Without realizing it, I know that I witness examples of aggression everyday. Sometimes it may be someone rolling their eyes behind someones back or someone becoming irritated in the checkout line. When I think of microaggression, I think of acts of aggression which is directly targeted towards someones race, ethnicity, skin color or sexuality. One example I can think of happened just the other day. My son and I were having lunch at a local Chinese restaurant. The menu has pictures of the food with writing in Chinese. Many of the customers are Chinese and I can see at least one group of White customers. The waiter speaks broken English, and the white female customer becomes frustrated when he does not seem to understand her request. She says loudly, “Can someone find me a waiter that actually speaks English.” People look up from their tables and glare at the woman and then go back to eating. I can see that the waiter seems upset. I witness these racial microaggressions quite often, although after this class I know I will be paying closer attention these incidents
Shira,
ReplyDeleteI love food, so I am definitely in love with your picture. You brought up a good point about the rolling of eyes. I never stopped to think that something so simple could be a form of microaggression. As educators we definitely have to be mindful of this because when we are not than it can lead to unfair treatment of students. Thank you for sharing.
Shira,
ReplyDeleteWhat a great observation. I hear that a lot at ethnic restaurants as well. It seems that this type of behavior exhibits itself more when in the service industry. Do you think it's appropriate to speak up and say something when we see this in public?
Sometimes I wish that I would speak up more often in these type of incidents. But sometimes, these moments are so awkward, that it can be hard to find the right thing to say.
Delete