Sadly, I just learned a new term: "emotional labor."
The original author wrote "I have had responses from several Indian friends and readers today who had nothing but positive and encouraging responses. I’ll have to see if anything I said offended them." And the ultra-triggered guy who kicked off the criticism wrote back "Instead of asking your Indian friends to perform more emotional labor for you and assuage your white women’s tears, maybe do some reflection..."
I guess we should all reconsider sharing cultural experiences and questions with each other. Too much "emotional labor."
> Sadly, I just learned a new term: "emotional labor."
It's also an (increasingly common) misuse of the term as originally coined.
Originally it referred to things like cashiers needing to remain calm and cheery even in the face of unreasonable and hostile customers. The claim is that this kind of labor goes beyond the job description and should therefore be compensated.
The original author wrote "I have had responses from several Indian friends and readers today who had nothing but positive and encouraging responses. I’ll have to see if anything I said offended them." And the ultra-triggered guy who kicked off the criticism wrote back "Instead of asking your Indian friends to perform more emotional labor for you and assuage your white women’s tears, maybe do some reflection..."
I guess we should all reconsider sharing cultural experiences and questions with each other. Too much "emotional labor."