{"id":32657,"date":"2021-04-13T12:10:31","date_gmt":"2021-04-13T16:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=32657"},"modified":"2021-04-23T21:54:17","modified_gmt":"2021-04-24T01:54:17","slug":"racial-microaggressions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/racial-microaggressions\/","title":{"rendered":"Racial Microaggressions: Types, Examples, Response"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What are the different types of racial microaggressions? What unconscious assumptions do racial microaggressions reveal?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Racial microaggressions can be direct and indirect, verbal and non-verbal. Microaggressions are important because they act as signposts for implicit bias and unconscious racist assumptions that might otherwise stay hidden. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read about the different types of racial microaggressions and how to deal with them on both ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Types of Racial Microaggressions<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Microaggressions are subtle acts of psychological violence against a person because they belong to a marginalized group.<\/strong> Microaggressions can be directed toward any group (can be racist, sexist, transphobic, and so on), but here we\u2019re specifically talking about racial microaggressions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Racist microaggressions can be verbal (racist jokes, comments, insults, backhanded compliments, and minimizations) or nonverbal (hair touching, purse clutching, following a customer around in a store, locking car doors as someone passes, airport security checks, and taxis that don\u2019t stop).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Racial microaggressions can be indirect. For example, they can present as compliments: \u201cWow, your English is perfect!\u201d, or \u201cYour hair is so wild and crazy! I love it!\u201d, or \u201cYou\u2019re so lucky you\u2019re black. You\u2019ll have no problems getting into college.\u201d And they can be unintentional. Often people genuinely don\u2019t mean them to be offensive. For example, holding your purse closer when a person of color walks past may be an unconscious reflex, and people who ask \u201cWhere are you from?\u201d may be showing their genuine curiosity about people from other places. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Insidious Nature of Microaggressions<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Microaggressions are linked to more extreme forms of racial oppression<\/a> because they\u2019re both manifestations of the same system. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, most of the more extreme forms of racism are criminal offenses, and overt displays of racism are frowned upon. While this is a positive development, it hasn\u2019t eradicated racist beliefs\u2014it\u2019s just pushed them underground, where they rear up momentarily as microaggressions and then sink back beneath the surface. For example, the seemingly innocent question \u201cWhere are you from?\u201d contains the racist assumption \u201cIf you look different, you must not be from here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The effects of microaggressions are cumulative. <\/strong>While any single one may be easily shaken off, over time they create a burden that makes it difficult to function effectively. When people of color call attention to racial microaggressions, they aren\u2019t making a mountain out of a molehill. They\u2019re pointing out a real mountain that\u2019s made out of thousands of molehills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just because microaggressions are unconscious doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re not damaging. Most people who commit microaggressions think of themselves as good, non-racist individuals. Microaggressions don\u2019t come from a place of bad intentions. But they do come from unexamined assumptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to Deal With <\/strong>Racial Microaggressions<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you get called out on a microaggression<\/strong>, stop and think. Question whether an unconsciously racist assumption might have been activated. Ask yourself: \u201cWould I have said this to someone of the same race as me?\u201d Remember that racial trauma is cumulative, and what you did is just one instance in a long line of similar ones. Apologize, even if you don\u2019t fully understand what you did wrong, and seek more information afterwards on why what you did was offensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re the victim of a microaggression<\/strong>, state what happened clearly. (\u201cYou assumed I don\u2019t speak English.\u201d) Ask some awkward questions: \u201cWhy would you say that?\u201d or \u201cI don\u2019t get it. Can you explain it to me?\u201d And remind the person that good intentions aren\u2019t a sufficient defense: \u201cIf you really have good intentions, you\u2019ll stop saying this to people who look like me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Linking the Literal and the Symbolic<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Racial microaggressions often have a metaphorical component that only becomes evident when we think about them carefully. Small actions<\/a> can be imbued with symbolic meaning. Two examples of this are hair touching and tone policing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hair Touching<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Hair touching is one of the more common and obnoxious racial microaggressions<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the reasons are practical. It\u2019s unhygienic: Hair is dirty, hands are dirty, and touching someone else\u2019s hair is generally kind of gross. Also, you might mess up the style. Curls are labor-intensive and time-consuming to create, but easy to destroy with a careless touch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the reasons have to do with basic bodily autonomy. Touching someone without their consent is simply not acceptable. <\/strong>We teach our kids this. Would you walk up to someone and touch them on the shoulder just to see what it felt like? So why would you do that to their hair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And some of the reasons are linked to the racist history of this country. Black bodies have been exotic curiosities<\/strong> ever since the first slaves arrived. They were appraised, abused, exploited, and exoticized. Wanting to touch a black woman\u2019s hair because it looks exotic to you is participating in this. And black bodies were considered property. <\/strong>By reaching out to touch someone\u2019s hair without their permission, you\u2019re asserting that that person is yours to touch and play with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tone Policing <\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Tone policing is a series of strategies that turn the focus of a discussion from <\/strong>what<\/em><\/strong> someone is saying to <\/strong>how<\/em><\/strong> they\u2019re saying it. <\/strong>Tone policing takes the form of comments like \u201cOkay, calm down,\u201d \u201cAnger won\u2019t get us anywhere,\u201d or \u201cRelax!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As with microaggressions, you might not know you\u2019re doing it. You might, for example, just think you\u2019re trying to keep the conversation on an even keel. Or you might think you\u2019re simply reminding everyone to be respectful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in reality, tone policing paints people\u2019s justifiable emotions about the issues as being distracting or a turnoff. Silencing someone carries the message that they don\u2019t have the right to be heard. And putting conditions on your listening asserts your right to control the behavior of people of color for your own benefit.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tone policing springs from the belief that there are \u201cright\u201d and \u201cwrong\u201d ways to talk about race. The \u201cright\u201d way is to focus on peace, love, and idealism<\/strong>, to rise above the bitterness, be pleasant, and present your arguments mildly and with liberal sprinklings of \u201cnot all white people.\u201d An example of someone who spoke about racism in the \u201cright\u201d way is Martin Luther King Jr. (In reality, this is a sanitized version of him and his philosophy.) The \u201cwrong\u201d way is to be angry and provocative<\/strong> and to make white people feel intimidated. Examples of people who talk about racism the \u201cwrong\u201d way are Malcolm X, Al Sharpton, and Jesse Jackson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often people refuse to listen to or engage with a person of color because they\u2019re \u201cinflammatory\u201d or \u201ctoo angry.\u201d The stereotype of the angry black person makes it easy to minimize or dismiss people who are justifiably angry about their suffering<\/strong> and that of other people of color. If you dismiss this anger, you\u2019re saying that only people of color who prioritize the comfort of white listeners deserve to be listened to. People of color who don\u2019t <\/em>prioritize white comfort<\/a> don\u2019t deserve to be listened to. They don\u2019t deserve equality. But equality shouldn\u2019t need to be earned through deference to white people\u2019s emotional needs.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea that the acceptability of what someone says about race depends on the comfort level of the white listener harks back yet again to the history of slavery: The main priority for the white person is their own comfort, and the main priority for the person of color should be the comfort of the white person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The assumed right to police the tone of people of color is linked to the assumed right to police the behavior of people of color. <\/strong>In Chapter 3 we saw that racist law enforcement practices spring from the idea that black people are to be feared, disciplined, and kept under control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This perceived right to discipline and control can present in more subtle ways too. For example, who polices the boundaries between acceptable and unacceptable in a conversation about race? Ask yourself: Who has the right to control whom? Who has to bend to whose wishes? Every time you tone police, you\u2019re demonstrating that the White Supremacist system is still intact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you\u2019re subject to tone policing<\/strong>, remember that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n