The issue of microaggression is helping to promote a victimhood culture in many groups of ethnic diversity. Every student who takes a history class is aware of the horrendous acts of racism that occurred in the past. People were slaughtered, enslaved and denied basic human rights. Currently, there are laws in place to protect the rights of everyone. A recent trend in society seems to be that small, seemingly harmless phrases are offending many. In a classroom setting, a teacher addresses the class as “you guys” and a young junior expresses her opinion saying “this isn’t a men’s issue. How dare you… say that females aren’t important.” Although the teacher did not intend to offend the young lady, he ultimately did. Bradley Campbell explains
As I grew out of the the Veggie Tales phase, the idea of standing up for what I believed in became more relevant. Throughout primary school, I unquestioningly did what most girls did, and followed the status quo. However, upon entering middle school, I started to notice a stark juxtaposition between the behaviors of the boys and the girls in my class. Now, after years of observing overt stereotypes and prejudice, I have learned not only to question the patriarchy, but to stand up to it, as I believe that sexism is a crucial problem we face in today’s world.
This awareness does come with a social outcry, an explosive retaliation, as the stress builds and boils until the injustice cannot be tolerated any longer. The Rodney King incident in Los Angeles is a prime example of social retaliation by the masses. The injustices that occurred paved the way for a group to become enraged and provided an outlet for the social mistreatment of African-American citizens to finally be expressed. The violence that followed would force political officials to respond to an issue that had existed, but was ignored because minority groups’ issues did not fit into a political agenda. However, this form of retaliation cannot thrive and lead to a consensus where terms are fair for both parties. Counterstances stems for violence, and forces violence to become a response. As Anzaldúa expressed, “The possibilities are numerous once we choose to act and not react.” (pg.
Society typically excuses most behavioral-related slips ups among boys with the saying that “boys will always be boys”. However, if a girl were to commit the exact same mistake, nearly every bystander would be taken aback in shock. For example, Lewis describes an instance in which his three year old swore to an older boy who was teasing her sister (655). Lewis described this outburst as an occurrence that caused “all hell to break lose”, with parents stunned as to what they have just witnessed (655). On the contrary, if a boy were to act in a similar fashion observers would most likely overlook the situation, excusing it for ‘typical behavior among boys’. The general public considers swearing among boys to be socially acceptable, but if it were to be done by a female regardless of age it would be considered ‘improper’ and the female would be deemed as ‘ill brought up’. This difference between the socialization of young boys and girls creates a divide in the aspect of how children are brought up and expected to behave.
In the modern society, millions of people realize that several offensive words with insulting taboo meanings heavily disturb their daily lives and break some special groups of people’s respect to push them to feel like outsiders of the whole society. As a result, more and more people join some underway movements to eliminate the use of these offensive words in people’s everyday speech and writing. However, these offensive words themselves are not the culprit, the bad meanings people attach are the problems and some other functions of the words are useful in the society. Christopher M. Fairman the author of “ Saying It Is Hurtful, Banning It Is Worse” also argues that although
Many minority groups describe racism and other forms of discrimination as being more than just prejudiced towards people based on certain characteristics. Prejudice plays a large role in what is considered to be racism, but it also consists of having a dominant position in society and power to institute and take advantage of their racism. This dominant group of people have the most power, the greatest privileges, and what’s considered to be the highest social status. They use their power to provide themselves with (easier) access to resources like housing, education, jobs, food, health, legal protection, and et cetera. On the other hand, the subordinate group of people are singled out for unequal treatment and are regarded as “objects” of collective discrimination. They are provided with inferior education, food, jobs, healthcare and et cetera.
There are three types of microaggressions. First, there are the deliberate actions known as microassaults, which are very similar to old fashioned racism. The second type is the microinsult. For example, a non heteronormative couple comes into a restaurant but are put in a section that is considered undesirable while the straight couple that come in after then are sat in the nicer section of the restaurant. A microinvalidation,
Following the shooting of Trayvon Martin, I began to understand the effect that systemic racism could have on the lives of Black people, and how it had already been affecting me.
My knowledge of microaggressions prior to research was limited. Before discussing the topic in class, I had never even heard the term microaggression. As of now, all I know is what I learned in class; that microaggressions are snide, racist comments that are made repeatedly. Due to my limited knowledge, I decided this would be an interesting topic to explore and read about. Through all of my research, my goal is to learn more about the effects and different types of people that experience microaggressions.
According to the article, the professor was punished because “officials declared that he had violated "the spirit of" a university rule barring romantic relationships between instructors and their students”(Schmidt). At the time of the relationship, which was voluntary, the student was no longer in the class so she was not his student so the reason for which the professor is punished is invalid. Also, this case does not meet the criteria for sexual harassment because it was a voluntary relationship and neither pressed any
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.
Her statement had spread throughout the school; all her co-workers had adverse reactions thinking that her ability of being a teacher would interfere due to her racial comment. Her principal decided that it would be better to have her dismissed.
During the last decade, the awareness of racial discrimination, in some extent, happening every day in North America has been aroused, which is called racial microaggression —“a brief and commonplace verbal, behavioural, or environmental indignities that communicate negative racial insults to people of colour” (Sue, Capodilupo, et al., 2007). This problem even hit Canada — a multicultural nation — and was widely discussed in Canada after a forced apology. In February 2014, a student, studied at McGill University, was obliged to apologize for an email involved in racial microaggression (Hamilton, 2014). Subsequently, McGill struggled
It is important to move forward and ignore past injustices but, if people do not call attention to systematic injustices, these
Racial discrimination is a pertinent issue in the United States. Although race relations may seem to have improved over the decades in actuality, it has evolved into a subtler form and now lurks in institutions. Sixty years ago racial discrimination was more overt, but now it has adapted to be more covert. Some argue that these events are isolated and that racism is a thing of the past (Mullainathan). Racial discrimination is negatively affecting the United States by creating a permanent underclass of citizens through institutional racism in business and politics, and creating a cancerous society by rewriting the racist history of America. Funding research into racial discrimination will help society clearly see the negative effects that racism
Nilsen began this study of the dictionary not with the intention of prescribing language change but simply to see what the language would reveal about sexism to her. Sexism is not something that existing independently in American English or in the particular dictionary that she happened to read. Rather it exists in people's minds.