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Microaggressions- What’s the Big Deal?
A stranger praise a Latin-American professional at a networking event for speaking perfect English, but it’s her first language. An Asian man observes a white woman clutching her purse as she sees him walking past her on the street and is uncomfortably reminded of racial stereotypes. A woman begins to speak up in a Board meeting but is quickly interrupted by her male colleagues before finishing her sentence. Some people say things or behave in the manner mentioned without knowing they are offensive. When people’s biases marginalize groups, they expose themselves in a way that makes others feel slighted, awkward, or disrespected: these are called microaggressions. Microaggressions could be based on race, income, social capital, religion, ableness, gender, immigration status, sexual orientation, and other characteristics.
The term “microaggression” was coined by Harvard University professor Chester M. Pierce back in the 1970s due to the insults and slights he had witnessed against people of color. He stated, “These [racial] assaults to black dignity and black hope are incessant and cumulative. Any single one may be gross. In fact, the major vehicle for racism in this country is offenses done to blacks by whites in this sort of gratuitous never-ending way. These offenses are microaggressions. Almost all black-white racial interactions are characterized by white put-downs, done in…
