\u201cIt is not the White supremacists, Ku Klux Klan members, or Skinheads, for example, who pose the greatest threat to people of color, but instead well-intentioned people, who are strongly motivated by egalitarian values, believe in their own morality, and experience themselves as fair-minded and decent people who would never consciously discriminate\u2026 On a conscious level they may endorse egalitarian values, but on an unconscious level, they harbor antiminority feelings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prof. DERALD WING SUE<\/em><\/p>\n MICROAGGRESSIONS IN EVERYDAY LIFE<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Randy Mendez, 38, from Eugene, Oregon, says being asked \u201cWhere are you really from?\u201d over and over again starts to feel like the question is really, \u201cSo, what are you doing here?\u201d He says that he always says that he was born in Oregon, but his father is from Mexico, since that seems to be what people are usually asking. He says nobody ever asks him where his mother is from. (Reported by Christina Zdanowicz, CNN, \u201cNo, Where Are You Really From<\/a>?)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When a co-worker or a supervisor asks you \u201cWhere are you from?\u201d or \u201cWhere were you born?\u201d it is sending you a message that \u201cYou are not American\u201d and that \u201cYou are a foreigner.\u201d\u00a0[iii]<\/a>\u00a0Such aggressive action should be addressed thoughtfully, and without delay.\u00a0 See,\u00a0STOP Technique: Microaggression<\/a>.<\/p>\n Experts believe that plain expressions of racism (hate crimes, physical assaults, use of racial epithets, and blatant discriminatory acts) are increasingly transformed into a more \u201ccontemporary and insidious form that hides in our cultural assumptions\/beliefs\/values, in our institutional policies and practices, and in the deeper psychological recesses of our individual psyches.\u201d[iv]<\/a>\u00a0 In other words, \u201crace experts believe that racism has become invisible, subtle, and more indirect, operating below the level of conscious awareness, and continuing to oppress in unseen ways.\u201d\u00a0[v]<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cMicroaggressions can be directed at any marginalized group. Groups that are marginalized by our society exist on the margins (lower or outer limits) of social desirability and consciousness.\u201d\u00a0[vi]<\/a><\/p>\n Microinvalidation<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cMicroinvalidations may potentially represent the\u00a0most damaging<\/strong>\u00a0form of the\u00a0microaggressions<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0[vii]<\/a>\u00a0For example, statements such as \u201cI \u2019 m not homophobic, I have a gay friend, \u201d \u201c I have nothing against Muslims, I\u2019ve a good friend who is a Muslim,\u201d and \u201c As an employer I treat all men and women equally \u201d may possess the following hidden messages: \u201c I am immune to heterosexism, \u201d \u201c The only reason I have hesitations about interracial relationships is concern about the offspring and it has nothing to do with personal bias,\u201d and \u201c I never discriminate against women.\u201d When such statements are made to a person of color, for example, they deny the racial reality of the individual (an experience that personal racial bias resides in everyone).[viii]<\/a><\/p>\n When asked \u201cWhere are you from?\u201d in the context of this article, the aggressor is attempting to invalidate the victim\u2019s expertise, knowledge, humanity, position and standing in the company or the community.<\/p>\n Experts do recognize microaggression as bullying.[ix]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Bullying has no room in workplace and should not be tolerated.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n [i]<\/a>\u00a0Please Stop Asking People of Color Where They\u2019re From<\/a>.\u00a0Eisa Nefertari Ulen<\/a>, Reader\u2019s Digest. March 25, 2022.<\/p>\n [ii]<\/a>\u00a0Unmasking \u201cracial micro aggressions\u201d<\/a>, Tori DeAngelis, American Psychological Association, February 2009, Vol 40, No. 2, Page 42.<\/p>\n [iii]<\/a>\u00a0Microaggressions in everyday life: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation<\/a>\u00a0\/Derald Wing Sue. Taxonomy of Microaggressions, Table 2.1, Page 32.<\/p>\n [iv]<\/a>\u00a0DeVos & Banaji, 2005; Dovidio, Gaertner, Kawakami, & Hodson 2002; Nelson, 2006; Sue, Capodilupo, Nadal, & Torino, 2008.<\/p>\n [v]<\/a>\u00a0Microaggressions in everyday life: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation<\/a>\u00a0\/Derald Wing Sue. Chapter: The Changing Face of Racism, Page 8.<\/p>\n [vi]<\/a>\u00a0 Id. pp. 13-14.<\/p>\n [vii]<\/a>\u00a0Id. \u00a0p. 37.<\/p>\n [viii]<\/a>\u00a0Id. p. 38.<\/p>\n [ix]<\/a>\u00a0Bullying and Microaggressions<\/a>, David Rivera Ph.D., Psychology Today. (2011)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cIt is not the White supremacists, Ku Klux Klan members, or Skinheads, for example, who pose the greatest threat to people of color, but instead well-intentioned people, who are strongly motivated by egalitarian values, believe in their own morality, and … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6245,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2871,140463],"tags":[2871,140463],"class_list":["post-51","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bullying","category-microaggression","tag-bullying","tag-microaggression"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/amirkohan1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/amirkohan1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/amirkohan1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/amirkohan1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6245"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/amirkohan1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/amirkohan1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/amirkohan1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions\/53"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/amirkohan1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/amirkohan1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/amirkohan1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}