More on Microaggressions

Some work from the University of California on the subject of microaggressions crossed my browser this morning.  It made for an interesting read, in that I now know that a microaggression is, "the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership."

How big a committee wrote that one?  And who do they define as a, "marginalized group?"

Sounds too straight white male think to me. Here are some examples that amplify it and my thoughts:

Themes	Microaggression Examples	Message	My Comment
Alien in One’s Own Land: When Asian Americans, Latino Americans and others who look different or are named differently from the dominant culture are assumed to be foreign-born	“Where are you from or where were you born?”	You are not a true American.	If someone asks me this question, I only have one response. “Texas.” Deep down inside I want to be a REAL Texan, and ask, “And what country are YOU from?” but I can control myself and my point was made in one word.
	“You speak English very well.”		DUH. It’s my first language.
	Continuing to mispronounce the names of students after students have corrected the person time and time again. Not willing to listen closely and learn the pronunciation of a non-English based name.	Your ethnic/racial identity makes you exotic.	Sorry, UC, although I like being referred to as, “exotic,” you got this one wrong, wrong, wrong. I’ve endured this one, and the person doing it comes across to me as an ignoramus at best.
Myth of Meritocracy Statements which assert that race or gender does not play a role in life successes, for example in issues like faculty demographics.	“America is the land of opportunity.” “Everyone can succeed in this society, if they work hard enough	People of color are given extra unfair benefits because of their race. The playing field is even so if women cannot make it, the problem is with them. People of color are lazy and/or incompetent and need to work harder.	Look, we all know it’s not what you know. It’s who you know. Let’s just drop the pretense.
Sexist/Heterosexist Language Terms that exclude or degrade women and LGBT persons	Being forced to choose Male or Female when completing basic forms	LGBT categories are not recognized	Another binary that makes no sense. Please don’t complain when I ask that in the selections you include are, “Don’t know / not sure,” “Other (Please specify,)” and “Decline to state.”
	Two options for relationship status: married or single.	LGBT partnerships are invisible.	As a widower, I go, “Huh,” when faced with this binary.
Traditional Gender Role Prejudicing and Stereotyping Occurs when expectations of traditional roles or stereotypes are conveyed.	Labeling an assertive female committee chair/dean as a “b____,” while describing a male counterpart as a “forceful leader.”	Women are out of line when they are aggressive.	OK, being aggressive and being assertive are two different things. And when it comes to jerks, let’s use gender neutral terms such as the one with eight letters beginning with a and ending with e.

With that said, the complete paper can be found here.  And I just used HTML coding skills to get around a Blogger limitation.  Hooray!

On a lighter note, hope your Easter went well.