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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCollege students confront subtler forms of bias: slights and snubs
USC junior Vanessa Diaz was raised in Dallas. But at a party two years ago, she was asked if she could speak English.
When Diaz became offended, the other student tried to pass off the question as a joke. But it did not amuse her, any more than the idea of Mexican-themed parties on Greek Row featuring students in sombreros and fake mustaches. "Because of the society we live in, it's not OK to be overtly racist," Diaz said. "But that doesn't mean everything is OK."
Some call it the new face of racism — not the blatant acts of bias that recently led to the University of Missouri's campus unrest and resignation of the president and chancellor. Instead, a phenomenon known as "microaggression" — everyday slights and snubs, sometimes unintentional — is drawing widespread attention across college campuses and kicking up a debate about social justice and free speech rights.
Students are sharing their experiences with microaggression on websites and Facebook pages at Harvard, Oberlin, Brown, Dartmouth, Swarthmore, Columbia, Willamette and other universities.
http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-college-microaggression-20151112-story.html
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Egnever
(21,506 posts)I can't imagine judging every single thing based on race.
Nor would I want to live in the bland world people seem bent on trying to create.
philosslayer
(3,076 posts)And being a minority is to be perpetually reminded of your "status". Until you can put yourself in these students shoes, I wouldn't judge.
Prism
(5,815 posts)Said to me, ad nauseum, growing up and well into my 20s.
It's considered a heteronormative microaggression nowadays.
At the time, I did not actually die. Or crawl into a corner and curl up into a ball. Or demand someone somewhere do something to assuage my feelings.
I shrugged and moved on.
You know, the adult reaction to minor things.
And that is the more minor offense. As a gay man, I'm reminded of my status every single day. But unless someone is actually screaming the F-word at me or trying to prevent my human rights, I really don't care. And I'm certainly not about to throw down some drama over it.
Such delicate snowflakes we're raising.
Rex
(65,616 posts)What is this bland world you speak of?
pnwmom
(109,026 posts)
RobinA
(9,911 posts)But in the working world it's pretty much a micro aggression shitstorm every day, and that's not even taking into consideration race.
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)"the bland world people seem bent on trying to create..."
I'd allege that too. It's easy to cower behind, and implies that which we lack the courage to state directly.
Romulox
(25,960 posts)"This isn't a men's issue," she said. "How dare you come into this space and say that (females) aren't important."
SickOfTheOnePct
(7,290 posts)"I weep for the future" 
Heeeeers Johnny
(423 posts)linuxman
(2,337 posts)I go back to college in a year. I can't wait to meet some of these snowflakes in the wild. They weren't there when I last attended. Then again, maybe they were. I didn't take the sort of courses that draws these delicate flowers in.
Heeeeers Johnny
(423 posts)he never would have made it out of the auditorium alive.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)Ace Rothstein
(3,201 posts)It has to be exhausting to be so outraged all the time.
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)Romulox
(25,960 posts)See, for example:
"Gal" was a term used to refer to black women exclusively, during that time. When she hears that word, she hears someone "trying to put someone in their place." It was also a way to lump people together, and deny individuality. To just say "gal" no one had to call anyone by name, or even admit someone had a name.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=341x10649
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)
If I had a dollar for every time my late mom - of 100% German descent - referred to herself and others as "the gals" I could buy a new car.
Romulox
(25,960 posts)
Chitown Kev
(2,197 posts)and she had very different experience with the term...you don't get to determine that your mom's experience was and should be the definitive connotations of the term "gal" for a black American woman.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)and perfectly normal English word. One person doesn't get to re characterize a normal and commonly used word for all the rest of society when it has no ordinarily accepted negative connotations. Sorry. I can call a cat a dog all I want. That doesn't make it so, especially when 99.9999% of people call it a cat.
Chitown Kev
(2,197 posts)within the context of black-white relations in this country
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/10/20/1434792/-Black-Kos-Tuesday-s-Chile
http://www.ferris.edu/news/jimcrow/question/sept06.htm
Most southern white Americans who grew up prior to 1954 expected black Americans to conduct themselves according to well-understood rituals of behavior. This racial etiquette governed the actions, manners, attitudes, and words of all black people when in the presence of whites. To violate this racial etiquette placed one's very life, and the lives of one's family, at risk.
Blacks were expected to refer to white males in positions of authority as "Boss" or "Cap'n" -- a title of respect that replaced "Master" or "Marster" used in slave times. Sometimes, the white children of one's white employer or a prominent white person might be called "Massa," to show special respect. If a white person was well known, a black servant or hired hand or tenant might speak in somewhat intimate terms, addressing the white person as "Mr. John" or "Miss Mary."
All black men, on the other hand, were called by their first names or were referred to as "Boy," "Uncle," and "Old Man" -- regardless of their age. If the white person did not personally know a black person, the term "nigger" or "nigger-fellow," might be used. In legal cases and the press, blacks were often referred to by the word "Negro" with a first name attached, such as "Negro Sam." At other times, the term "Jack," or some common name, was universally used in addressing black men not known to the white speaker. On the Pullman Sleeping cars on trains, for example, all the black porters answered to the name of "boy" or simply "George" (after the first name of George Pullman, who owned and built the Pullman Sleeping Cars).
Whites much preferred to give blacks honorary titles, such as Doctor, or Professor, or Reverend, in order to avoid calling them Mister. While the term "nigger" was universally used, some whites were uncomfortable with it because they knew it was offensive to most blacks. As a substitute, the word "niggra" often appeared in polite society.
Black women were addressed as "Auntie" or "girl." Under no circumstances would the title "Miss." or "Mrs." be applied. A holdover from slavery days was the term "Wench," a term that showed up in legal writings and depositions in the Jim Crow era. Some educated whites referred to black women by the words "colored ladies." Sometimes, just the word "lady" was used. White women allowed black servants and acquaintances to call them by their first names but with the word "Miss" attached as a modifier: "Miss Ann," "Miss Julie" or "Miss Scarlett," for example.
This practice of addressing blacks by words that denoted disrespect or inferiority reduced the black person to a non-person, especially in newspaper accounts. In reporting incidents involving blacks, the press usually adopted the gender-neutral term "Negro," thus designating blacks as lifeless and unknown persons. For example, an accident report might read like this: "Rescuers discovered that two women, three men, four children, and five Negroes were killed by the explosion."
theboss
(10,491 posts)I think that's the safest approach.
I'll be completely honest.
I've been following this Missouri/Yale story, and I don't have a fucking clue what anyone actually wants.
linuxman
(2,337 posts)An excellent way of declaring you aren't able to control your emotions, so everyone else should do it for you.
lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)Rationalizing "I'm offended" as something else is an excellent way of declaring one is uninterested in reaching out, empathizing with the struggles of others and rational though. In a word, a dullard.
Six of one, half a dozen of the other... insert distinction lacking difference in space provided below to maintain pretense...
Response to philosslayer (Original post)
1000words This message was self-deleted by its author.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)When they get out into a world that is not pre-digested, warning-labeled, sanitized for their protection and IS filled with shrieking assholes and double-dealing lying weasels, they are in for one hellacious surprise. And mommy and daddy or the administrators won't be there to help them. How will these dewicate widdle fwowers ever survive?
I was raised in the working class and one of the first lessons my parents taught me was that the world is what it is and is NOT going to rearrange itself to accommodate me and my wishes or feelings.
Which is a lesson many in this generation need to learn fast.
Learning to deal with the world used to be called "growing up."
MrScorpio
(73,631 posts)We people of color do not possess the luxury of disregarding how our own non-whiteness affects our surrounding environment.
That goes for both mostly white spaces and spaces where isolation disempowers groups of people of color.
We don't all live within the world of white normality. Unfortunately, too many whites... most of all those whites who never take the time and effort to consider the impact of their own color-blindness on people of color around them and yet go out of their way to deny that they're practicing racism, cannot figure out what the problem.
We people of color cannot afford to be so callously self-unaware. Our lives become at stake time and time again in this country.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)Sorry about some of these comments. Sometimes, I feel like I have wandered off onto a right-wing board. 
philosslayer
(3,076 posts)The rumor is that this is a progressive board. Some days.....that narrative is significantly challenged.
romanic
(2,841 posts)There are racist assholes everywhere, they're not isolated in one spot or one country. Get real.
Chitown Kev
(2,197 posts)and so segregated that many white people do not have to be bother with anyone who is non-white (and that can even be true in a big city).
That does not hold true for non-white people, who often have to go through some sort of "respectability politics" to get anywhere or to do anything deemed "successful" in the eyes of society.
And for the forseeable future, whites will remain a plurality (but not a majority)
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)"Get real..."
I like to pretend someone isn't real simply because they hold an opinion different than mine too. Regardless of how irrational and sub-literate the allegation is, it's far too convenient for undisciplined minds like ours to stop using it... 
(insert righteous distinction lacking a difference below to maintain the pretense your allegation is objective and supported by evidence)
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)I am all to often astounded by the willful blindness these threads attract. Under educated idiots so blinded by the normality a non-minority status affords them that they merely rationalization the worst of human nature with little more than "it's a life lesson" or "she's too emotional."
Placing the onus on victims of hatred and bigotry rather than the traditional processes we should discarding in the 21st century is indicative of a mind closed... their righteous protestations aside.
cwydro
(51,308 posts)She constantly had Cubans approaching her and speaking to her in Spanish.
She doesn't know a word of the language, but they assumed she was of Cuban heritage.
She wasn't offended.
Throd
(7,208 posts)This.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)is your new white neighbor not making eye contact with you because he doesn't like black people, or because he's shy?
Is that person a bigot or just rude/having a bad day?
In sum, they add up and people of color wind up putting up with a lot of this that white people don't have to, but it's really in a place that doesn't allow anything to be done other than to ask everyone, especially those who are more privileged, to be a little nicer to everyone.
I don't get characterizing blatant racist statements as microaggressions though. Just call it people being racist assholes.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)I'm on the autism spectrum and am often initially thought to be arrogant, snooty or other such things when the truth is I am socially awkward and rather shy. I learned to live with it and let it work itself out, as it usually does. People do wise up. But then attributing the worst possible motives to people you don't know is a good excuse for poutrage, a powerfully addictive drug.
DustyJoe
(849 posts)Nowdays making eye contact with people you don't know and don't know you has a great chance of getting the following reaction 'what the fuck are you looking at ?'. Matters not the age, sex, race or ethnicity of either party. Just the way it is in current impolite society.
Response to philosslayer (Original post)
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romanic
(2,841 posts)used to indoctrinate the precious little snowflakes known as college students today. The fact of the matter is this; there are going to be racist/insensitive assholes at every turn in life that will say slick shit to your face and behind your back. You can't police them into submission because of you're "feelings". The best thing to do obviously is to call it out, confront them, and learn from it; but again you can't sanitize the world and expect that they won't do it again to someone else.
Also some of the examples of "microaggression" is overly-sensitive and ridiculous. If a man refers to a group of women as "you guys" - that is not sexism; it's an expression! Get over it.
countingbluecars
(4,766 posts)in this thread, I had to check if this was still DU. Disturbing.
philosslayer
(3,076 posts)This place certainly isn't what it used to be.
Democat
(11,617 posts)All liberals don't have to support something just because a few liberal do.
loyalsister
(13,390 posts)"I have a lot of liberal friends but when it comes to taking a genuine interest in racism and caring about the experiences of people of other races, they are most definitely white. They don't want to be bothered with it."
FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)My daughter is a Junior and Pre-Med at her University.
Most of the current group of University students are better students than us older generation students and just as tough and ready for the real world.
It's a small but vocal minority, that even current students make fun of, that are in the "special snowflake" category.
LittleBlue
(10,362 posts)They cannot have success in a high-stress environment (which are most of the high paying jobs) with this mentality.
Less competition for my kids, then.
Tipperary
(6,930 posts)My parents raised me to understand that life may be full of "microaggressions" although that silly term had not been coined yet. These wee wittle softies had best toughen up or they are in for a sad life.
DemocraticWing
(1,290 posts)An amazing number of the responses here seem like they come from the posters on the latter, or worse. Lots of people who seem diametrically opposed to progressive movements like DU. Is this what the Democratic Party has become? That's certainly not what I see in the real world.
romanic
(2,841 posts)Some think these students are a new generation of progressives. Others think they're detrimental crybabies unprepared for the real world. Not that complicated to figure out.
DemocraticWing
(1,290 posts)Darn kids, always whining about racism, sexism, homophobia, economic inequality. A handful of them said some stuff I didn't like and I read a Breitbart article about it that had really bad things to say about the kids.
I look forward to my future, when I can complain about my future progeny doing things not quite like I did them in the past. Or perhaps they'll do them too alike.
Sen. Walter Sobchak
(8,692 posts)They're just stupid.
DemocraticWing
(1,290 posts)There's a nice cycle in the world: the young protest the old, the old says they are whining and compare them negatively to their own youth. The old are hypocrites, but when they are replaced by the young, new hypocrites arise.
It is how it's always been. It's always going to be that way.
Sen. Walter Sobchak
(8,692 posts)is just totally 100% on the same level as what our parents were protesting in the 60's.
Kurska
(5,739 posts)In my teens I would have loved a world where my biggest concern was "microaggressions" instead of having to constantly get into fights to prevent getting my ass kicked.
DemocraticWing
(1,290 posts)You should know then that "safe space" originate in the LGBTQ community as a haven to keep people from killing or hurting us. The people who twist these words (even microaggressions) around and turn it on LGBTQ people have more in common with those you were fighting than they want you to think.
The2ndWheel
(7,947 posts)The internet is the human mind on a screen. It's also very easy to filter out anything you don't like on the internet. Now a generation that grew up on nothing but the internet is going to college.
We go from small tribes that included whoever happened to be around at the time, to mass societies with everyone around each other, to now small groups of like minded people who don't need anyone else as directly as they used to.
The internet is slowly becoming real life. We say these kids will have a tough time once they get out of college. That may be true for now, but when the generation that grew up on nothing but the internet gets into seats of power, the rules will change.
Response to The2ndWheel (Reply #40)
1000words This message was self-deleted by its author.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)That will be the next "logical" step. At least for some of these dunderheads.
Kurska
(5,739 posts)Which distracts from the real issues like when gay people are beaten nearly to death in downtown philly or when predatory lenders target and destroy black communities.
I grew up openly gay in the south. In my teens I would have loved a world where my biggest concern was "microaggressions" instead of having to constantly get into fights to prevent getting my ass kicked.
No one who ever has actually been the victim of discrimination is constantly looking for new and interesting ways to be discriminated against at parties.
Microaggressions.
Jesus. Anyone who complains seriously about them is signaling to me that they clearly don't have a whole lot going wrong in their life. Complaining about that as a serious problem that is just the worst thing ever is the sign of a very privileged individual.
We are raising a generation of very privileged children who have no idea they're privileged.
Which, at least for the LGBT community, was very much the point. The people before us fought battles so we wouldn't have to, and so on and so forth. I want future LGBTers to live in the world where their orientation just doesn't generate many problems. If a microaggression is the worst thing you're dealing with, I'd say we're largely succeeding.
GoneOffShore
(17,346 posts)If your feelings are hurt, your feelings are hurt. But that's what life is like.
Micro Aggressions? Really?
Time to get over oneself and grow up.
