I picked up on an important message that Matt Stewart shared two days ago on LinkedIn about racist microaggression being harmful. I shared this message and my thoughts about it. I said that we should do away with the term microaggression, many people agreed. This is a stance I have taken for some time and I was glad that others thought so too.
It isn’t likely that the person suffering the aggression will call it microaggression. It is a label that has been given to lessen the severity of the situation. Who does it benefit? It certainly doesn’t benefit the person being harmed. It is the perpetrator that benefits from this label as it is likely to lessen the disciplinary response to their behaviour.
As Matt Stewart rightly pointed out, racist microaggression is not a joke and should not be taken lightly. It is emotionally distressing and can result in mental health challenges. It also points out that it can cause cardiac health and internal health conditions.
Let’s look at the definition of microaggression as evidenced by the Cambridge Dictionary;
a small act or remark that makes someone feel insulted or treated badly because of their race or sex, even though the insult etc may not have been intended and that can combine with other similar acts or remarks over time to cause emotional harm.
From this statement, you can observe that just like unconscious bias, the term microaggression indicates it may be unintentional. Yes, it might be, however, the result can be catastrophic. Another concerning thing about this statement, it is likely that this particular statement could be used as a ‘get out clause’ for behaviours because it is seen as unintentional when in fact the person had every intention to harass the person concerned.
Mind the leading charity for mental health has stated that the experience of racism is personal to each one of us. We all experience microaggression differently. Your reaction to the aggression can be immediate or it can build up over time. It can be traumatising in that instance. Trivialising how the person feels about the situation will further cause harm to the individual concerned. microaggression as a label, doesn’t address the impact of the insult, the uninvited touching of hair, or the comments relating to intelligence.
I have had personal experience of individuals (generally white) touching my hair without asking, someone saying “There is no way you own your own home’. A classic one for me was ordering garden furniture and the delivery man said, can I speak to the owner? Are these microaggressions? Using the Cambridge Dictionary definition it is.
BAME, unconscious bias in the context of ED&I training and microaggression are words that need to be reviewed and consigned to the past. We need to build a future that recognises the impact of words and the reality of the impact words have. We all know about the square peg-round whole. If it doesn’t fit let’s get rid of those things that do not benefit us.