Racial Microaggressions

[kelkyag]

Signal boosting: Racial Microaggressions.

I know I'm much more aware of equivalents with respect to gender and religion, and will try to be more attentive to such things in general. By all means call me on it ...

Comments

[merastra]

That's really interesting. Thanks for calling that out. I'll have to check myself too.

[countertorque]

I got off at "Microinsults: Verbal, nonverbal, and environmental communications that subtly convey rudeness and insensitivity that demean a person's racial heritage or identity. An example is an employee who asks a co-worker of color how he/she got his/her job, implying he/she may have landed it through an affirmative action or quota system."

I'll remember to never ask any non-white person how they got their job or where they grew up.

[kelkyag]

Tone and wording matter immensely in a question like that, and there are potentially a lot of assumptions in it about networking. I would like to think well enough of you to believe that you would never ask such a question in the sort of accusative or derogatory tone that implies a lack of proper qualifications.

But if you don't trust yourself with that, feel free never to ask any woman how she got her job, either. I've been lucky enough not to run into that sort of nonsense at work, but I ran into "the things girls are doing these days" from male professors a couple of times, and I can't say it made me enthusiastic about taking their classes.

[dcltdw]

This is the crux of privilege, isn't it? We have the privilege of never having anyone wonder if we got our jobs through affirmative action or a quota system. I think it'd be nice if other people had the same privilege.

What makes all of this hard is that there isn't a hard and fast rule that works. It's as kelkyag says: tone and wording matter immensely.

Trying to simplify a complicated system leads to one of two non-working answers: never engage anyone (as you wrote), or label all of this as "too PC" (what I used to think for ages).

[desireearmfeldt]

(Smack me if I'm out of line, but I've always been kind of curious about this...)

In this sort of discussion, you usually seem to identify as white. But you have always had an asian last name, and you're asian-looking enough that I would be surprised if no one ever identifies you as asian. So, I was wondering whether you ever find yourself on the other end of the privilege/racism dynamic?

[golden_meliades]

When I lived in Ottawa, I was in a black neighbourhood. I had a female friend who came over and was paranoid about locking the car door, jittering about how my neighbourhood was such a 'bad' one. I was blank...didn't know why she thought I lived in a bad neighbourhood. She actually lived in a much worse one...more theft and so on and bars over the windows of all the stores, none of which happened in my own neighbourhood. (Well it happens everywhere, but I mean it was more of a problem in HER neighbourhood than mine.) So in retrospect I guess the constant present of non-white people made her think it was a bad/dangerous neighbourhood

[golden_meliades]

Presence, not present.

[nuclearpolymer]

See, this is exactly the problem. Many of these micro-issues can sound like perfectly innocent or normal things to say. But, they do not have the same implications coming from a person in the majority group to a person in the minority group

[golden_meliades]

Sure, but is saying 'It's tough when I try to say hello to a girl at the bus stop, and she looks at me like I'm a rapist,' mean that he's saying that women have no right or reason to be cautious? Or is it just that he's saying that he has his own role, too, and it's not comfortable or fair *either*? Everyone needs to be able to express their own feelings on how an issue affects them.

As a white female who equally dislikes every race, including her own, I just feel like saying 'You know, it kind of sucks to be white. It's not like I *chose* it.' (I'd have chosen 'tree' anyway.)

[sauergeek]

At least one of those nominal microaggressions has come up empty in the past. Central Michigan's mascot is a Chippewa Indian, with the full support of the local Chippewa tribe. In the most recent challenge to the name, the tribe joined with the university to appeal the NCAA's decree that CMU's Chippewa mascot was "hostile and abusive", http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/09/06/mascot, eventually getting the NCAA to remove the decree.

[kelkyag]

The full support of the local Chippewa tribe is kind of critical, there, as do sentiments like one quoted in that article from one of the other schools using a tribal name: "We value their support and will work closely with the Tribe to ensure that the Ute name continues to be used in an honorable and respectful manner." Context matters. Respectfulness matters.