| rdfs:comment
| - Microaggressions is an archive of bigoted things people have said and done, ranging from things that sound fairly innocuous to most people to coffee-spitting horrible. Basically, if the type of thing archived at FSTDT could be summarized as the guy who tells you you're going to Hell for being gay or belonging to a different religion, Microaggressions could be summarized as the person who gives you dirty looks and slips Chick Tracts into your bag when you're not looking. It sounds harmless enough, but a lifetime will take its toll.
- Microaggressions are small, subtle, often subconcious actions that marginalize people in oppressed groups. Sue'73 defined it as "brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults ..." There is a intentional/unintentional part so microaggressions may be due to lack of knowledge. Microaggressions cause damage and that does not depend on whether it was caused intentionally or due to ignorance or social conditioning. For example:
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| abstract
| - Microaggressions are small, subtle, often subconcious actions that marginalize people in oppressed groups. Sue'73 defined it as "brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults ..." There is a intentional/unintentional part so microaggressions may be due to lack of knowledge. Microaggressions cause damage and that does not depend on whether it was caused intentionally or due to ignorance or social conditioning. For example:
* A black man is crossing the street. He hears the sound of door locks clicking closed from the cars stopped at the traffic light.
* A manager refers to the men in their department by their last names, but the women by their first names.
* A group of faculty members are sitting down for an unusual weekend meeting. The chair thanks everyone for showing up on their day off, and adds "I'm glad your wives let you get away for a few hours."
* A white technical lead seems comfortable and friendly when talking with white teammates, but seems uncomfortable, awkward or unwelcoming when talking with black teammates. While a few microaggressions may seem insignificant when taken in isolation, the steady chorus of them that people in marginalized groups experience every day forms an unmistakable patchwork of othering and marginalization. They send a distinct message that you are not "normal"; that you are lesser-than. All microaggressions are discriminatory, and they can be or not be hateful. Discrimination is making a decision polluted by prejudice - a misconception about a group of people. It's also difficult for oppressed people to explain the significance of microaggressions, because it's difficult to convey their relative frequency compared to the experiences of privileged people, and easy for privileged people to come up with plausible alternative explanations for any one microaggression ("well, there's an Angela Smith and a Jane Smith, so obviously it makes sense to call you 'Angela' and 'Jane' rather than 'Smith'…"). Privileged people should familiarise themselves with the concept of microaggressions, and consider what seem to be minor or ambiguous incidents of oppressive behaviour in light of them likely happening over and over, and the oppressed person having the lived experiences necessary to correctly identify them.
- Microaggressions is an archive of bigoted things people have said and done, ranging from things that sound fairly innocuous to most people to coffee-spitting horrible. Basically, if the type of thing archived at FSTDT could be summarized as the guy who tells you you're going to Hell for being gay or belonging to a different religion, Microaggressions could be summarized as the person who gives you dirty looks and slips Chick Tracts into your bag when you're not looking. It sounds harmless enough, but a lifetime will take its toll.
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