<\/a>In the past few months, I witnessed a reinvigoration of discussions regarding microaggressions– whether that\u2019s a societal phenomenon, or just something I have personally witnessed, I can\u2019t say, but I\u2019ve learned something valuable from it: most people have no idea what microaggressions are.<\/p>\n But never fear, your diverse friend Hafsa is here to help explain them.<\/p>\n Microaggressions describe that language and behavior which, although not necessarily intended to be hurtful, has a negative impact on the recipient which– in much the same way as overt acts– serves to reinforce, exacerbate, and ultimately perpetuate the hatefulness which underlines it, however covertly. Because that\u2019s a lot to talk about, here are a few things to know about racial and ethnically-based microaggressions.<\/p>\n And, exhibit #1? Me as someone\u2019s \u201cdiverse friend.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Because suddenly it\u2019s reducing a human being of many facets, interests, passions, and qualities to… her diversity.<\/p>\n Now, honestly, not that many people would outwardly come out and introduce someone as their \u201cdiverse friend,\u201d but people have no issues calling someone their \u201cBlack friend\u201d or their \u201cJewish friend.\u201d Maybe their \u201cgay roommate\u201d or their \u201cLatino cabdriver.\u201d<\/p>\n Contextualized in what I\u2019ve already said about microaggressions, it\u2019s rather obvious that I am not a fan of that language, but I need to unpack that. Why? Well because all you\u2019re doing is labeling someone based on this one aspect of their life. And that reduces someone to a token to be pulled out as demonstration of a \u201cdiverse environment.\u201d<\/p>\n I mean it\u2019s great that you have diverse friends, really it is. But not if you\u2019re only friends with them for their diversity. And just like the \u201cI have Black friends\u201d card is cliche, racist, and prejudiced, so too is telling me about your Muslim friends or telling your gay colleague that it\u2019s okay, you can\u2019t be prejudiced because you have gay friends, too. There\u2019s nothing inherently wrong, in my opinion, with labels; to some extent, they serve a vital purpose in our day-to-day life to help us identify individuals and navigate interpersonal relationships. \u201cMy wife\u201d or \u201cher father\u201d are labels, as are \u201chistory teacher\u201d or even \u201cmiddle-class,\u201d and in and of themselves, they\u2019re not problematic. The problem comes when there is a simultaneous failure to acknowledge the plentiful other facets of someone\u2019s identity and reduce their entire existence down to their relationship to another individual, their occupation, their socioeconomic status, their sex, their gender identity, their race, their religion, etc.<\/p>\n So, yeah, call me Muslim; I have zero objection to that. But also recognize that I am a daughter, a college student, a writer, an RA, a woman, Pakistani-American, etc.<\/p>\n And the other thing about labels is that we have to remember the person wearing them isn\u2019t the end-all-be-all representative of that label; they\u2019re not the mouthpiece for their entire identity.<\/p>\n \u00a0Exhibit #1-b:<\/strong><\/p>\n Don\u2019t assume that your \u201cdiverse friend\u201d has the complete, authoritative, perfectly cited answer to every question about diversity because WHY WOULD THEY? Just because someone has experienced a certain type of discrimination, doesn\u2019t mean that they (a) can explain it to you with dictionary-perfect definitions and scholarly references and have every answer to every possible question you ask (I don\u2019t know is a perfectly valid answer, thank you very much) or, more importantly, that they (b) even want to explain it you.<\/p>\n To the first point, the best example I can give is asking an international student about their \u201cprofessional\u201d opinion on something occurring in their home country. Like asking a Frenchmen to compare the French constitution to that of the American. Would you be able to do that? Then why are we assuming they can? Or asking a Syrian why their country is at war and what they recommend as a solution to the refugee crisis. Can you spout foreign policy recommendations off the top of your head with statistics and historical evidence? Or asking a Kenyan why Africa is so poor. (1) Africa is a continent, not a country; (2) it\u2019s pretty doubtful that individual is a scholar on such a difficult, oft-asked, and well-studied question, and if scholars who spend their entire lives studying a tiny aspect of this global issue don\u2019t have an answer yet, why would the random dark-skinned person you found on the street?<\/p>\n To the second point, it strips you of your dignity a little bit at a time to have to explain it over and over again. Really. Speaking purely for myself, I usually don\u2019t mind answering people\u2019s questions, whatever they are. I typically encourage people to speak frankly and ask questions without fearing they\u2019re being rude because I would rather they be honest if a bit insensitive, than dance around a question unnecessarily or, worse, resort to a random Google search or FOX or CNN to try to answer the question. The integrity of asking an actual person with actual experience can\u2019t be matched through a media response, but faced with the possibility of being ashamed for their ignorance or the anonymity of a screen, people often choose the latter.<\/p>\n That being said, there are days I really just can\u2019t handle it. Maybe I\u2019ve just dealt with too many microaggressions for the day, or maybe I plain and simple just had a bad day. And every person has the right to just not answer the question. Asking the question isn\u2019t necessarily a microaggression, but insisting that a person answer the question when they don\u2019t know the answer or just don\u2019t want to almost inevitably is. Try this cartoon <\/a>on why microaggressions hurt.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t make assumptions about someone based on their appearance.<\/strong><\/p>\n It sounds super-obvious, right? I mean that\u2019s literally the definition of prejudice. But it happens all the time. Some of these examples border on the overtly racist\/hateful, but most of them are the subtle everyday things that we don\u2019t even necessarily recognize doing. The absolute best thing I\u2019ve seen that explains this is this phenomenal photo series <\/a>that exposes our own biases and this set of Google searches about cultural stereotypes.<\/a><\/p>\n The person being microaggressive\/prejudiced, doesn\u2019t get to decide what\u2019s hurtful.<\/strong><\/p>\n Remember what I said earlier about the difference between intent versus impact? The individual most likely doesn\u2019t intend to say\/do something prejudiced, but the impact on the recipient is hurtful and reinforces the oppression of prejudices and stereotypes.<\/p>\n Allow me to illustrate with an example: as an RA, I moved onto campus before most of the student body in order to help prep the residential halls. So for a few weeks, only professional staff, RAs, and a few straggler conference attendees (including some international students) were on campus. One of my first interactions with university staff as an RA was when I said good morning to a member of our maintenance crew, and he, smiling, responded with \u201cAre you a guest here?\u201d I said, \u201cNo, sir, I\u2019m an RA on the second floor.\u201d Not at all abashed, he says,\u201d Oh, I just thought you weren\u2019t from here because of your\u201d *gestures to headscarf repeatedly*. I smiled and kept walking, but it bothered me the rest of the day that people kept doubting my citizenship or right to be here. He obviously didn\u2019t intend to be microaggressive. But he doesn\u2019t get to dictate how I was impacted by what he said.<\/p>\n
\nAt one point, when having a discussion about microaggressions, someone asked, \u201cIs what you\u2019re saying that we just shouldn\u2019t label people?\u201d And I gave a vehement no, followed by a really muddled explanation, but I think I can do a better job now that I\u2019ve had time to think about it and can backspace the confusing stuff.<\/p>\n
\nA few that come to mind immediately?<\/p>\n\n