PRACTICING AWARENESS OF MICROAGGRESSIONS

During the course of my recent studies in early childhood development, I’ve learned about Microaggressions.  Microaggressions are brief everyday verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities that are communicated intentionally or unintentionally, and which contains an insulting message often causing severe psychological stress and harm to an individual (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011).

I can recall one example of a microaggression which occurred to me when I was a young adult volunteering for my father’s non-profit organization.  I remember the community being of a Dutch dominant culture that had displayed much prejudice against people of color.  It had even been noted that a few left over Ku Klux Klan (KKK) members were having late night gatherings in certain remote parts of the rural.  My father was  a man of indomitable faith and on a mission for change, so he was never shaken by any threats that the environment may have posed. 

I remember going to the local newspaper to submit an advertisement for an upcoming event that his non-profit organization was having, and there was an elderly woman who looked to be at least in her 90s at the front desk of the advertisement office whose surface culture (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010) showed her to be a white woman.  It was summer time and I was dressed in clothing that clearly depicted my female gender.  As I was relaying my information to the woman, she kept calling me a man; referencing me as sir.  I repeatedly told her my name and that I was a woman, and she continued to refer to me as a man.  I wasn’t sure what to make of her clearly blatant remarks accept that she was being sarcastic in some prejudicial reference to my identity.  Just before leaving her desk, I told her that she was being very rude and that I did not appreciate her calling me something that I was not.  She responded with a smirk and a very intense stare without any verbal retort.  

This scenario of Racial-Gender Microaggression (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011) is one of many microassaults (overt deliberate hostile acts purposely made to harm an individual) that I have experienced growing up as a child. Other forms of microaggressions, such as microinsults (injustices that demean a person’s racial heritage) and microinvalidations (the act of downplaying the victim’s experiential reality of the mistreatment) have painted my childhood experiences with persons of different cultures throughout my entire life. The emotions that I experienced from the insults of oblivious perpetrators were those of degradation, inferiority, and insignificance. Understanding microaggressions has helped me to have a refined awareness about the importance of truth in cultural dealings, and how ignorance can be crucially devastating to the social, emotional and psychological development of a child.

Microaggressions are deadly and unfortunately prevalent in many, but unbeknownst to most. Why not test yourself for hidden biases (Teaching Tolerance, n.d.) to see where your level of microaggression perpetration lies on the scale.  You could be very surprised at just how offensive you have the potential to unintentionally be towards someone of cultural difference.  Go on…take the test J

Reference

Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

IAT Corp. (2011). Project implicit. Retrieved from https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/

Laureate Education, Inc.  (Producer). (2011). EDUC 6164: Perspectives on Diversity and Equity [DVD].  Microaggressions in Everyday Life. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Teaching Tolerance. (n.d.). Test yourself for hidden bias. Retrieved May 25, 2011, from http://www.tolerance.org/activity/test-yourself-hidden-bias