu, & Shoda, 2011).  Such a question is a great example of racial microaggression as well as microinvalidation.  As many people of mixed racial backgrounds take pride in who they are and their sense of ethnic self-awareness, a clear question of such an open-ended magnitude does not reflect well on the person who is asking the question, despite if there was no ill-intent behind it.  Perpetrators of these kinds of questions will typically come from individuals who are not exposed to multi-cultural settings or have had no experience working with people of multi-cultural backgrounds (Sue, 2009).  The racial identity of the individual asking the question would not influence my response by any means.  No matter what a person's race may be, it does not inhibit their ability to become educated in the areas of other cultures and backgrounds and to learn more about other races and ethnicities.  In essence, the race of the person asking the question has no validity on the impact of the question itself - it's purely based on a lack of racial, ethnic, and multicultural knowledge.

References:

Sue, D. W., Capodilupo, C. M., Torino, G. C., Bucceri, J. M., Holder, A., Nadal, K. L., & Esquilin, M. (2007). Racial microaggressions in everyday life: Implications for clinical practice. American Psychologist, 62(4), 271.

Sue, D. W. (2010). Microaggressions in everyday life: race, gender, and sexual orientation. John Wiley & Sons.

Sue, D. W. (2009). Racial microaggressions and worldviews. American Psychologist, 64(3), 220-221. doi:10.1037/a0015310

Wang, J., Leu, J., & Shoda, Y. (2011). When the seemingly innocuous “stings” racial microaggressions and their emotional consequences. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37(12), 1666-1678.

Edited on 02/26/2017 at 05:03:PM EST