A microaggression occurs in the classroom and you jump into action.
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It's a microaggression, plain and simple, one that clearly rankles Belt inhabitants.
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Crude as the story is, it relies on the texture of real microaggression.
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Every social interaction brings a heady mix of performative wokeness and racist microaggression.
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So many of us ask the same questions: Was that really a microaggression?
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The suggestion that Serena Williams doesn't respect the game came across as a microaggression.
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Microaggression training incorrectly and dangerously equates speech with violence and isn't backed by evidence.
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"The word 'microaggression' wasn't widely used when I first started writing this book," Chang explained.
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There's a level of microaggression and racism you're willing to let go of and expect.
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Critics of microaggression say people like me are being too sensitive about harmless, everyday questions.
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When you receive a microaggression, try pausing for a moment, then asking for clarity, Harris recommends.
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Additionally, the ally strategy is different regarding timing than when you're the subject of a microaggression.
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But we're not out of the microaggression woods yet: Lee joins Chris Harrison in center stage.
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It lists five questions to ask yourself when weighing the consequences of responding to a microaggression.
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People looking to avoid this microaggression just need to be a bit more thoughtful, Nadal advises.
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How can you tackle the bigger picture without first looking at the microaggression foundational to it?
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If a person of color calls out a microaggression, people see them as complaining or self-serving.
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So here was Donald Trump, avowed opponent of political correctness, essentially accusing Hillary Clinton of committing a microaggression.
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A microaggression is essentially the casual slighting of any marginalized group, often—but not always—by a well-meaning person.
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In his research on disarming microaggressions, Dr. Sue uses the term "microintervention" to describe the process of confronting a microaggression.
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Catcalling is another problem that women face frequently, and it can quickly morph from a microaggression into a full-out aggression.
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Using professional actors, we reenacted 34 real-life microaggression scenarios paired with comparable "nontoxic" versions of these situations, to serve as controls.
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It's a digital microaggression, and it is a part of how we talk about and interact with race on a daily basis.
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A thin, surface-level critique would be that Dear White People is about privileged Ivy League students vocalizing think pieces about microaggression.
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Yes, there is something wrong with perpetuating stereotypes that paint women as subservient — in fact, it can be viewed as a microaggression.
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One group was subjected to a staged microaggression during the study — their US citizenship was doubted by the researcher managing the experiment.
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Another new entry, "microaggression," is a discriminatory comment or action that subtly - and sometimes unconsciously - expresses prejudice toward a member of a marginalized group.
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" As the new book Microaggression Theory explains, "Microaggressions are brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages to certain individuals because of their group membership.
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They have raised the ordinary frictions of daily affairs into a melodrama of microaggression, heteronormativity, and ableism, and Trump won't respect the new rules.
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The term "microaggression" had entered the lexicon when Donald Trump started winning primaries with a platform based almost exclusively on hurling the macro variety.
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Even once you have decided that you can respond to a microaggression, knowing what to say or how to behave can be nerve-racking.
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All too often, when women speak up against a microaggression like catcalling, men reply that they weren't hurting or threatening the woman, Nadal says.
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"Many employees of color tell me that when they raise a microaggression issue, their well-intentioned coworker tells them, 'You are being sensitive,'" he says.
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I think I just missed the culture of microaggression by a couple of years, and I don't really understand it or where it came from.
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The first step to addressing a microaggression is to recognize that one has occurred and dissect what message it may be sending, Dr. Sue said.
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Labeling a tech product as a men's accessory is nothing to boycott a company over, but it is a microaggression that's part of a bigger issue.
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"I count that as the symbolic beginning because that's when we noticed an uptick in student press for disinvitations, trigger warnings and microaggression policing," he said.
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Beinart concludes with the requisite admonishment of silly campus leftists, chiding the University of California system for listing the phrase "melting pot" as a potential microaggression.
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She and many other psychologists say that responding to a microaggression can be empowering, but with so many battles, how do you decide which to fight?
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The power of a microaggression is that it's often framed as casual ignorance — so if you get mad about it, you look like the oversensitive one.
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Try asking the person how they're doing, acknowledging what was said and that it didn't feel great, Kevin Nadal, a psychologist and editor of Microaggression Theory, recommends.
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The results were tangible: the next week during an executive leadership meeting, a senior manager stopped to ask his peers if something he said was a microaggression.
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Or if your character doesn't experience some kind of microaggression or aggression-aggression because of social media and the kind of pressure that applies on your life.
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"Where are you really from?" is a question that many call a microaggression -- or a statement that may seem harmless, but can have often unintended marginalizing consequences.
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Nunes believes this specific gender-based microaggression contributes to imposter syndrome — the feeling that you are not qualified for your job, even when, often, you probably are.
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Today, there are 28 states without any such explicit protections, and where workplace discrimination (be it in the form of an offensive microaggression or employment termination) is legal.
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Intense identity politics, multiculturalism, diversity and hair-trigger hypersensitivity have made it so that the left is caught in endless circular fighting over the smallest lapse or microaggression.
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Whenever you encounter a microaggression, you're contacted by P.C. Principal with an explanation about how one of the words or phrases they used was hurtful to another human being.
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The cashier could have meant well, but all our kudos go to Sophia for standing up for herself and what she probably didn't yet know was a racial microaggression.
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By stumbling over it, Dean made the line that exists between fake diversity and actual inclusivity, between racial humor and racism, quip and microaggression, appreciation and fetishization — very clear.
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In the same way that a family member or friend may hurt you and it takes years to recover, the impact of a microaggression can be long-lasting too.
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A microaggression is a seemingly innocuous casual comment or gesture that's typically used to dismiss and degrade the experience and identities of women and minorities and other marginalized people.
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However, when even an innocuous phrase like "you guys" is deemed to be a "microaggression," it's no wonder a demagogue like Donald Trump gains traction by railing against political correctness.
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His younger brother once called him the "king of microaggression" and suggested he may have sought fame through the attack, according to the AP. Police characterized him as a loner.
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When it comes to "microaggression" statements such as "America is a colorblind society" or "You are so articulate," few blacks and Hispanics find these offensive while more liberal whites do.
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But at a number of schools—including the University of California, Purdue, and the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point—that phrase is opposed for a different reason: It's a microaggression, allegedly.
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One can easily criticize the pre-existing climate of microaggression and Islamophobia in New Zealand and Australia and ask what Ardern had done for the Muslim community before the attacks happened.
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"I'm also looking for it to help people get justice or get acknowledgments at least for microaggression," said Mx. Janecko, currently on co-op in San Francisco, working at a mime theater.
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Originally coined in the 1970s by Chester M. Pierce, a Harvard psychiatrist, today's definition of a microaggression can be credited to Derald Wing Sue, a professor of counseling psychology at Columbia University.
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" But, he added, "I will not say that, because I know that, according to the powers that be at the University of California's university system, the phrase 'melting pot' is a microaggression.
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In honor of Pride Month, we spoke with microaggression expert and psychology professor Kevin Nadal, who brought us up to speed on some of the common discriminatory errors he's still seeing made.
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But as we can tell from what's happening on college campuses, where everyone walks in fear of committing or receiving a microaggression, that is not going to make America more inclusive and civil.
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Get Out, from comedian Jordan Peele, puts black male protagonist Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) in his girlfriend's (Allison WIlliams) parents' regressive Southern town, where unsettling servants and multitudes of microaggression lead to true violence and horror.
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Here's an example of the difference as it relates to ageism: Microaggression: When an older employee enters a conversation, people speak more loudly or distinctly because they assume the older person is hard of hearing.
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This is juxtaposed with Kevin and Zoe's trip, where they, as a mixed-race couple, encounter a microaggression from a racist gas station attendant that one imagines minorities deal with constantly in their daily lives.
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A microaggression like telling a woman to smile can seem polite on the surface, but holds women to a double standard and can cause them to experience a loss of control in their workplace presentation.
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On campuses clenched by unforgiving debates over language and inclusion, some students embrace Mr. Trump as a way of rebelling against the intricate rules surrounding privilege and microaggression, and provoking the keepers of those rules.
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On the front of each card is a microaggression, like the female executive who is mistaken for a more junior figure; on the back is why it happened, why it matters and what to do.
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"If you do commit a microaggression of any sort, it's important to understand why that might have been hurtful to somebody and to reflect as to why you even said what you said," he says.
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The third member of the panel, Judge Raymond W. Gruender of the Eighth Circuit, in St. Louis, wondered whether Tom had done nothing more than create a microaggression, a term that probably confused the boy.
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As such, Bigger embodies the fears and anxieties that constrain so many Black people, whose mental health worsens with every microaggression, every police killing, and countless examples of anti-Black sentiment, blatant racism, and bigoted violence.
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Several American universities have declared the phrase "America is a melting pot" to be a "microaggression" (a term in pervasive use and taken by the majority to be innocuous but which communicates a hostile message to minorities).
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In an apparent microaggression in President Trump's "running war" with the media, he has decided he's going to hang a new addition to the West Wing's press area—a panoramic photo of his inauguration, according to Politico.
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" The same brand of racial microaggression that fuels people's disbelief that women of color are doctors also informs how Dr. Denmark says she's been trained to respond gracefully to discrimination, or else risk being framed as being too "hostile.
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Indeed, "microaggression" is a ridiculous word; it's a linguistic feat to combine such discordant concepts as "micro" and "aggression," to coin a term so self-contradictory that the injustices it identifies can then be dismissed on account of their smallness.
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This way, someone going through a mental health crisis, for instance, might have a safe way to seek help, or a student can let you know they took offense to a seemingly innocuous comment you made that was, in fact, a racist microaggression.
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A white Connecticut teacher was placed on leave after casting black students as slaves in a school playA stunning new report details how Michigan State University's 'dream team' recruiting class crumbled after 4 football players were accused of sexual assaultWhat is a microaggression?
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But since the usual way to reintegrate the sexes is to have them marry one another and raise kids, what Silicon Valley probably needs right now more than either workplace anti-microaggression training or an alt-right underground is a basic friendliness to family, pregnancy and child rearing.
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There is an emotional and economic disparity when it comes to care taking where if you've never been a body who has been challenged or told your pain isn't real, or dismissed or told, like, I don't understand what a microaggression is — like if your coworker questioned your SAT score, then why would that bother you?
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A Black woman wouldn't be able to get away with Bradley's "fuck you" outbursts when her ideas are shut down because they aren't fluffy enough for morning TV. The need to control your anger even when it's ready to spill over at every microaggression is one Witherspoon can't understand, which is one of the reasons her character falls flat.
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This LOL-WTF-Fail moment kicked off with a photo of an email tweeted by a student; the details were a bit confusing but apparently the notably tasteless and mildly amusing Harambe meme was deemed to be a "microaggression" because UMass Amherst had a student living space focused on African and African American heritage called Harambe.
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But I will say, I mean, this is part of one of the reasons why we wanted to have you on today, I think if you are someone who is moving through the world and trying to deal with racial trauma, and trying to deal with anxiety or fear over persecution because of your citizenship or lack thereof, or your gender orientation, or your gender identity or your sexual orientation, it's like, are you going to be able to talk to someone who understands that or has context for that, or are you going to go to someone who...doesn't know how to talk to you about what a microaggression is, or what it feels like if someone calls you the N word on the subway?
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Microaggression can target and marginalize any definable group, including those who share an age grouping or belief system. Microaggression is a manifestation of bullying that employs micro-linguistic power plays in order to marginalize any target with a subtle manifestation of intolerance by signifying the concept of "other".
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Lesbians of color are often exposed to a range of adverse consequences, including microaggression, discrimination, menace, and violence.
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Makin and Morczek also use the term gendered microaggression to refer to male interest in violent rape pornography. Transgender people experience microaggressions when they are labelled in a way that does not match their gender identity.
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In focus groups, individuals identifying as bisexual report such microaggressions as others denying or dismissing their self-narratives or identity claims, being unable to understand or accept bisexuality as a possibility, pressuring them to change their bisexual identity, expecting them to be sexually promiscuous, and questioning their ability to maintain monogamous relationships. Some LGBT individuals report receiving expressions of microaggression from people even within the LGBT community. They say that being excluded, or not being made welcome or understood within the gay and lesbian community is a microaggression. Roffee and Waling suggest that the issue arises, as occurs among many groups of people, because a person often makes assumptions based on individual experience, and when they communicate such assumptions, the recipient may feel that it lacks taking the second individual into account and is a form of microaggression.
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Kenneth R. Thomas wrote in American Psychologist that recommendations inspired by microaggression theory, if "implemented, could have a chilling effect on free speech and on the willingness of White people, including some psychologists, to interact with people of color." Sociologists Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning have written in the academic journal Comparative Sociology that the microaggression concept "fits into a larger class of conflict tactics in which the aggrieved seek to attract and mobilize the support of third parties" that sometimes involves "building a case for action by documenting, exaggerating, or even falsifying offenses". The concept of microaggressions has been described as a symptom of the breakdown in civil discourse, and that microaggressions are "yesterday's well-meaning faux pas". One suggested type of microaggression by an Oxford University newsletter was avoiding eye contact or not speaking directly to people.
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He has written over 150 publications on various topics such as multicultural counseling and psychotherapy, psychology of racism and antiracism, cultural diversity, cultural competence, and multicultural organizational development, but more specifically, multicultural competencies and the concept of microaggression.
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Microagressions can be conscious acts where the perpetrator is aware of their racist actions or microagressions can be hidden and metacommunicated without the perpetrator's awareness. Regardless of whether microagressions are conscious or unconscious behaviors, the first antiracist intervention is to name the ways it is harmful for a person of color. Calling out an act of discrimination can be empowering because it provides language for people of color to bring awareness to their lived experiences and justifies internal feelings of discrimination. Antiracist strategies also include confronting the racial microaggression by outwardly challenging and disagreeing against the microaggression that harms a person of color.
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Writing for The Federalist, Paul Rowan Brian argued that microaggression theory pools trivial and ignorable instances of racism with real, genuine prejudice and exclusion. Amitai Etzioni, writing in The Atlantic, suggested that attention to microaggressions distracts individuals and groups from dealing with much more serious acts.
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74 (6), 1619-1628. Psychologists Claude Steele, Joshua Aronson, and Steven Spencer, have found that Microaggression such as passing reminders that someone belongs to one group or another (i.e.: a group stereotyped as inferior in academics) can affect test performance."Stereotype Threat Widens Achievement Gap" American Psychological Association. 2006.
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In their article "Microaggression and Moral Cultures", sociologists Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning say that the discourse of microaggression leads to a culture of victimhood. Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt states that this culture of victimhood lessens an individual's "ability to handle small interpersonal matters on one's own" and "creates a society of constant and intense moral conflict as people compete for status as victims or as defenders of victims". Similarly, the linguist and social commentator John McWhorter says that "it infantilizes black people to be taught that microaggressions, and even ones a tad more macro, hold us back, permanently damage our psychology, or render us exempt from genuine competition." McWhorter does not disagree that microaggressions exist.
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The persons making the comments may be otherwise well-intentioned and unaware of the potential impact of their words. A number of scholars and social commentators have criticised the microaggression concept for its lack of scientific basis, over-reliance on subjective evidence, and promotion of psychological fragility. Critics argue that avoiding behaviours that one interprets as microaggressions restricts one's own freedom and causes emotional self-harm, and that employing authority figures to address microaggressions can lead to an atrophy of those skills needed to mediate one's own disputes. Some argue that, because the term "microaggression" uses language connoting violence to describe verbal conduct, it can be (and is) abused to exaggerate harm, resulting in retribution and the elevation of victimhood.
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When positive stereotypes are expressed or simply believed as true about a group and its members, positive stereotypes can be related to a number negative consequences for targets’ emotional and psychological states, their performance-based behaviors, and others’ judgments of them. The ambiguity of positive stereotypes when encountered over time might come to be seen as a form of microaggression.
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In one study, her team showed that although only 17% of people said they would be willing to partner with someone who made a racial slur, 63% of people who actually heard the slur subsequently partnered with that person. Risen, J., & Wu, G. (April 12, 2019). "How to react to a colleague's microaggression". Chicago Booth Review Retrieved on May 16, 2019.
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People with mental illness report receiving more overt forms of microaggression than subtle ones, coming from family and friends as well as from authority figures. In a study involving college students and adults who were being treated in community care, five themes were identified: invalidation, assumption of inferiority, fear of mental illness, shaming of mental illness, and being treated as a second-class citizen.
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In December 2016, Martin was a key speaker at the Guadalajara International Book Fair 2016 in Mexico where the author provided hints about the next two books in the series A Song of Ice and Fire. In 2020, Martin gave a speech at the Hugo awards event which some critics considered racist; Martin mispronounced several names, including that of R. F. Kuang, which she considered a microaggression. Martin later apologized for mispronouncing foreign names.
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McWhorter clarified his views in an article in the Washington Post. McWhorter has debated in favor of the proposition that anti-racism has become as harmful in the United States as racism itself. He has also described anti-racism as a "religious movement" as early as December 2018. Microaggression and white supremacy theories have been criticized by McWhorter, and he has argued that machines, by themselves, cannot be racist since they lack intention as humans do.
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Gender stereotypes influence traditional feminine occupations, resulting in microaggression toward women who break traditional gender roles. These stereotypes include that women have a caring nature, have skill at household-related work, have greater manual dexterity than men, are more honest than men, and have a more attractive physical appearance. Occupational roles associated with these stereotypes include: midwife, teacher, accountant, data entry clerk, cashier, salesperson, receptionist, housekeeper, cook, maid, social worker, and nurse. Occupational segregation maintains gender inequality and gender pay gap.
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Because microaggressions are subtle and perpetrators may be well-meaning, the recipients often experience attributional ambiguity, which may lead them to dismiss the event and blame themselves as overly sensitive to the encounter. If challenged by the minority person or an observer, perpetrators will often defend their microaggression as a misunderstanding, a joke, or something small that should not be blown out of proportion. A 2020 study involving American college students found a correlation between likelihood to commit microaggressions, and racial bias.
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Deadnaming can be overt aggression or subtle microaggression indicating that the target is not fully recognized as a member of a society. Even among those who support trans identities, there is dispute about the appropriateness both of the act of deadnaming, and deadnaming as a legitimate concept. Christopher Reed, a professor of history and scholar of queer culture, argued that deadnaming "inhibits efforts toward self-acceptance and integration." Others have argued that the freedom to deadname is not covered within the principles of academic freedom.
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In addition, he argued that models of disparities that assume inherent African American inferiority are a constant microaggression for African American economists and expressed frustration that many White economists are ignorant of work done by Black economists on these same topics. Spriggs calls on economists who use race in their work to better understand the ways that history and policy have shaped racial categories and focus on studying big questions about the institutions that shape economic outcomes. The letter received a great deal of media coverage, with Spriggs invited to lengthy interviews by multiple major publications.
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After watching them, he gets better at teaching and Mr. Burns sells Homer to Bourbon. Homer meets Neil deGrasse Tyson, Ken Jennings, Suze Orman, and Robert McKee, and sees them being introduced to a group of young female "students" who are actually life-like humanoid robots that will all get into Yale and earn "financial aid" that gets funneled directly to Bourbon. Six months later, Homer ruins Bourbon's integration of the robots at Yale University with a microaggression that makes them all explode. In the final scene, the teachers then start teaching Lisa, Marge, and Bart at the Simpson residence.
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Believing that due to their success and that they possess so-called "positive" stereotypes, many assume they face no forms of racial discrimination or social issues in the greater American society, and that their community is fine, having "gained" social and economic equality. Racial discrimination can take subtle forms such as through microaggression. The stereotyping of Asian Americans as a model minority and perfidious foreigner influences people's perceptions and attitudes towards Asians and also negatively affects students' academic outcomes, relationships with others, and psychological adjustments. For instance, discrimination and model minority stereotyping are linked to Asian American students' lower valuing of school, lower self-esteem, and higher depressive symptoms.
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As the availability of free pornography on the Internet has increased, its possible effects on microaggression towards women have been discussed. The concern has been raised that since bondage pornography mostly depicts women (who are portrayed primarily in situations of female submission), such pornography may promote an attitude legitimising violence against women. The book series and film 50 Shades of Grey has been said to perpetuate misogyny and portray BDSM/bondage subcultures in a patriarchal and misogynistic light. In this view, to properly reflect the BDSM/bondage subculture it is necessary for pornography to "focus on mutual consent, mutual power, and communication," as in the film 50 Shades of Dylan Ryan.
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Some academics, such as Peggy McIntosh, highlight a pattern where those who benefit from a type of privilege are unwilling to acknowledge it. The argument may follow that such a denial constitutes a further injustice against those who do not benefit from the same form of privilege. Derald Wing Sue has referred to such denial as a form of "microaggression" or microinvalidation that negates the experiences of people who don't have privilege and minimizes the impediments they face. McIntosh wrote that most people are reluctant to acknowledge their privilege, and instead look for ways to justify or minimize the effects of privilege stating that their privilege was fully earned.
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Race is a sensitive aspect of cultural competency training that requires professionals to be able to identify, acknowledge and value cultural differences. Training on this aspect of cultural competence teaches professionals that to ignore racial differences is a form of microaggression that can help exacerbate racial inequalities. In order to begin to understand intercultural communications, one must understand the historical and social context under which different cultural groups operate. For example, the history related to the cultural genocide of indigenous peoples in North America, understanding the said group's value system, their ways of learning, and logic is essential in being able to understand how certain aspects of their culture may be similar or different from our own.
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Microaggression is a term used for brief and commonplace daily verbal or behavioral indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative attitudes toward stigmatized or culturally marginalized groups. The term was coined by psychiatrist and Harvard University professor Chester M. Pierce in 1970 to describe insults and dismissals which he regularly witnessed non-black Americans inflicting on African Americans. By the early 21st century, use of the term was applied to the casual degradation of any socially marginalized group, including LGBT people, people living in poverty, and people who are disabled. Psychologist Derald Wing Sue defines microaggressions as "brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages to certain individuals because of their group membership".
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Few academic studies have focused on racial bias on Wikipedia. In an academic analysis of the Wikipedia edit history of Origins of the American Civil War, one conclusion was that, despite aiming for a neutral point of view, Wikipedia content can be a result of a "moral economy of crowdsourcing." During a course and subsequent academic article examining women's historical representation on Wikipedia, it was observed that some editors have an "American exceptionalism" bias that prevents representation of minority groups' histories on Wikipedia. In a 2014 study attempting to quantify phenomenology of racism, the Wikipedia microaggression article and corresponding talk page were used as an example that the testimonies of people of color and individuals from marginalized communities are oftentimes not adequate for white listeners to believe them.
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It has been particularly applied as a negative stereotype of Asian Americans, but it has also affected other minority groups, which have been considered to be "the other" and therefore legally unassimilable, either historically or currently. In personal interactions, it can take the form of an act of microaggression in which a member of a minority group may be asked, "Where are you from?" Also, it can take the form of an explicit act of aggression in which a member of a minority group may be told, "Go back to where you came from." Black Americans are often told "go back to Africa" as a racial insult, despite the fact that on average, they are more likely to have a multi-generational family history in the United States than white Americans do.
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The Good Immigrant is a book of 21 essays by BAME writers, described by Sandeep Parmar in The Guardian as "an unflinching dialogue about race and racism in the UK", which aims to "document… what it means to be a person of colour now" in light of what Shukla notes in the book's foreword "the backwards attitude to immigration and refugees [and] the systematic racism that runs through [Britain]". Written by twenty one British authors of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, The Good Immigrant explores the personal and universal experiences of immigrant and ethnic minority life in the United Kingdom. Shukla's book tells stories of "anger, displacement, defensiveness, curiosity, absurdity" as well as "death, class, microaggression, popular culture, access, freedom of movement, stake in society, lingual fracas, masculinity, and more".
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Members of marginalized groups have also described microaggressions committed by performers or artists associated with various forms of media, such as television, film, photography, music, and books. Some researchers believe that such cultural content reflects but also molds society, allowing for unintentional bias to be absorbed by individuals based on their media consumption, as if it were expressed by someone with whom they had an encounter. A study of racism in TV commercials describes microaggressions as gaining a cumulative weight, leading to inevitable clashes between races due to subtleties in the content. As an example of a racial microaggression, or microassault, this research found that black people were more likely than white counterparts to be shown eating or participating in physical activity, and more likely to be shown working for, or serving others.
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A 2013 scholarly review of the literature on microaggressions concluded that "the negative impact of racial microaggressions on psychological and physical health is beginning to be documented; however, these studies have been largely correlational and based on recall and self-report, making it difficult to determine whether racial microaggressions actually cause negative health outcomes and, if so, through what mechanisms". A 2017 review of microaggression research pointed out that as scholars try to understand the possible harm caused by microaggressions, they have not conducted much cognitive or behavioural research, nor much experimental testing, and they have overly relied on small collections of anecdotal testimonies from samples who are not representative of any particular population. Recipients of microaggressions may feel anger, frustration, or exhaustion. African Americans have reported feeling under pressure to "represent" their group or to suppress their own cultural expression and "act white".
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In The Atlantic, Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt expressed concern that the focus on microaggressions can cause more emotional trauma than the experience of the microaggressions at the time of occurrence. They believe that self-policing by an individual of thoughts or actions in order to avoid committing microaggressions may cause emotional harm as a person seeks to avoid becoming a microaggressor, as such extreme self-policing may share some characteristics of pathological thinking. Referring especially to prevention programs at schools or universities, they say that the element of protectiveness, of which identifying microaggression allegations are a part, prepares students "poorly for professional life, which often demands intellectual engagement with people and ideas one might find uncongenial or wrong". They also said that it has become "unacceptable to question the reasonableness (let alone the sincerity) of someone's emotional state", resulting in adjudication of alleged microaggressions having characteristics of witch trials.
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Beginning in the 1980s, and especially in the late 1990s, the usage as a generic insult became common among young people. This usage of the word has been criticized as homophobic. A 2006 BBC ruling by the Board of Governors over the use of the word in this context by Chris Moyles on his Radio 1 show, "I do not want that one, it's gay," advises "caution on its use" for this reason: The BBC's ruling was heavily criticized by the Minister for Children, Kevin Brennan, who stated in response that "the casual use of homophobic language by mainstream radio DJs" is: Shortly after the Moyles incident, a campaign against homophobia was launched in Britain under the slogan "homophobia is gay", playing on the double meaning of the word "gay" in youth culture, as well as the popular perception that vocal homophobia is common among closeted homosexuals. In a 2013 article published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, University of Michigan researchers Michael Woodford, Alex Kulick and Perry Silverschanz, alongside Appalachian State University professor Michael L. Howell, argued that the pejorative use of the word "gay" was a microaggression.
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