What is microaggression?

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Darmok
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24 Feb 2016, 2:48 pm

The Wizard of Id commits a microaggression:

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0_equals_true
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24 Feb 2016, 2:51 pm

androbot01 wrote:

Microaggression exists. As does microcompassion. I have a bandage from a biopsy on my face and when I went out for groceries people were either super kind and nice or they looked away and went off.

That is empathy and aversion.

Strangely, sometimes aversion is related to empathy, due to being overwhelming or not wanting to be seen. Other time they might just be scared of it.

You can't objectively test what they were thinking. Looking away is not aggression.

Ironically it is the people that fear being looked at that might react that way, becuase they are naturally anxious about peoples perception. So if they see someone with a facial disfigurement or disability, they don't know where to look and can feel anxious about it. It is not that they don't feel empathy for them.

Even for the sake of argument they thought ill of you, what benefit to you to internalise or make a big issue about private thoughts of strangers?

We all have misconceptions, fears and may react initially with aversion. We are all hypocrites.

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24 Feb 2016, 2:55 pm

0_equals_true wrote:

...You can't objectively test what they were thinking. Looking away is not aggression. ...

No and I didn't mean to imply that. The one thing I didn't feel from others on that occasion was aggression. I felt that people were concerned. The ones who looked away maybe more so.

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24 Feb 2016, 3:02 pm

beneficii wrote:

What I find funny is that white people consider people of color discussing their experiences with microaggression to be "anti-free speech." It's like the white people would just rather that people of color to shut up and go away; otherwise, their 1st amendment rights are being violated. It's ironic because if anything by demanding silence from people of color, telling them not to speak of their experiences when doing so is uncomfortable to white people, it's the white people who are being anti-free speech.

It probably was an idea with some merit initially, like to address subtle derogatory behavior...but I think some take it to an extreme, like the anti-free speech crowd. I mean what is the difference between a microagression over someones race and just being rude or not coming off as friendly for instance? I mean just as an example I feel like it could lead to situations like not making eye contact, a problem many of us her have being misconstrued as being a micro aggression when you wouldn't make eye contact with a white person either.

But I think people should talk about this, everyone should tell their experiences...Also I think you're sort of generalizing 'white people' they don't collectively want minorities to be silent about their experiences. Accusatory language from either side directed at the whole group collectively usually just makes everyone involved defensive.

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Sweetleaf
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24 Feb 2016, 3:12 pm

beneficii wrote:

androbot01,

Very good point. Yes, there is that automatic tendency to categorize, and that's probably not going away anytime soon. What activists want, however, is for people to become aware of that fact and admit to it, instead of trying to dissemble this tendency by saying stuff like, "I don't see race. I only see people." This makes them come across as obtuse or dishonest to the people of color confronting them, and the person in question is basically in denial. The first step to solving or at least mitigating a problem is to admit that you have it. If more people were self-aware like this, the impacts of microaggressions would be lessened, and activists would be a lot less frustrated.

And what if you do see race, but its not what you use to decide your impression of someone? It seems sometimes the goal gets to be getting people to admit to things they don't even think or feel...and that to me is too far. I mean yeah as for honesty I can see race there are features associated with certain ones that can give me a pretty good idea of what ethnic background someone may have. However I think the belief in racial superiority is absolute B.S., so as part of necessary discussion of the issue I'd say it doesn't feel good to be accused of some kind of weird subconscious closet racism when you don't believe in racial superiority...and I have gotten that feeling from this kind of movement from time to time, not always but its there.

I guess I am confused as to why it is assumed everyone has this 'problem' those activists want them to admit to, but maybe I am not understanding what exactly the problem is supposed to be.

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Last edited by Sweetleaf on 24 Feb 2016, 3:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

beneficii
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24 Feb 2016, 3:14 pm

Sweetleaf,

You make good points, too, but you have to keep in mind that people aren't always going to be nice when they tell you a problem that they have, and you shouldn't shut them down just because they weren't nice about it. As an autistic person, I'm sure you will understand that when expressing our needs and concerns we may not always be nice. We may be frustrated, we may feel that by being nice people don't take us seriously, etc. However, the problems are still there and won't go away, and they need expression. Other minorities may run into this issue as well and blaming them and shutting them down for not playing "nice" is disingenuous and may prevent them from being heard at all.

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24 Feb 2016, 3:15 pm

0_equals_true wrote:

...We all have misconceptions, fears and may react initially with aversion. We are all hypocrites.

Furthermore,
I don't think it is hypocritical to suppress one's instinct to categorize and participate in microaggression. It's probably an instinct that goes back to avoiding unknown threats, but these days the threat is false.

My compassion example was to illustrate how people use the most obvious evidence to regulate their behaviour to others.

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24 Feb 2016, 3:24 pm

Sweetleaf,

It's been long understood in psychology that you're not always fully aware of everything going on in your mind or the motivations for your actions. You might be unaware of racial biases that nonetheless influence your behavior. This is what the Implicit Associations Test put out by Harvard shows, this is what other psychology researchers have found in many other areas.

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24 Feb 2016, 3:28 pm

beneficii wrote:

I only agreed that the idea probably does get blown out of proportion by people, I think the term micro aggression is a pretty good one for subtle discrimination or racism...my concern would just be with using the term to the extent of trying to analyze any and every behavior in an interaction with a minority digging for how its discriminatory for instance.

Also when people are frustrated there can certainly be anger and what not, not saying people should never get angry or express that if they feel slighted or discriminated against. But its not really fair to just assume anyone who's white is discriminatory towards people who aren't....and then berate them and demand they admit it if they express they aren't a racist for instance. Basically if there is no civility between various groups nothing can move forward...but playing too nice makes you a push over to....so a balance is best.

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24 Feb 2016, 3:35 pm

androbot01 wrote:

I don't think it is hypocritical to suppress one's instinct to categorize and participate in microaggression. It's probably an instinct that goes back to avoiding unknown threats, but these days the threat is false.

I was going to make a point similar to that but I somewhat disagree. You are also relaying on you perceptions of what is goign on.

We need to act proportionally to unknown threats.

"Microaggression" is far too ambiguous is it not categorized enough and, as like sweatleaf says very easy for such a term to be abused.

"Passive aggression" for example can only be determined through actions, and even that concept is controversial at times.

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24 Feb 2016, 3:36 pm

beneficii wrote:

I am aware of that, but I think it would be a stretch to call someone a racist if they make subconscious associations in their mind for instance. I mean then it seems a person could potentially never get it right, like it could just continuously be argued they should admit to racism because of subconscious things going on in their mind. So I guess the concern is where does it stop, when can someone say with certaintiy they arent a racist according to it? That is what I mean by some people potentially taking it too far and just increasing tension rather than reducing it.

That said I took some test about that sort of thing and got a result that implied I was neutral about race as far as behavior...but not sure how accurate those kinds of tests actually are.

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24 Feb 2016, 3:41 pm

'Anti free speech movement' is an interesting term.

What does it mean?

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24 Feb 2016, 3:42 pm

Sweetleaf wrote:

There are better explanations and terms for for subtle racism.

How many people have dated or would date another race? Is this micro-aggression? Not exactly. Are these people bad probably not.

I think it is one thing using the term micro-aggression academically, it another thing objectively identifying it in another person.

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24 Feb 2016, 3:46 pm

0_equals_true wrote:

androbot01 wrote:

I was going to make a point similar to that but I somewhat disagree. You are also relaying on you perceptions of what is goign on.

Oh it's totally anecdotal.

Quote:

"Microaggression" is far too ambiguous is it not categorized enough and, as like sweatleaf says very easy for such a term to be abused.

There is for sure the possibility of abuse, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

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24 Feb 2016, 3:48 pm

0_equals_true wrote:

Sweetleaf wrote:

Well yes I think it makes more sense as an academic term, since I imagine it takes quite a bit of analysis to really delve into what all thoughts and pre-conceived notions where going into someone's behavior. Perhaps just subtle racism is a better term for your typical informal discussion...but I guess I more meant it sounds like there is something to the term microagression so I'm not on the 'it simply doesn't exist' bandwagon.

But yeah I am sure a lot of people also don't know if they'd date another race or not...due to not having had such an opportunity. And even then how do they know if it had anything to do with the race or just lack of compatability.

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Last edited by Sweetleaf on 24 Feb 2016, 3:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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24 Feb 2016, 3:48 pm

Hopper wrote:

'Anti free speech movement' is an interesting term.

What does it mean?

Well historically it came from ideologies that were explicitly were against free speech, nowadays it i.e. mixture of that and people don't understand how their dislike of certain views and their polices to limit this are undermining basic rights.

It is more easily identifiable than micro-aggression.

Like those student union that were convincing student to vote on segregation polices.

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