When POC develop concepts they are often co-opted by white people to re-center whiteness. This has happened with intersectionality with many white people divorcing it from its roots in Black feminist theory to analyze their multiple identities with no analysis of oppression.
Another term developed by POC that has been co-opted by white people is microaggression. I have seen it used to describe anytime a person is made to feel uncomfortable including when confronting their privilege. Defining it that way ignores the actual scholarship on the topic.
The concept of microaggression was developed by Black psychologist Chester Pierce to name the daily insults and slights he experienced as a Black person. It was extended by other scholars to name the daily slights and insults experienced by all POC, women and LGBTQ people.
The concept of microaggression was proposed as a way of making sense of the experiences that people who have historically been excluded from mainstream institutions experienced as they were/are constantly reminded of their otherness in relation to these institutions.
Conflating the othering that marginalized people experience when navigating mainstream institutions with the hurt feelings that privileged people experience when confronting their complicity in this othering is to further perpetuate oppression under the guise of inclusion.
Discussions of microaggression devoid of an analysis of power are dangerous in that they suggest that a privileged person having to question their privilege is an oppressed class that needs protection. This is basically a right wing talking point.
It takes some amazing gymnastics to fit the concept of microaggression that was developed to fight oppression into a narrative that supports a right wing talking point and yet here we are.
Microaggression=Somebody misgendering a trans person
Microaggression≠Expecting people to refer to colleagues by their correct pronouns
Microaggression≠Expecting people to refer to colleagues by their correct pronouns
Microaggression=A Black person being constantly stopped by campus security for walking on the university campus where they go to school.
Microaggression≠Expecting white students to analyze racial profiling data and reflect on their white privilege.
Microaggression≠Expecting white students to analyze racial profiling data and reflect on their white privilege.
Microaggression=A woman being referred to as honey or sweetheart by a male coworker.
Microaggression≠Telling men they should not call women coworkers honey or sweetheart.
Microaggression≠Telling men they should not call women coworkers honey or sweetheart.
Microaggression=Somebody assuming that a Latino professor is entering a building to make a delivery.
Microaggression≠Being called a racist for making this assumption.
Microaggression≠Being called a racist for making this assumption.
To be clear, I have concerns with the concept of microaggression. In particular, I worry that it overemphasizes interpersonal racism in ways that obscure structural racism, which often leads to a focus solely on individualistic solutions such as unconscious bias training.
I also worry that the concept of microaggression prioritizes the experiences of POC professionals over POC who continue to be relegated to low-income segregated communities as a product of racial capitalism who may never even have the opportunity to experience microaggressions.
The big difference is that my concerns deal with the concept of microaggression on its own terms. That is, I have concerns about whether it offers a fully comprehensive analysis of structural oppression. Any conversation about microaggressions must start there.
