Microaggression

Microaggression – This refers to sometimes subtle, unintentional, or unconscious forms of prejudice or bias.

Can you identify the microaggressions played out in this scene?

I was speaking with a dear friend of mine today and she shared with me a commonplace experience of many black people that she underwent today.

Standing in a queue waiting to go into M & S.  The queue was long, and she was somewhere in the middle of it. An elderly woman comes up to her and asks

‘Is there a queue?’

‘Yes,’ my friend replied.

‘Are you in the queue?

‘Yes,’ my friend replied, turning her head around and looking back at the line of people behind her.

‘Oh’ says the elderly woman looking at my friend and then looking at the space in front of her.

‘I see what you’re wanting.  There is a long line of people. I’m the only black person and you come to me to let you into the queue.  Okay, there you go.

It was frustrating but having spoken to the woman calmly to let her know that she was unhappy about the actions taken, she let it go, like so many times before. My friend steps back to allow the elderly woman into the queue.

‘Thank you dear’, was the woman’s response, as she stepped into the queue.

Another woman standing behind my friend with her daughter says to my friend,

‘Why are you being like that?  You don’t have to be like that.  She is an old woman. And proceeds to loudly castigate my friend for her comment.

It should be noted that my friend at no time raised her voice during this conversation or made a scene.  Her conversation with the elderly lady was one of calm composure.

Many people are completely clueless about what microaggression is.

They are clueless to the number of times a day many black people in this country are expected to step aside, in one way or another, to give place to others.

And that anytime said black person dears to raise an objection to this, they are immediately branded as unreasonable.  Or in the case of black women, branded an angry black woman, irrespective of any anger having been displayed.

Microaggression also demonstrates bias, white privilege, and unreasonable expectations.

It would help us all to open our eyes and our sense of our own behaviours and expectations.  Instead of hitting out at your black colleagues when they make a statement, why not ask them what they are experiencing and learn more. It’s time that the victim is not further victimised when they have the courage to speak up for themselves.

---

Inform yourself

Microaggression is a term used for brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative attitudes toward stigmatized or culturally marginalized groups.^[1] The term was coined by Harvard University psychiatrist Chester M. Pierce in 1970 to describe insults and dismissals which he regularly witnessed non-black Americans inflicting on African Americans

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microaggression