Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

Blog: Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

I experienced or heard about several microaggressions and a microassault during the week. I will list them here and then I will further discuss the one that affected not only my family but a colleague, and a few of the children we serve at our school.  

1.     Listening to a parent tell my colleague and me that her family’s religion was invalidated through an experience her daughter was involved in where a caregiver slighted their religion by letting the child participate in celebrating her birthday by singing “Happy Birthday”.

2.     We do not live in a diverse community and my oldest daughter came to me and told me that she witnessed another driver go out of their way to get close to an African American walking to call him a racial slur. My daughter was so infuriated with the other driver’s hate and his willingness to be so blatant in our seemingly friendly town. This derogatory remark was a microassault on the person it was directed towards and it was completely unprovoked and disgusting. Dr. Sue states, “a microassault is an “overt, deliberate, hostile act intended to hurt the person on a conscious level” (Laureate Education, 2011).

3.     A conversation with one of our substitute teachers and other colleagues about the immigrant situation and children being separated from their families at the border went something like this:

Sub: “I don’t see why people are so upset about the children and families being separated. It happens all the time here in the U.S. and no one gets upset about that.” “Besides, that’s what they get for not coming into the U.S. the right way.” She went on to explain she was from Southern California and has experience in dealing with illegal immigrants.

I explained to her that I have family from Mexico who came to the U.S. not very long ago and became U.S. citizens. (My daughter’s great-grandparents emigrated from Mexico to make a better life for themselves and their family.)

Her not so polite reply was, “Well, like I said, I guess it’s okay if they come over the ‘right way’ and become citizens” She went on to reaffirm her position that it was okay that children and their parents are being separated at the border.

I was so blown away by her assertions and beliefs about this situation. As a mother, a person who works around children, and a human being, I do not understand how she can take such a hard stance on this subject. Since we were at work with children and other colleagues around I did not pursue the conversation further because I did not feel it was an appropriate topic to discuss within earshot of the children who were playing on the playground. I did suggest she look into the facts further, especially about seeking asylum in our country. This microaggression is an example of “expressing racially charged political opinions in class assuming that the targets of those opinions do not exist in class” (Portman, Trisa Bui, Ogaz, & Trevino, n.d., p. 3).

This experience showed me that when people think they are around like-minded or culturally similar people, they tend to speak more freely. It also reminded me that bias and prejudice are deeply embedded in people and not based on fact. “Racism is taught. Through both explicit and implicit messages, society teaches ideas, attitudes, and assumptions about race that are not true” (Margles & Margles, 2010, p. 137). I know I am not perfect and that we all carry some amount of bias. I feel realizing this about myself and my willingness to do my best to treat people fairly puts me in the right direction

References

Laureate Education (Producer). (2011). Microaggressions in everyday life [Video file]. Retrieved from: https://class.waldenu.edu

Margles, S., & Margles, R. M. (2010). Inverting racism’s distortions. Our Schools/Our Selves, 19(3), 137-149.

Portman, J., Trisa Bui, T., Ogaz, J. & Trevino, J. (n.d.). Microaggressions in the classroom,  p. 1-8. University of Denver Center for Multicultural Excellence. Retrieved from: http://otl.du.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/MicroAggressionsInClassroom-DUCME.pdf