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Campus racism 101
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Environmental microaggressions deliver through various aggressive signals that affects social, economic, political and educational domains, and it can be communicated at individual, institutional or cultural levels against subordinate groups (Pierce, 1970; Sue, 2010). Verbal and nonverbal forms of microaggressions can be recognized, but environmental microaggressions are difficult to recognize and pinpoint. Moreover, environmental microaggressions may be more damaging when intentionally or unintentionally appears in environment (climate of a place). Solorzano et al., (2009) noted that in context of higher education institution, campus climate refers to environmental messages to students and staff members. A racist campus climate conveys environmental microaggressions (without any kind of interpersonal relation) against the the students of color (Watkins et al., as cited in Sue, 2010b. p. 25-57). …show more content…
In many cases, environmental microaggressions are direct and clear message to subordinate student groups that this campus is not inclusive.
Sue, Capodilupo et al., (2007) stated environmental microaggressions communicate different messages for different groups. The students of color may experience campus climate is hostile and exclusionary; whereas, white students experience campus climate is welcoming and accommodative. However, campus climate is more than perceptions of underrepresented students; it is a multidimensional environmental aspect that impacts academic outcomes (Hurtado et al, 2008). Environmental microaggressions occur at macro and systemic levels, it could be the most effective way to deliver microaggressions because it prevails everywhere in specific context. Environmental microaggressions can be communicated through symbols, images, and mass media presentation of subordinate groups (Sue,
2010). Environmental microaggressions in context to caste-based discrimination refers to the dominance of the higher castes in higher education and specifically it is prominent in elite institutions across India. Some examples such as last name of faculties (e.g. a name plate outside an office), last name mostly signify a caste identity and the higher caste faculties dominate the elite institutions. In case of IITs, faculties statistics shows that number of the higher caste faculties is disproportionally high (Rao, as cited in Nambissan and Rao, 2012), which convey environmental microaggressions against the lower caste students (particularly Dalit & Tribal). Several incidents of caste-based discrimination in IITs have recorded; therefore, the lower caste students may perceive these institutions as environmentally threatening. In other words, IITs is notorious for harassing Dalit and Tribal students. Sing stated that (as cited in Deshpande & Zacharias, 2013) that communicate powerful message that they have to face environmental microaggressions. In the elite institutions, the lower caste students experience low status because of their poor material condition (Weisskopf, 2004) compared to the higher caste peers and faculties. All the elite institutions emphasize meritocracy, which indirectly communicates a subtle message to the beneficiaries of affirmative action that “you are not meritocratic.” Some of the elite institutions do not legitimately practice affirmative action policy and in some cases subvert the policy to benefit the higher caste groups. These type of practices create a fear of environmental microaggressions for the lower caste students. In general, non-vegetarian food is common among Dalits and Tribal, but non-vegetarian food is taboo in many the higher caste groups (Jodhka, 2012). Thus, Dalits and Tribal students do not eat, talk or avoid any conversion about non-vegetarian food (e.g. beef) in the institutions.
“College campuses are not dominated by widespread racial/ethnic segregation and the racial/ethnic clustering that does occur isn’t impeding intergroup contact.” (578, Hoeffner and Hoeffner). Throughout the essay, the writer continues to provide facts and sources on the information that diversity is not a problem on college campuses. She quotes evidence that states that college students are getting a “variety of positive educational outcomes that result from being educated in a diverse environment.” (578, Hoeffner and Hoeffner).
In Schooltalk: Rethinking What We Say About - and to - Students Every Day, Mica Pollock provides readers with fact-based information to “flip the script” of the misrepresentation of students in the education setting. Pollock demonstrates how race, gender, and ethnic labels can be detrimental to student achievement. She, then, dives in to 600 years of myths regarding social race labels and how they continue to affect humans today. By correcting race, gender, and ethnicity label myths in our minds, we can effectively advocate for these students. To conclude the book, Pollock focuses on how to devise a plan to correct our own misconceptions and foster a supportive environment for diverse students. Throughout
Kohli and Solórzano’s theory of racial microaggression is described as subtle daily verbal and non-verbal racial insults that are often carried out automatically or unconsciously. People of color are usually targeted through layers based on their language, culture, and phenotype, and Eurocentric cultural values through the act of microaggressions often replace these layers. The authors argued that these microaggressions, although said unconsciously or subtly, the consequences of an individual’s experiences can have a detrimental impact on their well-being and self-perceptions (Kholi & Solórzano, 2012).
The idea of racism has evolved and has become less prevalent throughout the last century. Schools and public areas are unsegregated, voting rights, racial slurs being considered as unacceptable behavior etc. American sociologist and race theorist, Howard Winant states that’s “The ensuing approaches increased recognition of racial injustice and inequality, but did not overcome the discriminatory processes” (Winant,2000)Although the United states has come a long way to try to end racism, one cannot ignore the fact that it still exists. It is something that may seem invisible in society, but everybody knows that it still thrives and that it’s racial attitudes affect the way our society functions. One of these invisible forms of racism is called microagression. Microagression is the theory that certain interactions between different races can be interpreted as small acts of verbal aggression. Racial micro aggression has caused many behavior and identity problems between races in today’s society. In the article, "Microagressions in everyday life", Dr. Derald Wing Sue states that “Microaggressions are similar to carbon monoxide - “invisible, but potentially lethal” - continuous exposure to these type of interactions “can be a sort of death by a thousand cuts to the victim” It is a common experience that many people of different racial groups deal within their every day lives. They are harmful to society, creating a hostile environment, dividing people apart, creating inequalities, and decreasing productivity in the work and school environment.
According to The Coddling of the American Mind, trigger warnings and microaggressions confine professors’ and well-educated adults’ unalienable right of speech; furthermore, they can impact one’s health. Protecting rights have a unison consensus; the authors unite them and the audience together to persuade the well-educated adults to protest the use of trigger warnings and microaggressions. While concluding that vindictive protectiveness is the reason for trigger warnings and microaggressions Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt state, “A campus culture devoted to policing speech and punishing speakers is likely to engender patterns of thought that are surprisingly similar to those long identified by cognitive behavioral therapists as causes of depression and anxiety.” (45) The word “policing” holds a negative connotation implying regulation, and no one wants their first amendment right of free speech stolen from them. Also the idea that trigger warnings and microaggressions may lead to depression and anxiety gives more logical reasoning to end trigger warnings and microaggressions in higher level education. When the authors specify the change that colleges should make, Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt write their idea of the purpose of college, “Rather than
Microaggressions are committed constantly, among numerous people without them realizing it. I must say I am completely guilty of also playing part in this act. These acts are done constantly and no one understands the affects it has on people. Miller and Garran (2008) states, “Racial microaggressions are similar to aversive racism. They are “subtle, stunning, often automatic,” verbal and nonverbal putdowns and social assaults that wound people of color unbeknownst to the perpetrator” (p.97). This is what produces pain and anger inside countless of people. Many individuals need professional help in order to surpass the neglect they have been summited to.
I will discuss these acts of microaggression with an emphasis on students in a post-secondary white-based environment. That is, a university or college that is predominantly biased towards a White culture. However, this general knowledge is not apparent to White people. Similar to microaggressions, John F. Dovidio discusses the concept of aversion racism, “a subtle, often unintentional form of bias that characterizes many White Americans who possess strong egalitarian values and who believe that they are nonprejudiced” (90).
higher education context, research synthesis on the campus climate demonstrates that race is one of the most significant factors on campuses. Harper and Hurtado (2007) stated that it is an institutional (e.g. administration, faculty, and researchers) responsibility to make a regular assessment of the campus climate and take needful actions to change it. The authors noted that racial experiences in a learning environment on the college campuses cannot be ignored at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs). Similarly, in the Indian context, caste realities have been overlooked in the higher education policy domain. Thus, the campus climate has emerged as a significant issue in Indian universities and specifically, at premier institutions. Social tension around caste identities and recent incidents of open clashes between student groups and between administrators and students demand attention and scholarly investigations of the campus climate concerns. From the U.S. experience, climate assessment is designed to be a proactive strategy rather than a reactive response to deal with the climate issues (Hurtado et al.,
Solorzano, D., Ceja, M., & Yosso, T. (2000). Critical race theory, racial microaggressions, and campus racial climate: The experiences of African American college students. Journal of Negro Education, 69(1/2), 60-73.
Critical race theory (CRT) is a framework that may be useful for examining how racial climate impacts the undergraduate experiences of African-American students on college campuses (Murphy, Gaughan, Hume, & Moore, 2010). CRT draws from a broad base of literature in sociology, history, ethnic studies, women’s study, and law (Murphy, Gaughan, Hume, & Moore, 2010). CRT consists of five elements: 1) the centrality of race and racism, and their intersectionality with other forms of subordination, 2) the challenge to dominant ideology, 3) the commitment to social justice, 4) the centrality of experiential knowledge, and 5) the transdisciplinary perspective (Murphy, Gaughan, Hume, & Moore, 2010). Applying CRT to education is different than other CRT applications as it challenges traditional paradigms, methods, texts, and separate discourse of race, gender, and class by showing how social constructs intersect to impact on communities of color (Murphy, Gaughan, Hume, & Moore,
Dilemma 1: Clash of racial realities; where racial perceptions of people of color differ markedly from those of whites. White Americans believe that minorities are doing better, that discrimination is declining, and that racism is not a significant factor anymore however, minorities, on the other hand, perceive whites as racially insensitive, believing they are superior, and treat them poorly because of their race. Dilemma 2: the invisibility of unintentional expressions of bias; research continues to confirm the existence of unconscious racial biases in well-intentioned whites and that nearly everyone born in America inherits the racial biases of the society. According to this finding, microaggressions would occur when whites would pretend not to notice differences, thereby justifying that "color" was not involved at all, in any of the actions taken. Dilemma 3: perceived minimal harm of racial microaggressions; where/when people of color are told to stop overreacting and to just let it go and so they are encouraged to not waste any time or effort on them. Dilemma 4: the catch-22 of responding to microaggressions; the immediate reaction of the victim is potentially placed in a series of questions. These questions are more often than not, reactions/victims of color who experience "an
Macrosociological and microsociaological concepts are opposite of each other. In looking at macrosociology, it tends to examines everything as large experiences. However, microsociology view images as microscopic groups. Both philosophies are vital when it comes to gaining knowledge regarding the conduct of individuals.
Microaggressions is a biased form of language tone, looks, gestures, and regular conversations with the intent of belittling or creating a gap with another person since they are different from the norm. For example, a fair-skinned, full bearded man wearing a long, white headscarf walking into a department store. However, the storekeeper asks that man to leave because, he is making the other shoppers feel uncomfortable. So, this scenario is a demonstration of a microaggressions. Furthermore, this type of bias is not equal to that of discrimination of skin color or individual racism, on the contrary, he has been asked to leave the store because of his headscarf which is a part of him and his belief. In addition, the storekeeper is rating the
Microaggression is defined as a comment or action that subtly and often unconsciously or unintentionally express an attitude toward a member of a marginalized group, such as Asian Americans, African Americans. Before completing this assignment, I was unaware of the term microaggression. As I contemplate on my microaggression, a variety of comments came to mind that made me feel less than. For my in-class presentation, my microaggression reads “So your name is Betty! Is that short for Elizabeth?”. While this microaggression does not pertain to a special marginalized group, it pertains to me a member of a minority group. Growing up in a society that considers you less than based simply on the color of your skin, one can imagine how a simple sentence or question can have a mental and physical impact on the body.
A taxonomy of racial microaggression model (Sue, Capodilupo et al., 2007; Sue & Capodilupo, 2008) has adopted to classify caste-based discrimination in higher education. Microaggressions are identified into three categories: microassult, microinsults, and microinvalidations. These three categories represented different forms of overt and covert forms of invasive messages toward recipients. The model shows relations between three categories, and lists few everyday concealed/humiliating messages under each category, which are communicated toward people of color. The model explores racial microaggressions to explain various forms when racism is the central cause. In figure-1, the racial microaggression