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Well, I don't think microaggressions are a huge problem, I do think they are a useful word to describe a phenomenon. Full on racially motivated abuse is obviou

Well, I don't think microaggressions are a huge problem, I do think they are a useful word to describe a phenomenon. Full on racially motivated abuse is obvious and easy to understand. When someone tells me to go back to my own country and so on everyone around me can easily condemn that behavior. Microaggressions are much more subtle. When someone is dismissive or rude to you it's very hard to tell whether they were doing that because of your race, gender, or because they are just an unkind person. For each individual action, it's basically impossible to say whether it was racially motivated or not. But after repeating this situation again and again you noticed that on average people are treating you a little bit differently. I don't think it's worth complaining or trying to correct microaggressions. But I do think it's a useful term to describe what happens and to share experiences with others.

giraffe_lady 4y ago
Yes exactly. One of the really destabilizing things about them is that each individual event is pretty much deniable or dismissable, even to the person receiving it. They can only be noticed as a pattern over time, and even then it's subtle. And since no one gets to experience life as anyone else, it's very hard to gauge whether you are having more negative experiences than other people. Maybe it's all in my head. Maybe this is normal, everyone is treated this way, I just need to grow a thicker skin, stop overreacting. Maybe I'm imagining it. Maybe I deserve to be treated this way. The fact that it's such a subtle, barely perceptible pattern makes it worse. Hard enough to convince yourself it's happening sometimes, definitely not worth the effort of trying to get other people to see when they've decided not to.