Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

This was a very interesting week for me. I learned a new term, called microaggression. I felt this term, but did not know it had a specific name until listing and watching Dr. Sue. An example of a microaggression I experienced in the past happened when I was working as a teacher in a school in a part of town where there were mostly Caucasian people. I worked as a teacher, and I was in school for my undergraduate degree. Other teachers who were Caucasian were in school as well, but when in a conversation with parents, and they would say or reference school, parents automatically asked them what’s their major, and expected graduation date, and tell them how great it was for them to be going to school, and how brave they were for going to school and working. I knew a particular parent in my classroom had a child in another classroom, and I witnessed a conversation as I described where the parent took a great interest in the teacher’s attempt to better themselves. One day, I received a racial microagression two different ways within the same conversation. The parent and I were conversing, and I mentioned school, the parent looked shocked, and said, “you’re in school?!” as if I was not supposed to be in school. I said “yes, I am”. The parent proceeded to say “I didn’t know you were in school; it never crossed my mind”. I replied, that most of the ladies there were in college, and she replied, “yes, but I would have never guessed you were in school”. It made me feel invisible, and made me feel like since I am black, that I shouldn’t even think or want to go to college; I am not good enough to attend college. It hurt my feelings. To top it off, the parent went on talking, not asking me about school as I witnessed her as other teachers, she said “you do speak well; you are a very articulate girl!” she said it in a way that was complimentary, but also shocking to her that I was able to speak well, and not as like the stereotypes that are portrayed for black people. I was younger, and felt like the parent was being racist/prejudice. She was a nice woman, very sweet, but did not see how bad she made me feel. I had to brush it off, and not make it seem as if I was being too sensitive, or over thinking the situation, but I know what I felt and what the under tone of the conversation was.

The effects of discrimination, prejudice and stereotypes on people is very damaging. Dr. Sue talks about the long term affects these behaviors have on the targeted individuals. People are made to feel inferior, and try not to succeed due to this intended/non-intended microagressions. This is something that will continue, unless everyone takes responsibility on how they interact with other groups, and try not to portray and feed into the stereotypes given by society. This also made me aware of my own biases that I have, and to really take a look at how I understand stereotypes, and how not to allow those misrepresentations to keep me and others feeling oppressed.