"The term was coined by Harvard University psychiatrist Chester M. Pierce in 1970."
Subtle forms of discrimination and prejudice that often go unnoticed.
Intersectionality: The concept that individuals can experience multiple forms of oppression simultaneously due to their identity characteristics.
Power and Privilege: The understanding that certain individuals or groups have more societal power and privilege than others, and how this can lead to microaggressions and discrimination.
Stereotyping: The act of assigning certain traits or characteristics to a group of people based on their identity characteristics, which can be harmful and perpetuates microaggressions.
Implicit Bias: Unconscious attitudes or beliefs that can affect how individuals treat others, potentially leading to microaggressions.
Identity: Understanding the various aspects of identity that can be targeted by microaggressions, such as race, gender, sexual orientation, and disabilities.
Microinsults: Rude or insensitive comments or behaviors that are targeted at an individual's identity, often in a subtle or disguised manner.
Microinvalidations: Small actions or behaviors that invalidate an individual's identity or experience, such as denying a person's experiences of discrimination.
Gaslighting: A tactic used to make individuals feel like their experiences or emotions are not valid, which can contribute to the perpetuation of microaggressions.
Allyship: The important role that individuals who hold societal power and privilege can play in challenging microaggressions and promoting equity.
Social Justice: Understanding the importance of promoting social justice and creating a society free of microaggressions, discrimination, and oppression.
"Microaggression is a term used for commonplace verbal, behavioral or environmental slights, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative attitudes toward stigmatized or culturally marginalized groups."
"The term was applied to the casual disparagement of any socially marginalized group, including LGBT people, poor people, and disabled people."
"Psychologist Derald Wing Sue defines microaggressions as 'brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages to certain individuals because of their group membership'."
"The persons making the comments may be otherwise well-intentioned and unaware of the potential impact of their words."
"Critics argue that avoiding behaviors that one interprets as microaggressions restricts one's own freedom and causes emotional self-harm, and that employing authority figures to address microaggressions (i.e. call-out culture) can lead to an atrophy of those skills needed to mediate one's own disputes."
"Some argue that, because the term 'microaggression' uses language connoting violence to describe verbal conduct, it can be abused to exaggerate harm, resulting in retribution and the elevation of victimhood."
"I was concerned that people who use these examples would take them out of context and use them as a punitive rather than an exemplary way."
"In the 2020 edition of his book with Lisa Spanierman and in a 2021 book with his doctoral students, Dr. Sue introduces the idea of 'microinterventions' as potential solutions to acts of microaggression."
No specific examples are mentioned in the paragraph.
"By the early 21st century, use of the term was applied to the casual disparagement of any socially marginalized group."
"A number of scholars and social commentators have criticized the concept of microaggression for its lack of a scientific basis."
"Critics argue that avoiding behaviors that one interprets as microaggressions restricts one's own freedom and causes emotional self-harm."
"Employing authority figures to address microaggressions (i.e. call-out culture) can lead to an atrophy of those skills needed to mediate one's own disputes."
"Some argue that, because the term 'microaggression' uses language connoting violence to describe verbal conduct, it can be abused to exaggerate harm, resulting in retribution and the elevation of victimhood."
"Verbal, behavioral, or environmental slights that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative attitudes toward stigmatized or culturally marginalized groups."
"...people who use these examples would take them out of context and use them as a punitive rather than an exemplary way."
"Microaggressions...send denigrating messages to certain individuals because of their group membership."
"Dr. Sue introduces the idea of 'microinterventions' as potential solutions to acts of microaggression."
"...the persons making the comments may be otherwise well-intentioned and unaware of the potential impact of their words."