Reflection on “Microaggressions in everyday life”
Have you ever been treated different just because the way you look? We all should be treated as human beings, with respect to one another, and make people feel like they are in home. Dr. Sue wrote the article “Microaggressions in everyday life” and she talks about how Microaggresions affects non-white people in their every day life. Dr. Sue divides Microaggresions in three forms that are: microassault, microinsult, and microinvalidation. I found this article interesting because it makes you think about how white people unintentionally discriminate against people of color, and most of the time they don’t even think about their actions.
According to this article written by Dr. Sue, “Microaggressions can be verbal, behavioral and environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults to people of color”. It is hard to know how this kind of behavior happens in our every day life, and the worst thing is that many white people might not even know that they are making some one feel bad. I would be good that schools provided more information about microaggressions to their students. That way we could all learn about how to deal with different ethnicities and have better communication with each other.
I liked the examples from the article a lot, and how they explain each of the different Microaggressions. I have experienced one of the examples mentioned in the article; sometimes at work white people ask me how I got my job. I try to not take it offensive because it is just a question and many people do that kind of questions. Even when I try not to take it seriously, sometimes I feel bad when some people ask me that question as it makes me feel that I don’t deserve to be working at a front desk position because I am Latino. Another example that has happened to me related to Microaggressions is that many white people don’t think before saying something. For example, while at work one of my coworkers asked me if I was from Mexico. Only because I have dark skin it doesn’t mean that I am from Mexico, or that any dark skinned person has to be Latino. I can say that I have experienced many times this kind of Microaggressions in my every day life. It would be nice that we all learned more about this harmful topic.
Talking about this kind of topic is hard because it affects many people. I liked the article a lot, because made me think about how we should all live respecting each other. It doesn’t matter where we come from; in the end we are all the same, we are all humans. We just have to learn how to coexist and learn from each other. Microaggressions are always going to happen in life because many people might not even notice that they are making somebody feel bad.
This is not a general problem among all white people. I have met a lot of white people that are actually very nice and kind and very careful about what they say. It doesn’t mean that because I am minority I have to believe that I’m going to be rejected or mistreated. I have learned that there are very good people out there, and no matter their ethnicity they could end up being your very best friends. We just have to learn to treat each other with respect.
Hi Seimy,
ReplyDeleteThis works fascinates me as well. One of the definitions of white privilege is "having the power to be oblivious to other people and their cultures" which I think is part of where racial microaggressions come from. As part of survival non-white people have had to figure us out, our culture, likes and dislikes, etc- yet we have not always returned the favor. As you say, it is about respect.
One thing that was missing from this article though, was the experience of Native Americans. Sadly this absence is too often the case, as many people just seem to leave out our First People from a variety of places.
Thank you for a thoughtful and insightful reflection.
Melissa