Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions
The microaggression I experienced is when my sister, grandson
and I were dining at Olive Garden. I like to play word games with my grandchildren
often because I am passionate about strengthening their vocabulary. My grandson was eight years old at the time,
and as the waitress came to the table my grandson was giving me the definition
of serendipity, which happens to be one of my favorite words. My sister and I
gave our orders and I let my grandson give his own order. When we finished
giving our orders the waitress asked how old my grandson was and then she went
on to say he spoke very well and that she was very impressed. What she said angered me because I felt that because my grandson is an
African American boy she didn’t expect him to speak well, and is never impressed
when she encounters African American children. I wanted to protect him from this woman who
obviously was unaware of her racial bias. My grandson, not knowing about microaggressions,
took it as a compliment.
In my observation this week I heard a lot of conversations
where my Caucasian colleagues were using the term “you people or those people”.
That is offensive because it is like I am a foreigner in my own country. That I
don’t have enough value to be addressed by my name or race. That somehow, we are
a different species than all other ethnicities. When I hear that term I always
address it. I would say, “Exactly what people are you referring to when you say,
‘those people’”?
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