Microaggressions In Everyday Life Analysis

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It is undeniable that America is the most diverse country in our present time. In our country, we can see different races, cultures, sexual orientation, body types, and other groups present. And because of our inevitable diverse culture, different kinds stereotypes and prejudice are formed. Racism has been present for so many eras; and although it has reformed and there is less oppression today compared from decades ago, it is still present in our society. On the other hand, for many years, gay and lesbians seemed to be neglected, which may be because of religious reasons. Despite of the huge step that we had made just recently for passing the equality of rights within the LGBT, specifically same sex marriage, I still see that other people still somehow frown upon gays and lesbians, and therefore true “equality” is still not fully achieved. However, because of these present stereotypes has been present for so long, our brain forms some associations, often automatic, without us even noticing it. This developed one of the hottest issue in our society today—microaggressions. Racism, discrimination, biases, and prejudice are now disguised through microaggression. Microaggression is a minor form of discrimination of a certain marginalized group in a society. These are behaviors or statements that subtly imply prejudices that may inflict insult or harm. Microaggressions are linked with our implicit attitudes and are formed by our implicit biases. More often than not, these behaviors or statements are unintended and indirect. It can be as simple as a store associate specifically following a dark-skinned male as he stall around the store, getting a tighter grip on your purse when you see a Hispanic lady walking near you, or saying “that’s so gay” to your friend who is going through an emotional phase. Dr. Alvin Poussaint, a Harvard psychiatrist, refers to the cumulative impact of experiencing microaggressions as “death by a thousand nicks.” I personally agree with this statement because I think people, especially members of a marginalized group, often feel the need to be tolerant about such derogatory remarks and behaviors since they think that it isn’t intentional, and often just blame themselves for being overly sensitive about it. They also try to ignore it because of their fear of being confrontational. As a result, they just brush it off until it accumulates and take their toll. The danger of this is they try to hold it in for so long until they can no longer tolerate it and may cause for them to act aggressively. For example, I personally experience microaggression whenever people assume that I am Chinese, just because I’m Asian—when in fact, not all Asians are Chinese. But I usually think that it’s not a big deal and it’s an honest mistake people make due to ignorance. However, at the end of the day, it affects me because I feel like my own race is not that important, that’s why people …show more content…
I agree with his argument. I think blatant discriminations are easier to deal with because their intent is clear—rather than subtle and indirect prejudice that causes a person to overthink. Sometimes, the vagueness of microaggression causes a never-ending burden to the victim and wears out their minds because of constantly thinking about the remarks they heard, especially if they repeatedly undergo the same judgments. Their constant feeling of being invalidated and humiliated may lead to fatigue and build up of anger that may cause them life-changing effects such as change in career decisions and etc. It may cause a domino effect in the individual’s life, until they just stop trying and acquire learned helplessness. Another reason why blatant discrimination may cause less harmful impacts than microaggression is that when blatant belittling remarks are expressed, the oppressed are better in dealing with it when they are prepared rather than being caught off guard with unintentional biases. When they are being discriminated directly, they have the option to initially reject the idea (junk mail theory) or act upon it. Unlike microaggressions, they would need to internalize and evaluate the comment or behavior afterwards. I think the effects of subtle prejudice reside more and are being internalized more by the recipient of the remark, which gives a long-term impact on their psychological

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