Microaggression (n) indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination against members of a marginalized group.
Vito Perrone had a job offer on the table to return to Easthampton Schools in Massachusetts. Unfortunately for Vito, he addressed the board chair and executive assistant as “ladies” in a follow-up email, prompting the board to rescind the offer. The reason – he should have known that addressing women as “ladies” is sometimes perceived as a microaggression.
Barbara Bassett was a local news anchor in Mississippi. She was, that is, until she made the mistake of quoting Snoop Dogg on the air during a moment of levity. What she didn’t know is that one of the “izzle” words that are part of Snoop’s brand is actually a slang version of the infamous n-word.
Do you think Perrone would have put his new job on the line by using language that he thought would be offensive to his new employer? Do you think Bassett would have sacrificed her high paying job by knowingly using a variant of the n-word on the air in the state with the highest percentage of African Americans in the U.S.? The answer is obviously no to each. So a logical person might ask, does the punishment fit the crime in either of these cases? Each received the equivalent of a professional death penalty for a seemingly innocuous transgression.
This is the real danger of the DEI movement. It conditions people to be hypersensitive to not only real slights, but even perceived, unintentional slights. When the offended get to define what is offensive, their own biases are put on display. In other words, the viewers who were offended by Bassett’s light hearted Snoop tribute are likely people that hate white people anyway (even if they are white). Women who find being called a “lady” offensive in a non-offensive context, likely already have an issue with men and find it easy to be offended by them.
So is there really that much of a difference between the redneck with the confederate flag on his truck who intentionally uses derogatory language to describe blacks or Jews and the woke individual who is perpetually offended by whites or males? I posit that there is less difference than you might think as both individuals are equally racist/sexist at their core.
If you Google “common microaggressions” you will find that many universities have published a list of various microaggressions along with how the offended party interprets those phrases. One of the most common is “where are you from?” This is a frequent question directed toward people of Asian descent. According to the Migration Policy Institute, there are over 15 million immigrants from Asia (born in Asia) living in the U.S. with only about 40% of Asian Americans being born in the U.S. (wikipedia). As a golf fan and casual follower of the LPGA, I admit when I see Ruoning Yin won the L.A. Open and Danielle Kang and Nasa Hataoka tied for seventh, I’m not immediately sure where those golfers call home. I recognize Yin as likely being a Chinese name, Hataoka as probably Japanese, and Khang sounds Southeast Asian (Viet Nam, Cambodia…), but are they Asian Americans or representatives of an Asian country? Turns out Yin is from China, Hataoka is from Japan, but Khang is from Massachusetts. There are lots of examples of this in the LPGA – Minjee Lee (Australia), Allison Lee (US – California), Jin Young Ko (Korea), Lilia Vu (US – California), Lidia Ko (New Zealand), etc. Each of these athletes is obviously of Asian descent – some from families still in Asia and some from families who immigrated to the U.S. Is someone who is curious and asks “where are you from?” asking an inappropriate question? Only if it’s in a job interview or if the person asked decides they choose to be offended by it.
I like how comedian Aziz Ansari responded to a guy at the Bonaroo Music festival when he was asked that question. He simply said, “I’m from South Carolina but my parents are from India.” How hard is that? What the woke don’t know or don’t care to know is that white people often ask each other the same question. When someone from the South travels North or West, they will often hear, “I like your accent, where are you from?” The white guy answers, “Georgia” without a second thought. Likewise when someone from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, finds herself in the South or West, she’ll get the same question. It’s really just a conversation starter. It’s a common question I get when I’m in Europe – they know I’m from the U.S., but they are curious as to where.
My theory is that most Asian-Americans were not offended by that question until they were taught that they should be. Same with people being offended if they are asked, “do you work here?” I have a professional colleague who loves to tell the story of being in Macy’s and being asked if he worked there. He adds, “why else would a 6′ tall black man be in Macy’s unless he’s an employee?” Guess what, white people are asked that same question frequently as well. Perhaps it’s the way he was looking at inventory, the overall context, or the way he was dressed that lead to the confusion, rather than just his skin tone. Either way, why take offense?
Microaggressions are one of the many convenient tenets of DEI that create a form of circular logic that somehow proves itself. But even more importantly, why are DEI people trying so hard to get white people to recognize and eliminate microaggressions when they know full well when one set of microaggressions becomes archaic, another set will emerge? Since the offended are also racist/sexist, the database of perceived aggressions will never end. I’m not sure how this approach actually helps women or people of color.
I also recognize I am using the term “racist” differently than DEI people define it, but that is intentional and a subject for a future blog.