Friday, July 26, 2013

Practicing Awareness of Micro aggression



     When I was a child my neighborhood was dominated Jewish, and Caucasians.  My childhood’s schools were the same as the neighborhood.  As I attended college years later for my bachelor, I went to school in Staten Island, NY.  The area is mostly Italians, Irish, White Americans, and handful of African Americans.  I lived in Brooklyn, N.Y., and I would travel by car 15-30 minutes to get school.  The college had free parking, and also easy access for getting around the college campus because of shuttle buses.
     One day I was having a conversation with another male student (White), and he asked me (black), “Why was I here at his school.”  (Micro insult)
     As I continue on with my education and finish school, I never saw that student again.  I never knew the word “micro aggression” during my bachelor's educational journey.  However, the way I felt about the conversation back then, “he was ignorant, and hopefully school would help him to grow.”
     Dr. Sue: Now, their studies indicate several conclusions that I would like to share with you today that are important for each of us to understand, in order to understand how racial micro aggression have come to be and what we need to combat those.  One of them is that we have been socialized into a society in which there exist individual, institutional, and societal racism (Course media) .
Reference:

      "Microaggressions in Everyday Life" (approximate length: 27 minutes)
In this program, Dr. Derald Wing Sue presents a lecture about the concept of microaggression in everyday life.

5 comments:

  1. Hi Tamarah!
    I am so sorry that you had that experience! I am glad that you were able to understand that his remark was ignorant and wish him well on his personal growth. I know that when people say hurtful things to me I am not always able to respond in as a mature manner as you did. Thank you for sharing your story!
    Monette

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  2. Dr. Sue's words were so informative. I had never heard of microagression either. This has been so insightful.

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  3. My feelings about microaggression are similar to yours. I felt like the people are ignorant and maybe just not as educated. It's so sad that people can be so judgemental in this day and age. I feel that unless you are perfect, you have no right to judge anyone. And we all know, no one is perfect!

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  4. We share a lot of the same views. I believe that it is important that everyone be treated fairly. I really enjoyed reading your post this week.

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  5. I agree, what he said was very rude but I'm wondering if he said it consciously or subconsciously. From an outsider looking in he also could have meant that because he attended the school it was "his school" and not necessarily referring to his school because of his race. Just something to think about. I teased a lot of my colleagues from my undergrad school in the same manner because we all seemed as if we were following each other but, I meant it as it was my school because I attended there and not because it was predominantly white.

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