There was a time when I took comments like “your English is so good” as a compliment. English took some time for me to learn and was a source of great stress when I first moved to this country. I would say I was completely fluent two years after I moved to the country, since then my English was improving at the same pace and level as a native.

I never took that comment as a sign of racism, only as validation of my efforts. It wasn’t until watching a Buzzfeed video two years ago did I realize that this comment is problematic. Seeing it again on a video from the Be More website once again reminded me of what it meant. What does it mean when someone comments “your English is so good” after meeting me for the first time? Was my English supposed to be bad?

People associate the word “minority” with immigration. In present day, however, this idea isn’t always correct. There are immigrants who have stayed in America for several generations and should not still be considered immigrants. Comments like “your English is so good” makes one feel they’re out of place, as if they need confirmation from someone else to validate that they in fact speak the language they speak everyday. This attitude is condescending, which explains why people would be offended by it.

The Be More website raises awareness for subtle comments like these which may or may not be intentionally racist. It does its job of breaking biases and stereotypes.