Microaggressions

It was a black Harvard professor, Chester Pierce, who in 1969/1970 came up with the term “microaggression” to describe some of the subtle and seemingly negligible “slights” and devaluing statements he received from some of the white students he taught. Sometimes these microaggressions came in the form of a compliment, and may have been well intentioned such as, “you’re a credit to your race”, however such statements may reinforce a stereotype and include an underlying implication; that African Americans are not as smart or educated as White Americans etc. To the person making the statement such a remark may seem negligible and inconsequential, however when these types of comments are received on a daily basis, they have been shown to have a cumulative effect that is significant. Whilst the term microaggression was originally used only in the context of race it has been expanded to cover any intentional or unintentional behavior and communication that “targets” a group e.g., a remark like, “you got beat by a girl”, reinforces a stereotype that women are inferior to men etc. (in 1973 MIT professor, Dr Mary Rowe, started applying the term to backhanded remarks aimed at women).

Often when the idea of microaggressions is brought up for discussion – and this includes in academia – the argument will be made that those who are offended are being overly-sensitive and that they need to “toughen up” etc., and/or that this is political correctness gone mad – “you can’t say anything anymore without somebody getting offended” etc. however this is to ignore and discount the cumulative impact that these everyday statements and comments have. It is also important to separate the impact from the intention. Someone who pays a compliment concerning how Jews are good at business (they’ve certainly not seen my books/accounts) may be genuinely well-intentioned in what they are saying, however the impact is that they are perpetuating an age-old stereotype, which isn’t factually based. In this article I want to look at microaggressions, not in a judgmental way, so that we can either feel good or bad about ourselves but from a practical perspective; how we can avoid perpetrating them – even when well-intentioned – and how we can respond in a non-combative/non-offensive manner if we are members of a group that sometimes receive them.

Overt racism is easy to spot. I have on occasion been called a “Stupid Jew” on social media. I may well be stupid, have said stupid things etc., but linking stupidity to my ethnicity/race i.e., that’s why I’m stupid, is clearly meant and intended as an antisemitic comment/remark. The person making it wasn’t trying to disguise or hide their intent. They wanted me to know their thoughts/thinking and hoped to have a certain “impact” from making such a statement. Such forms of prejudice are easy to spot. However, in my experience, the majority of racial prejudices aren’t so open and loud. They happen quietly and to small audiences e.g., I was once at a social event – where someone who didn’t know I was Jewish – told an apocryphal story about how he’d been walking around a Jewish neighborhood in London, and had seen bed sheets drying on a washing line with holes cut out of the middle them, and to quote him, “If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes I wouldn’t have believed it either.” This is a common myth/urban legend, that I’m not going to go into the origins of, which promotes the idea that religious Jews have sex with a sheet between them. Joining extremist groups and making public statements to large audiences, can have negative consequences, perpetuating myths, and stereotypes, in small, “quiet” group settings, to people who may be too polite to say anything is a much more effective and low-cost way of spreading lies and offensive opinions (I’m not too polite and called him on it). This is one of the ways stereotypes can easily spread, and we can all be affected by them e.g., we have a “truth bias” that makes it hard for us to believe that someone wasn’t walking around a Jewish neighborhood, and hadn’t seen what he’d seen etc. I’m not questioning the “story teller’s” intent e.g., he may have thought he was simply being entertaining and telling a “funny” story, however the impact was to support and reinforce a myth, that would in turn support other Jewish myths, making them more believable etc. Although this was a “subtle” way of supporting a prejudice (that Judaism doesn’t promote intimacy, and sex is a cynical transactional act to over-populate the world etc.), microaggressions are far more subtle.

One of the pioneers in the field of microaggressions is an Asian American professor Dr Derald Wing Sue, a professor of psychology and education at Colombia University. One of the “compliments” that his new students often give him, is that he speaks really good English. The fact that he was born in the US and that English is his first language doesn’t seem to occur to them. Obviously, the intent behind such remarks is to give a compliment, however they contain an unintentional idea, that is often at the heart of anti-Asian American sentiments, that Asian Americans aren’t quite American enough. The compliment, although not necessarily meant that way, is to praise the speaker for integrating into American society to the point where they speak English fluently etc. The impact though is to remind the professor of this idea that Asian Americans don’t usually integrate themselves into American culture/society as fully as they should. One of the methods that the Professor uses to both combat and educate this microaggression is to respond to the person making it by saying, “And you speak good English too”. The comment about his good English doesn’t make the person saying it a racist, however they are unintentionally perpetuating a subtle stereotype and an incorrect assumption – that most Asian American are immigrants and aren’t born in the US i.e., they are not fully/complete Americans; a view that the US government supported after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1943 (reparations for internment and confiscated property were only completed in 1987).

Microaggression should not be confused with jokes that are open and obvious. One of my favorite Jewish jokes is the one about the Jewish Father Christmas who came down the chimney and asked if anyone wanted to buy a present. The person who told me that wasn’t Jewish and saw the humor, rather than the race, in an absurdist stereotypical joke. I don’t see the danger in the telling of such jokes in the appropriate context – at the meeting of a far-right nationalist paramilitary group I would interpret the intent and the impact differently. However, microaggressions aren’t obvious and the underlying meaning is implied rather than demonstrated. Learning how to respond to them in a non-confrontational manner can be empowering (which reduces the traumatic effects of them), and to acknowledge when we unintentionally commit them, can help make a calmer and less aggressive society.