Little yellow woman?

On the sunny afternoon of September 21, 2022, I became painfully aware of my East Asian female body as a racialized woman of color for the first time in my life. That day, I was in my second month as a temporary resident at State College.

As I walked through a bustling shopping mall in Pittsburgh, a tall Black man, a head taller than me, passed by my tense body. His gaze locked onto mine, and with a contemptuous laugh, he muttered three words: “Little yellow woman” directed to me.