Think about the time when someone said
something about some aspect of your
identity that made you feel insulted or
slighted even if they didn't intend it
you probably experienced a
microaggression.
A microaggression is
something that someone says to someone
else without knowing that it may be
offensive.
It hurts.That's how I know
it's a microaggression because it feels
disrespectful.
And it's not like outright
racism but it's something that is it is
like almost unconscious in the way that
you view people.
Most microaggressions
are subtle and indirect but they occur
frequently in the daily interactions of
members of historically underrepresented
groups and most often people who commit
microaggressions think of themselves as
well-intentioned, non-racist, non-sexist
people they do not realize that the
underlying messages communicated by
their actions or comments are hurtful to
other people.
One of my friends asked if
my parents had their papers.
I had a science teacher, a physics teacher, and he
told me that I was the smartest black
girl in his class
I've been asked, umm, if I understood
what they were talking about or like
do you need any translations and stuff just
based on my name.
I'm like you know, I'm not
the spokesperson for the whole black
community you know but that's one
microaggression I do experience a lot
like they want the black perspective and
I'm usually the only black girl in the
class so it's like okay what what's your
take on this.
Often time
I get asked  do you know how to speak your native language
and when I answer I do,
they're like okay well what does 'ching chong' mean?
There are three types of microaggressions
microassaults, microinsults
and micronvalidations.
A microassault is similar to what we think of
as overt discrimination in the case of
microassaults those acts are
intentional.
I was a server for a long
time and if anyone else was you know this
the back of the kitchen like when
someone gets a table of like say Indian
people I hope this is PC I don't know all the terms
but  Indian people or Black
people or anyone they'd be like who
wants that table I don't want it they're
not going to tip and my heart would
break every time.
I used to be a
server too and hated it because I was
like the only person of
any type of race other than white I
remember coming in and be like oh Danielle, you
know you get that table of raccoons
and I was like what and they're like
yeah and then I would go and I'm like
they're black people and I was like
wait is that what you call
you call black people you call them raccoons?
A microassault can be the
deliberate posting of swastikas
Confederate flags, racial slurs or
epitaphs that are left on a blackboard
in a classroom .
I worked as a research
assistant and so a while ago one of the
new our new RAs when I when I was a few
months into it  came up to me and just
mentioned that you know we'd known each
other for months at that point you know
you're the 'least scary black guy' I've
ever met you know in the way that I
dressed the way that I talked the way that I
speak I've kind of tailored that over
the course of my education to be
"non-threatening"
I literally have like my
keys in my hand like they're obviously with me
and I just like jingle them as I'm
walking so that they know that I know
that I'm there that we both know right
here and I'm not
trying to do anything stupid but on
that note there's also the stigma that
like we're aggressive and intimidating
it's sad you have to make sure you let
people know you're not a threat and
that's the objective
one of my friends commented to me you
said you know I don't really even think
you're black you know you're and I was
like what I was like what do you mean
he's like I mean you're smart you do
your work yes you're athletic but you do
your work you're smart so I don't I don't
I really know if you're black I was like
I didn't understand. It made me question who I
was and if I was still a part of the culture.
And that's an example of microinvalidation
and a microinsult. I'm going
to talk about those a little bit more
A microinsult is a comment that
communicates the demographic group is
not respected that that person is a
slight exception to the stereotype it's
an insult even though the perpetrator
thinks he has just rendered a compliment
well here at UNT I've heard you're so
pretty for a black girl I feel like it
discounts me as a person and then I feel
like it discounts my race I feel like you
can be pretty just because you're a
woman or you know or all black women are
beautiful all people of color  are beautiful
just the same as people that are not
people of color so for them to make
that specific statement that's what I'm
like what made in you made you made you say
that to me
as if it were a compliment
so another
type of micro insult is when students in
the classroom are dismissed or treated
almost as if they're invisible
for instance in some of our sciences or
engineering classes there are  few
women and professors often don't call on
those women
I had one instance in a statistics based
class where we were discussing something
bell curve related and he presented a
question and I don't remember exactly
what the answer was but I answered it
and
and he kind of doubted me any very
condescendingly was just like oh okay
well I mean like this is the best answer
but I guess your answer could be right
you know what we'll ask it was a grad
student he was like you know what we'll
ask dr. so-and-so and see what and see
what he thinks the best answer is and
there was no apology or anything he was
just like oh yeah dr. dr. so-and-so said
that yeah that was that was actually a
really acceptable answer I was just like
okay what else is is he going to doubt
me on and when else am I going to be
called out in front of 70 other 70 other
people you know and have a weird
exchange that makes the whole room quiet
One of my science classes my
teacher had asked what I wanted to do
and I told the teacher that I wanted to
be a psychiatrist and immediately
they're like that's too hard for you
maybe you should try a different field
or have you ever thought about being a
nurse being a nurse practitioner nurse
practitioners in psychiatry make pretty
well they make a lot of money too
have you thought about that like why go to med school
generally sometimes somebody
might feel like they can't make it you know
and then when you continue to tell them that
it does hurt you know
I have a lot
of professors tell me in my face that
they were surprised that I was as good of a student
as I was that I pay attention in class
and that I  participated when I asked why I
said well you know you just come off as
a troublemaker you have all these piercings and
short hair and a girl with tattoos we just
naturally assumed that  you weren't going to
be any good
another type of microinsult is when a
professor says to students wow you speak
really good English the message is
the professor thinks I don't really belong
here or that I'm not really America
Of course I speak good English I was born in
the United States , but the professor sees a
Latina or an Asian and makes the
assumption that that person is foreign
or at least that is what the what the
target hears.
What is the underlying message when somebody asked if you're legal?
That you don't belong to this
country. That you don't belong. That's right.
We were walking into the gym once
and I was a guest so I had to hand the person
my ID and he was looking at my name and
everything he's like what are you and I
was like well what are you asking, He was like what
nationality are you. I was like okay
I'm Lebanese, I'm Arab
He's like you're not one those that
blow things up are you...no offense
though what kind of crazy stuff
you ask someone like that you get what I'm saying
I was just I was just really surprised
like it's totally blew my mind that
someone would think that
the assumptions
I get the most is that I'm very academic
and I'm very good at math when they assume stuff like that it makes me feel
like they're taking the individual out
of who I am and just assuming that all
the people who look like me act like me
and it kind of makes me feel lesser
of what I can do
the teacher was asking if someone could
translate something in Spanish
because he was giving an example and he
needed this one word to be translated in
Spanish and and he just stared at me
specifically when he was asking and he
like I knew we were making eye contact
because that after like I just stayed quiet
because I was like I'm pretty sure
there's other people in this class that
know Spanish but he just kept staring at
me at some point like the rest of the
class turned to look at me like waiting
for a response and I was like
I'm not going to give you guys an answer
like this is not okay
a teacher pulled me aside
cuz they were doing something for
Christmas like Toys for Tots or
something and he had this bike, they
had a bicycle they were going to give to
the to the kids and you know he came up
to me and was like hey and there's, I
need to switch out the seat from this
bike and it seems like somebody like you
would know how to how to do that
so if you could just change it out for
me that'd be great and so like oh okay
sure you know not really thinking much
of it and then later on I kind of
thought to myself, that's odd, why would he
assume that I knew personally
how to switch
you know a bike seat, just like
so I thought that was an odd kind of
maybe a microinsult on the fact that he
assumed just because I'm Latino that
I'm good with my hands
A microinvalidation is a comment or
action that dismisses the experiences of
historically disadvantaged group members
microinvalidations can happen when
for instance when a student is lamenting
that she wishes there were more Latina
faculty for instance and the students in
the class start rolling their eyes or
"Oh,  come on get over it" and the
professor goes along with the students
instead of with the with the person who
made the lament
Another type of microinvalidation that we hear alot
about today is being colorblind when
people say I don't notice you're black I
don't notice you're Latina. I don't
see color what does that mean how do you
interpret that what are people saying
when they say I don't notice your race I
don't see color how do you interpret that
They're just trying to say that they're not racist
that they don't look at that side of you
and they just want to validate you as a
person but it comes off wrong because
it's like your race is very much who you
are as an individual
in a lot of my many
classes I have to do writing and it's
just professor seem to be like don't
want to hurt my feelings because I'm an
international student so my english is not
that good especially with my writing so
they they they let me go easy like like
I just feel like they have different
expectations for international
international students and just American
students and like a lot of feedback I get
from like my writings it's just like not
real meaningful cuz I just feel like
this is try not to hurt my feelings
try to like try to go easy on me but
then by doing that I just feel like it
it takes toll on like my development like
my learning my writing
what do you do if you are not the person
who commits the microaggression as the
professor what if someone else in the
classroom commits it?
what I usually do is
like I name it when I hear it in the
room a microaggression that a student
says it may not be directed to a
particular student but there are
probably students in the room who will
feel as if they have been micro
aggressed against I will name that I
think we've just had a difficult comment
made that not everybody's comfortable
with what are people feeling in the room
right now
did anyone feel uncomfortable with that
and then if there's silence which there
often times is because people aren't
comfortable about calling each other and
things I will talk about what it is that
I heard I will model the behavior of
instigating a difficult dialogue and
usually once I do that then people will
come back
the impact on students that
can be harmful is that it creates an
uncomfortable environment or climate it
can be very stressful some of the
research shows that it can effect
people's health because of the stress
but I think it one of the big things is
that you just don't feel like you belong
or are included and you know especially
we were trying to create a campus where
diversity is valued and where everybody
feels included they get in the way of
that goal
just recently I caught myself
making one and as soon as the words came
out of my mouth I realized that I had
made the exact mistake that I was just
talking about like over generalizing to
an entire group or class of people and I
saw tears well up in her eyes and I said
I'm so sorry I am absolutely positive
that I have said something to hurt you
and I think I know why but I would
really like to hear from your
perspective what just happened here
so common microaggressions committed by
faculty in the classroom include the
following mispronouncing students names
after they had repeatedly corrected you
referring to students by the wrong
pronoun calling on men while ignoring
women in class discussions or calling
only on white students and ignoring the
students of color in your classroom
scheduling tests or projects during
religious or cultural holidays be aware
of assigning projects that disregards
socioeconomic status be aware of using
heterosexist
examples in class
Professors give heteronormative examples atoms attract
like males and females or there's an
assumption bring your you know with your
girlfriend or bring your boyfriend you
know the assumption that you're
heterosexual we make an assumption that
heterosexuals are the normal people
One of the biggest things is pronouns
when it comes to transgendered people
individuals because sometimes they'll
tell you hey I prefer these pronouns and
when a person doesn't choose to go by
you know female pronouns or male
pronouns it invalidates their person
with the misgendering thing,  everyone messes up okay
if you do misgender me  or someone
else that's trans or even someone thats
just like apologize and move on
don't make the apology about yourself but just like say
I'm sorry correct yourself and then move
on don't make it a  constant thing though
because we'll pick up on that, just a side not
As a faculty member you are responsible for
the climate in that classroom. You the
professor,  the faculty member are
responsible for every single person's
sense of belonging in that classroom you
are responsible for every person's
opportunity to learn
I think in a
broader spectrum we have to get to know
each other or just not make assumptions
and people don't realize that we are a
lot more alike than we are different
people say that for other people like
you're so black or you're so mexican
you're so Asian and to me that that
takes away from who I am as a person
even though it groups and stereotypes me
with other people and I don't like when people do that
it makes you feel like you
shouldn't be who you are you know it
makes it makes you feel like they're
basically trying to tell you that you
should be doing something else like
they're not able to accept you for who
the person that you are the person
you're trying to show them that you are
instead they're just telling you like oh
that's you know that's not right that's
not a good fit and I mean nobody wants
to feel that way everybody wants to feel
you know accepted for who they are no
matter you know what situation they're put in
 
