The title of this song is kind of the secondary title of the record. It was inspired by a collection of essays called Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong. It’s the name she gives to this collective feeling that a lot of Asian Americans have about racial microaggressions, and I really connected with that, because for me it was a collection of all these minor feelings that has now led to a pretty major shutdown of emotions. In the music I wanted to play with the minor and the major chords, so in the chorus when I say ‘minor feelings’ it’s minor and then major when I say ‘majorly getting me down.’

— via Apple Music

I was so inspired by the title [of the book] itself, because a lot of racial microaggressions are minor feelings, things you don’t feel you should speak up about because it’s not a hate crime or something you think about telling the police. But the reality is, especially with Asian people, that actually did turn into a lot of hate crimes during COVID. It was horrific what was happening to elderly Asian people around the U.S. and U.K. The rhetoric around Asians and COVID was terrible. So much of what I’ve gone through can’t be separated from the sociopolitical background I exist in, which is that I’m an Asian queer woman. You can’t isolate my experience from that fact.

–via The Fader