Microaggressions: what people mean

I know too many people who keep quiet about politics and social justice because they’re afraid they’ll say the wrong thing and offend somebody. I bet you know people like that too.

And I’m not an expert on this stuff. I don’t always have the right language to dive into the tough topics that dominate my news feed. But I do have Google, and the determination to find reliable and diverse voices who are already writing about issues that the rest of us need to understand so badly.

It’s a good example of what social-justice activists term microaggressions — behaviors or statements that do not necessarily reflect malicious intent but which nevertheless can inflict insult or injury.
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The turn towards political correctness in academia, to which the concept of microaggressions belongs, is sometimes mischaracterized as an obsession with the creation of victims or shoehorning radically liberal ideas into college students. Others have argued that political correctness evangelizes a new kind of moral righteousness that over-privileges identity politics and silences conservative viewpoints.

What these critics miss is that the striving for “PC culture” on college campuses is actually rooted in empathy. The basic tenets of this culture are predicated on the powerful impulse to usher both justice and humanity into everyday social transactions. Given the visible (albeit slow) rise in diversity on campuses, the lexicon of social justice invites students to engage with difference in more intelligent and nuanced ways, and to train their minds to entertain more complex views of the world.

Go read it all: Microaggressions Matter by Simba Runyowa

Racial microaggressions are real and while they are sometimes felt and experienced tangentially, folk of color are marginalized in similar ways simply because they are of color. Prestige of position is not protection.

Based on conversations, observations and personal experiences I have compiled a list of racial microaggressions that people of color often experience in the workplace. This list is not exhaustive and is not intended to be wholly representative. I recognize that factors such as occupation, generation, education, income/social class, gender identity and performance, sex, sexuality, ability, and age impact how and to what degree these things are experienced.

Go read it all: Working While Black: 10 Racial Microaggressions Experienced in the Workplace by Robin Boylorn

Microaggressions can manifest in many different ways. This list is more extensive, but here are a few specific examples:

- Asking a person of color where they’re from (but no, really?). This insinuates that people who aren’t white are perpetual foreigners in their country.
- Racial colorblindness. Although you may have good intentions, saying “I don’t see race,” or “We are all a part of the human race” is unproductive when confronting differences, and it erases the rich cultural identities of people of color.
- Saying “you’re very [positive trait] for a [marginalized group],” implying that other members of the marginalized group as a whole are somehow lesser.
- Locking the doors of the car when going through “a rough neighborhood” or clutching a bag tighter upon seeing a person of color. This assumes that people of color or people of a certain class are inherently dangerous.

Microaggressions, unlike outright expressions of racism, are much harder to confront because they seem like innocuous statements or actions. The person who receives these microaggressions may feel insulted or offended, but may not know how to address it because the person who perpetuates these microaggressions may not know they even said or did something wrong.

Go read it all: Feminism 101: What Are Microaggressions? by Danna Yu

Microaggressions are more than just insults, insensitive comments, or generalized jerky behavior.

They’re something very specific: the kinds of remarks, questions, or actions that are painful because they have to do with a person’s membership in a group that’s discriminated against or subject to stereotypes. And a key part of what makes them so disconcerting is that they happen casually, frequently, and often without any harm intended, in everyday life.

Go read it all: What exactly is a microaggression? by Jenée Desmond-Harris

And this video that was described in the Vox article above.

So go read all of these! And let me know what has helped you understand microaggressions (links and powerful quotes also appreciated).

For more roundups, check out my main list of stories. And if you found this helpful, I’d appreciate a clap!