By Nupur Apte
A microaggression is defined by Mental Health America as an indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination against members of a marginalized group. These groups can be defined by almost anything, from sexuality, religion, gender, and race, and most of the time, they go unnoticed by those that are not targeted, which is where the “micro” part comes in. However, as a person who has experienced microaggressions throughout my entire life, I can confidently say that these small actions and words mean anything but “micro” to me.
Many of my peers who have not experienced microaggressions may feel that this matter should not be taken to heart, because many do feel that it is a harmless joke. However, to those that take this viewpoint, I urge you to ask yourself, do you make similar jokes about those that are just like you? Would you tell your friend named Jane to “get a normal name?” (Yes, that has actually been said to me). Would you suggest that your two white friends date, purely because they share a skin color? With the roles reversed, these hypotheticals sound less funny, and out of place. But nobody would bat an eye at the name “Nupur” not fitting into a person’s idea of normal.
Beyond the fact that words can hurt, my main gripe with microaggressions is the fact that while they certainly do not feel micro, they fundamentally are. Nobody will laugh at someone saying that all people that are not white are stupid, but if that same idea is hidden within a subtler sentence, it suddenly becomes acceptable to find it funny. The disguising of the identical rhetoric into a subtler form makes it difficult for people to recognize when a joke is a microaggression, which in turn, leads to wider acceptance of those jokes, creating a culture that fosters tolerance of microaggressive jokes and comments.
Though in this article, I focused on microaggressions in relation to race, they can be about any marginalized community, any gender, and any sexuality. The normalization of microaggressions in our communities divides us from each other, and the more awareness of what a microaggression is, the more people will realize the impact of their actions and words, and more people will realize that despite its name, no microaggression actually feels micro.
*For more information on what a microaggression is and how to distinguish it, visit Ting Lian’s article “Macro, Microaggression” at whstheshield.com